Nicole Capri is a wearer of many hats. She’s an actress, a writer, a director and choreographer, a dancer, and having spent the last 10 years as resident director and director of education at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre (The Rep), her hat collection has grown to include fundraiser, event planner and educator. Her mission is simple: to shape the lives of Arkansas children through the art of theatre and to do so with the help of funds raised at The Rep’s annual Saints & Sinners ball, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
A native of Little Rock, Nicole graduated from Central High before attending the University of Memphis. While she was still a college student, she applied for and received a six-month internship at The Rep. “My first job at a professional theatre company was cleaning the toilets at The Rep,” Capri laughs. “I was the house management intern, I was the stage management intern, I was doing quick changes backstage with actors, and I was literally changing toilet paper rolls in the bathrooms.”
After college, Nicole began acting and choreographing for a series of international theater tours, regional theaters and off-Broadway shows. She honed her directing skills while working at Wichita State University in Kansas before moving to California to freelance for theaters on the west coast. Years of traveling under her belt, she moved back to Arkansas a decade ago to spend time with family and help her parents renovate a few of their rental properties.
As fate would have it, one of her parents’ renters was The Rep’s Producing Artistic Director Bob Hupp, who offered Capri a position as education director at the theatre. “I told him I’d stay temporarily,” she explains, “but I ended up loving the kids. The program really started taking off, and I’ve been there ever since.”
Not long after she began working at The Rep, Capri attended her first Saints & Sinners event. “I thought, ‘This is fun, and it’s very elegant, but we’re the theatre in town. We should be doing something really over-the-top and spectacular,’” Capri says. She approached The Rep staff with the idea of producing their own show for the event, using talent from their pool of actors. Soon, she found herself taking over the creative aspects of all of The Rep’s social events, writing scripts and envisioning short productions with the help of Production Manager Rafael Castanera. “We’re a really great team,” Capri says of Castanera. “He thinks outside the box and I know I can throw an idea at him and he’ll make it 10 times wilder.”
Capri’s short productions for Saints & Sinners are usually based on a popular production and incorporate references to and cameos from some of The Rep’s well-known supporters and people in the community. “I think what makes it fun is that you feel like you’re watching a real Broadway show that incorporates a lot of local color. People really dig it,” Capri says. “The first year we did the show, people were caught off guard. Now, they turn their chairs around because they know it’s about to start and they want to see who’s mentioned and who gets called on stage. It’s like a social feather in your cap to get mentioned in one of the shows.”
Longtime Rep supporters, Cindy and Chip Murphy have caps full of feathers from years of mentions and cameos in Capri’s productions. “Nicole brilliantly writes, directs and choreographs this production each and every year,” Cindy says. “It’s always everyone’s favorite part of the evening! This truly sets Saints & Sinners apart from any of the other black-tie galas throughout the state each year.”
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Saints & Sinners, and Capri and her team, including chair Kirk Bradshaw, are preparing an event that will make previous years pale in comparison. “I was really inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ for this year’s event,” Capri says. “I love how he took elements of a classic story and modernized it.” The ballroom at the Statehouse Convention Center will transport attendees to the Roaring Twenties, and all aspects of the event — from the production to the auction items — will exude 1920s glamour.
“Over the last 10 years, it’s become so much more vibrant,” Capri says of Saints & Sinners. “We try to push the envelope. There’s a more theatrical element to it, and we always try to throw in a few surprises. It’s glam. It’s a little irreverent. It’s not stuffy. People dress a little more flamboyantly. The element of the unexpected is what people like.”
Funds raised at the event benefit The Rep’s educational programs — everything from student matinees to summer training programs and community outreach in schools, making it close to Capri’s heart. “The alumni from our summer training program are the entertainment at Saints & Sinners and it’s the best possible promotion I could have for my program,” she explains. “The audience is so generous and I honestly think it’s because they’re seeing our work in action. People think, ‘Yes — we want to support that.’”
The Rep’s Summer Musical Theater Intensive training program has grown by leaps and bounds since Capri’s arrival at The Rep, with 40 to 60 young actors participating in each of two sessions based on age. “I have helped develop several training programs around the country and I’ve never experienced another one like this one,” she says. “There’s something in the water here.”
Not only does this year mark an important milestone for Saints & Sinners, it’s the beginning of something much bigger for the 300 to 600 blocks of Little Rock’s Main Street. “The most exciting aspect of Saints & Sinners’ 30th anniversary is that we will be raising money for Nicole’s youth education program to expand across the street from The Rep with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Ballet Arkansas,” Cindy says. “This marks the final realization of the Main Street Creative Corridor, which so many of us have been dreaming of for years.”
Not only is the Creative Corridor one of many steps in the revitalization of downtown’s Main Street, it is part of a larger, overarching plan to improve the quality of life in Arkansas through the arts. “Theatre explores ideas and issues in a way that engages everyone in new and often unexpected ways,” says The Rep’s Bob Hupp. “It’s a communal activity. In this age of increasing isolation and polarization, theatre has a way of bringing people of all ages and backgrounds together. The memories created through the experience of theatre stay with us for a lifetime.”
Capri agrees. “I can’t imagine living in a community without a theatre company. I wouldn’t feel like I was getting the well-rounded package I would want.” She believes that touching lives and creating experiences through art rely heavily on community outreach. “In the last 10 years, we’ve made it our mission to teach, and our education program is our biggest personal outreach into the community,” she says. “When you go see little Tommy from down the street singing a song on stage, that’s a heartstring. That’s what connects us to the community in a way that we never had before.”
Saints & Sinners
When: 6 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 1
Where: Statehouse Convention Center
Tickets + Info: 378-0445, ext. 203, TheRep.org
From start to finish, The Rep’s Nicole Capri has orchestrated an over-the-top Gatsby-themed evening for the 30th anniversary of Saints & Sinners. | Hair & makeup by Angela Alexander; dress and accessories from Dillard’s.
The Rep’s actor Matt Parker does his best Jay Gatsby as Nicole Capri channels Daisy Buchanan. The Rep’s Production Manager Rafael Castanera coordinated Parker’s costume.