Central Baptist College wins awards at the Christian University Theatre Festival

Central Baptist College’s Fine Arts Department was recently honored at the Christian University Theatre Festival held at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. Twenty-four students from the department participated in the performance of “Ugs; The Musical.” “Ugs: The Musical” is written and directed by Dr. Jana Jones, music is composed and the orchestra conducted by Jim Turner, and the music is directed and the musical produced by Suzanne Banister. Jones, Turner, and Banister all serve as faculty in the CBC Fine Arts Department.

CBC received several awards at the Festival. Dylan Bradley, Jarrett Maxwell, and Maxwell Sullivan were recognized for Outstanding Achievement for Acting. Laura Embry was recognized for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup Design. Allison Bisher and Josh Burns received Super Trooper awards, given to students who are outstanding helpers throughout the festival.

“Our students performed so well and got a really great critique as we premiered our musical at [the Christian University] Theatre Festival,” said Banister.

Ugs: The Musical” is inspired by the book, The Ugly Duckling, a literary fairy tale written by Hans Christian Anderson. This version of the play is about a swan who was born, thinking he is a duck. He is so completely different that he can’t fit in anywhere. He doesn’t find a place in the world because he was raised with people who are completely different from him. The swan then wanders off into a barn yard where he thinks he can find a family. They, too, reject him before the swan family, who lost the ugly duckling years ago, comes back to find him. The uncle of Ugs, the main character, serves as the Christ figure as he goes out to find the lost one. In the ugly duckling’s lowest moment, as in the actual story, they talk about suicide. Ugs contemplates this until his uncle, Steven, finds him and brings him home. He realizes then that he fits in and has a purpose because of what Steven has told him.

Ugs: The Musical” will be performed on the Central Baptist College campus Friday and Saturday, March 8-9. Performances will be held in the Burgess Auditorium at 7:00pm. Tickets are $5.00 and free with a CBC student or employee ID. For more information, contact Suzanne Banister at sbanister@cbc.edu or 501-205-4361.

The Fine Arts Department at Central Baptist College prepares students for careers in performance, teaching, music ministry, and other music-related careers. Within a Christ-centered environment, this department develops students’ overall musicianship through: (1) applied performance (private lessons on piano, voice, or guitar), culminating in the Senior recital, (2) group performance, (3) the practice of aural dictation, sight singing, harmonic analysis, part-writing and beginning composition exercises, (4) the study of classical and sacred music from all periods of music history, and, for those taking musical theatre courses, broadway-style music.

The Fine Arts Department offers two degree programs: the Bachelor of Arts in Music which requires a minor, and the Bachelor of Science in Worship Arts. The Fine Arts Department also offers a number of performance groups including Handbells, Chamber Singers, Singer, Women’s Chorus, Worship Band, and Worship Choir. Performance scholarships are available. For more information visit cbc.edu.