Tag Archives: Creative Class 2015

Creative Class of 2015: Stephanie S. Streett

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StreettStephanie S. Streett is the executive director of the Clinton Foundation. In this role she oversees the day-to-day operations of the Clinton Presidential Center, including the development and implementation of its educational programs, special events, exhibits, and services as well as staff management. She establishes and cultivates strategic partnerships and cooperative arrangements with state and local governments, the non-profit and private sector, community groups and other organizations. Stephanie also serves as the corporate secretary for the Clinton Foundation Board of Directors.

Stephanie has used her position to broaden culture in Little Rock through the wide variety of exhibits which the Clinton Center has hosted. A wide variety of styles of visual arts, design, contemporary craft, sports, science and history have been showcased in exhibits at the Clinton Center.  She also was instrumental in planning the special events in conjunction with the Clinton Center 10th Anniversary in 2014.  In addition, she has been active in promoting partnerships with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Together with Kaki Hockersmith, she has facilitated several seminars which have brought key Kennedy Center leaders to Little Rock.

She is the president of the University of Arkansas Alumni Association National Board of Directors and is co-chair of the Board of Directors for City Year Little Rock. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Downtown Partnership of Little Rock and is a member of the International Women’s Forum Arkansas.

Creative Class of 2015: Stephanie Smittle

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resized_99263-smittle-v_47-16964_t300A few weeks ago, within the space of a few days, Stephanie Smittle went from originating two roles in an opera to singing with a Klezmer band.  This shows not only her versatility, but also the wide range of music offerings in Little Rock.

A lyric soprano, she is a native of Cave Springs and  holds a Bachelor’s of Philosophy degree from Hendrix College. Comfortable in a variety of genres, Smittle composes and performs her original work with the jazz-Americana group “The Smittle Band,” sings with acclaimed metal band Iron Tongue, leads an Arkansas-music-based duo called “Stephen y Stephanie,” and performs traditional Yiddish music with the Meshugga Klezmer Band.  From venues of a few seats to several hundred, there are few stages in Little Rock on which she has not performed.

Smittle’s operatic roles include: Fiordiligi in Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” with Opera in the Ozarks, Queen Anne and Queen Elizabeth Woodville in the premiere of Karen Griebling’s “Richard III: A Crown of Roses, A Crown of Thorns,” Second Lady in Mozart’s “Magic Flute” with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, performances with Opera in the Rock, as well as summer study in Italy as a scholar with the Oberlin Conservatory. Her oratorio performances include Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde,” Rutter’s “Requiem,” and Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem.”

Creative Class of 2015: Rebekah Scallet

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scalletRebekah Scallet is the producing artistic director of the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre.  A graduate of Parkview High School and Brandeis University, she has an MFA from Illinois State University.  In addition to being active in theatre at Parkview while a student there, she served as stage manager for productions of the former Shakespeare Festival of Arkansas while she was in college.

After working in several Illinois-based theatres, she returned to Arkansas in 2011 and took her position with the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre.  In addition to overseeing the artistic facets, she directs productions for AST.  In 2012, her first season, she directed Twelfth Night. The work on that garnered her an Arkansas Arts Council Fellowship in 2014.

In subsequent seasons, she has directed The Merchant of Venice, King Lear and Two Gentlemen of Verona for the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre. She also directed The Caucasian Chalk Circle and A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur at UCA, where she also serves as a lecturer in theatre.

Creative Class of 2015: Jessica Sabin

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Jessica sabinThough she doesn’t appear on stage much anymore as an actor or dancer, Jessica Deloach Sabin is still very much a participant in cultural life.

As the newly appointed executive director of Arts Advocates Arkansas, she is working to be an arts advocate for every county in Arkansas. Among her focuses are the implementation of new state standards for arts education, developing a legislative arts caucus among  elected officials, and creating partnerships statewide and nationwide to ensure the arts and creative economy continue to grow and flourish in Arkansas.

She is also an active supporter of Historic Arkansas Museum and is busy working on their upcoming Candlelight Gala, which also celebrates HAM’s 75th anniversary.

While at UALR, she was a W.K. Kellogg Foundation NextGen Scholar and a Friday Sturgis Scholar, and earned a triple major in Political Science, Theater Arts and Liberal Studies from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she served as vice president of the student body.  She was also a member of the UALR Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy and as a Chancellor’s Leadership Corps Scholar and Ambassador. She also earned her certification in Philanthropy and Voluntary Service from Georgetown University in 2006. As a current member of Class X at the Clinton School of Public Service, she spent her summer in Italy working on a service project.

A graduate of El Dorado High School, she now makes her home in Little Rock with her husband, State Representative Warwick Sabin.

Creative Class of 2015: Reese Rowland

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reeserArchitect Reese Rowland has literally changed the landscape of Little Rock.  He has designed some of Little Rock’s most recognized buildings, including Acxiom’s River Market Tower Headquarters, Bank of the Ozarks Headquarters, Heifer International’s Education Center, the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Studies Institute and Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library.

Reese has been rewarded with over 60 National, Regional and State Design Awards in the last twelve years. His Heifer International World Headquarters design received the Nation’s highest honor for architecture, the 2008 AIA National Institute Honor Award, one of 13 awarded. The South’s first LEED Platinum building was also named a National AIA/COTE Top 10 Green Building in 2007. In 2011, his Arkansas Studies Institute design received a National AIA/ALA (American Library Association) Award of Excellence, one of five awarded in the biennial competition, honoring the best in library architecture worldwide. In 2015, his Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library won the same Award.

Arkansas Business named Reese to its prestigious list of “25 Entrepreneurs & Innovators of the last 25 years”, crediting his work with helping to transform downtown Little Rock through modern architecture. His work has been published in 25 national and international periodicals, as well as 13 books. AY Magazine named Reese to its list of “12 Powerful Men in Arkansas” for having influence, making a difference, and serving others. Additionally, Arkansas Times Magazine named him as one of “50 Influential Arkansans” as well in 2012.

In recognition of his commitment to design and the architectural profession, Reese was selected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2014.  This designation goes to fewer than 4% of all architects.

Creative Class of 2015: Geoffrey Robson

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geoffreyrobsonGeoffrey Robson has been the Associate Conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra since 2008, and the Music Director of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Youth Ensembles since 2012.  In the latter capacity, he has collaborated with the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre and Ballet Arkansas’ Preparatory Program.

He also performs as a violinist, frequently appearing in the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s popular River Rhapsodies chamber series, performing with principal members of the ASO. He has also performed with The Wildflowers and other music acts in Central Arkansas.  As a conductor, works with guest artists such as Midori, the Beach Boys, Vadym Kholodenko, Rachel Barton Pine, Lawrence Hamilton, Timothy Jones, Henrietta Davis, Christiane Noll, and Calvin Lee. In addition, Robson writes and produces “At the Symphony, a concert preview radio series on KLRE Classical 90.5.

He completed his M.M. at Yale University in 2004, studying violin performance with Erick Friedman. In Connecticut, he served as co-concertmaster of the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, and assistant concertmaster of the Waterbury Symphony. Robson also worked as a public schoolteacher in New Haven, CT, and has taught violin, piano, viola, and music theory extensively as a private instructor.

Robson studied orchestral conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City under the tutelage of David Hayes. He has twice attended the London Conducting Workshop, an annual course at the Royal College of Music in London, and the International Conducting Festival and Workshop in Zlin, Czech Republic. Robson graduated from the honors college at Michigan State University in 2002, where he studied violin performance with Dmitri Berlinsky and I-fu Wang, and conducting with Leon Gregorian.

Creative Class of 2015: Justin A. Pike

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Justin PikeDirector, actor, theatre-man-about-town Justin A. Pike has worked with just about every theatrical organization in Central Arkansas.  When he is not director, choreographing, designing, producing, and/or acting in a show, he can generally be found in the audience watching one.

Currently, a production of The Rocky Horror Show, which he directed, is being performed at the Lantern Theatre in Conway.  Later this week, Reefer Madness opens at The Studio Theatre in downtown Little Rock.  Pike serves as the Artistic Director of that theatre.

Listing all of his roles at various Central Arkansas theatres would take much space.  Among some of his more recent efforts are directing Xanadu at The Studio Theatre, starring in The Music Man for the Royal Players, directing Legally Blonde for the Royal Theatre, acting in Baby for Community Theatre of Little Rock, and directing Footloose for the Royal Players.  He is equally at home working with comedies, dramas and musicals.