MAGNOLIA, Ark. (AP) - Tanner Berry recently won first place in the performing arts category of the Thea Foundation’s Performing Arts Scholarship Competition held at Pulaski Tech in North Little Rock. The top award comes with a $4,000 scholarship to pursue a college education, regardless of the student’s chosen field of study. Berry plans to pursue the arts with a vengeance, specifically musical theatre.
“I’m a high schooler who’s attending SAU as my high school. It’s a home-schooling option. This is my second year at SAU, second year with the theatre department. I’m an actor, a vocalist, and if you want me to dance I will.do it.” he said, trailing off with a laugh.
The 17-year-old high school senior is originally from Arkadelphia but his family has moved several times.
“We lived in Little Rock for five years of my life, which is really where my theatrical roots are planted,” Berry said. “I did work with the Rep (Arkansas Repertory Theatre) while I was there, and with the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre. I did tons of work in school with the Arkansas Arts Center. I trained with them for about a month and a half every summer.”
The move to Magnolia meant a search for a new place to hone his acting and musical skills and Berry found that in the theater department at SAU.
“I felt that I was ready and, happily, so did everyone in the SAU theater department,” he said. “They let me in, and I’ve been working with this beautiful, fantastic program ever since. Until next year, when I’m headed out.”
In May, Berry will graduate with a high school diploma and several collegiate credits, among them advanced acting and music theory, the latter of which he studied under Andy Peeks.
“Bless that man!” he said. “I would have had such a hard time in that class if it weren’t for him. He’s a wonderful teacher. He makes learning it a lot less tedious and a lot more interesting for us. He plays a killer saxophone, too.”
For next academic year, Berry has options to consider. “I’ve been accepted to schools in New York City and Chicago,” he said.
Where he’ll end up depends on a number of factors.
“It really boils down to faculty,” Berry said. “I think that (SAU’s) teachers are the greatest asset that we have, in any field. Apprenticeship in any sort of art is the way that we thrive. It’s the way that we improve. I cannot thank everybody who has gotten me to this point enough. That’s why I’m so heavily looking at faculty. They’re so important.”
The Thea Foundation was founded by Paul and Linda Leopoulos in 2001, six months after their 17-year-old daughter Thea Kay died in a car accident. The foundation’s mission is based on the idea that young people can achieve confidence and personal success in the arts, as their daughter had. By 2010, Thea Foundation had awarded more than $1.5 million in scholarships to 169 college-bound students from Arkansas.
“They have steadily been helping kids in Arkansas get to college with the money that they need to get into it,” Berry said. “They’re recognized as an institution throughout several colleges in Arkansas. They’re so, so generous. It’s a massive help. They will even match and augment their scholarships in accordance with how you’re ranked in the audition. I had the honor and privilege to be able to perform for them.”
The performing arts division is the broadest one, attracting dancers, singers, actors, instrumentalists, and those who fall into more than one of those categories. Berry, who said he dabbles in song writing, performed “Jonas’s Soliloquy” from the Broadway musical Leap of Faith for his audition on Jan. 16, when about 150 other students also performed for judges.
“It’s a wonderful piece about conflicts and theology and questioning beliefs,” he said. “I guess it touched the judges as much as it touched me. I guess I performed it well enough that they ranked me their first-place winner. It was so incredible. I’ve had friends who have competed there before. The competition was so dense. The fact that I was put at the top of it. . I’m still completely dumbfounded by it every day.”
Berry had traveled to New York City for college auditions when he got word that he had won the Thea Foundation competition.
“We landed at LaGuardia and we were in the cab crossing the bridge into Manhattan, and I got the call. As I’m entering New York, I’m on the phone with Paul Leopoulos about this scholarship. It was one of the most gorgeous moments of my life, because I’m sitting there and I see the skyline fast approaching. I thought I was going to pop. There was so much going on!”
To get to one of his auditions, Berry trudged 30 blocks in blizzard conditions, proving to himself how much he wanted it.
Of the Thea Foundation, Berry said he wants to work with them any way he can, beyond winning the scholarship.
“It’s equally if not more of an honor to be a part of this staple of Arkansas higher education now,” Berry said. “I have a friend who won their slam poetry competition last year. It’s one of the reasons he’s able to go to UCA (University of Central Arkansas), where he’s going right now, because they gave him that money that he needed to go to college and pursue writing and theater. That’s what the Thea Foundation does so beautifully. They take these beautiful, hard-working people who have honed their craft as much as they can at this point in their lives and they award them for being so devoted to this art. Walking into that room full of 150 kids with that kind of mindset who had worked that hard, it was absolutely breathtaking, to be among that many artists at once, talking with people who love what you do.”
Performing onstage as an actor is something Berry thinks can be misunderstood.
“A lot of people mistake theater as something that comes from your heart,” Berry said. “There are so many books that I’ve read to be able to even approach doing what I do onstage. Every line that comes out of my mouth or any true, good actor’s mouth, has been taken through so many different filters and lenses, refined through rehearsal to the point that it is at its most honest, its most heart-rending and affecting or funny. It’s timed exquisitely, reacting to what the audience is doing that night. There’s so much more work that is done that is not reading a line. It’s sitting down with a script and writing in the margins and highlighting your words, making slashes where you need to make a shift in your mindset.”
This semester is the first in two years that Berry is not actively involved in a stage role at SAU. Every spare minute not devoted to his studies is going into auditions and callbacks.
“The time constraints are pretty brutal,” he said. “Now that I’ve done pre-screenings and gone to these locations, it’s time for callbacks, which are on campus, so you have to travel to Chicago and Virginia and Oklahoma and New York. It’s exciting! I auditioned for five universities while I was in New York. It’s comparable to sports, like college football, but there are no scouts - you have to go to where they are, you have to show them what you’ve got, then they might call you back for you to show them more. After that, they might let you in to their program. I auditioned for 11 schools this year.”
While Berry has already been accepted into some programs, it will be a few months before he knows about all of the auditions and chooses which school to attend.
“I have so much thanks to give to my parents, to my teachers, to God,” he said. “I have a wonderful, supportive mother who has done so much for me.” His mother accompanies him on the auditions. He also gave credit to Clayton Guiltner as a former mentor and Michael Susko as a present mentor.
“Clayton Guiltner told me one of the most important things an artist can do is to feed their soul. So I make sure to keep myself immersed in non-theatrically-associated music. I’m a huge music fan, jazz, rock, hip-hop. I have a huge love of choral music.”
Berry was chosen as first chair tenor for the all-state choir when he was a sophomore in high school. He also writes music, poems, prose, and essays, and enjoys watching stand-up comedy.
“Michael Susko has done so much great work for all of us as actors, as vocalists, as people,” Berry said. “He was the reason that I had the courage to audition for all these programs. He made sure that I knew that this was what I needed to do. There’s so much more selfworth among the people in our department now, thanks to him. He’s turned me on to great reading, great habits, great work.
“It’s been so cool to be here. I’ve learned more in these two years than in five years being in Little Rock. It’s been a wild, wild ride. When I came to Magnolia it was very hard for me to imagine not just missing it when I left but thinking of it as a home while I was here. Through this institution and this department, I really have been able to find myself a vibrant and complete home that I can come back to after being in Chicago or New York or Pittsburgh -wherever I end up. I will always be happy to come back here.”
Berry has a younger sister, Berkeley, who is seven years old.
“She is the most consistent source of joy in my life. If I’ve ever had a bad day I can always come home, and she is someone who will love me no matter how much I’ve screwed up or what I’ve done. She’s always there with a hug. She’s such an inspiration for me to do good in the world. I strive to be the best artist I can and the best role model for her that I can be. I feel like I’ve given her a lot of good lessons in life. I’ve been able to match her in the amount of joy she’s given me. She’s what I will miss the most.”
Tanner Berry is the son of SAU President Dr. Trey Berry and Dr. Katherine Simms Berry.
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