By ALEXANDREA BAILEY
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com
The El Paseo Arts Foundation [EPAF] kicked off its 20th season last week with a reprise of The Savannah Sipping Society, directed by JoAnn Evans, EPAF Board of Directors President, and a founder of EPAF. Evans took time out of her busy week to give the PRESS a look back on how the performing arts group came to be.
Evans was raised by her single mother in Saint Louis Missouri. Acting has always been a dear passion of hers. In fact, she says that she cannot remember a time when she didn’t want to be an actress. Her mother was supportive and encouraged her to follow her dreams.
One of Evan’s earliest memories is her first on-stage performance. She was in the first grade when she signed up to sing in her school’s talent show. Her song of choice: Somewhere Over the Rainbow, composed by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, and famously performed by none other than Judy Garland.
“I stood up there and sang my little heart out. I can still visualize looking out into the audience,” recounted Evans.
Evans says her mother later told her that during this performance, many of the students were noisily chitchatting, as children do. However, young Evans, destined for the spotlight, was entirely undisturbed.
In her teen years, Evans participated in dramatic speech competitions at the all-girls school she attended. In high school, Evans starred in The Wizard of Oz, as Dorothy, and was vice president of the Thespian Club. Her best friend, Mary Frann, was president. Frann would become a successful professional actress, playing Joanna Loudon in the popular American sitcom Newheart. Evans says her school was full of talented women, including Marsha Mason, who was a grade above Evans and Frann. Mason appeared in popular movies and shows including Drop Dead Fred, Heartbreak Ridge and The Middle. She also was married to American playwright Neil Simon, who Evans has directed many productions written by.
College was a joyous time for Evans. She attended Northwestern University, where she majored in theater. She calls it a “fabulous” school. Then she got a talent scholarship to Governor State University where she received her master’s degree in acting.
Evans married her husband during her junior year in 1964 and graduated the following year during the spring. In 1966, she gave birth to her first of three sons, Shawn Paul Evans, who Evans says is “a very fine actor.” He is currently a Professor of Technical Theatre at Washington and Lee University and also designs EPAF’s sets, lighting and sound programs.
After college, Evans taught children’s theatre in the Chicago suburbs. Then she got involved with the community theatre The Chicago Heights Drama Group where she directed and acted in many productions.
Later on, after living in Chicago for 35 years, Evans and her husband moved to South Padre Island to retire in 2001. They had looked at several locations but fell in love with the Island. Evans found the Camile Playhouse in Brownsville, and starred in five major roles, including most recently, Daisy, in Driving Miss Daisy. The only thing that was missing for Evans on the Island was a performing arts company, but she would soon change that.
According to Evans, in the early 2000s, there was a large group of people on the Island called SPIRIT. They would meet monthly and discuss ideas to potentially improve the Island. Evans says there were about six major ideas, and they would break off into groups to discuss them each in depth. One of the focuses was a lack of arts and culture.
“People of the group were saying we don’t have anything like that here. ‘We don’t have any arts and culture. We need arts and culture.’ And they weren’t really defining it or anything. As they were talking, I was thinking, ‘I could make that happen,’” said Evans.
According to Evans, there was another group of people in Port Isabel, led by Ralph Ayers and Glenda Stafford, who shared the goal of wanting to establish an arts foundation for the community. Evans joined forces with them. She wrote up a proposal to the South Padre Island Community Fund, envisioning what the Island would look like as an arts destination. She asked for $1,500 to start a performing arts foundation, and although some people were skeptical about there being a market on the Island for such a thing, it was granted.
Now having the funds and people to back the vision, they established a Board of Directors, and The El Paseo Arts Foundation came to fruition.
Thinking big but starting small, Evans decided to start with a single production in 2005. She enlisted the help of her friend, actor Ray Stewart to star alongside her in Postcards, written by James Prideaux. Stewart had already starred in the original Broadway production of the show, alongside Kate Wilkinson. He agreed to take part in the production. The story follows Margaret and Leonardo, who sat each day at adjoining desks, writing postcards to famous people, without ever getting any answers, for thirty years. After finding themselves with a lack of live personages to write to, they made the surprising decision to address their cards to the famous dead. Shockingly, this time, they did receive a response.
The play took place at the SPI Convention Center, where EPAF still performs to this day. Evans said they had a small stage, with little blue curtains. It was a simple set, with just two desks. The show sold out with 200 audience members and raised $4,500.
“People were thrilled,” said Evans.
EPAF put on readers theaters, poetry readings, book signings, melodramas and eventually even musicals. One of Evan’s proudest EPAF accomplishments is hosting The American Wind Symphony Orchestra. EPAF raised $30,000 for the orchestra and found housing in the surrounding communities for 40 musicians, twice.
“We did amazing things. It was like, we’d think of it – and we’d do it…We just kept going,” said Evans.
Evans also played a huge role in establishing the Arts Business Incubator with the help of former SPI City Manager Susan Guthrie.
EPAF has continued to evolve throughout the years without ever losing sight of its vision: to encourage, support, and promote the arts for the benefit and education of the communities of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The foundation even annually provides several scholarships to students pursuing degrees in the arts.
Evans says she is amazed with what the foundation has grown into and expresses her gratitude to those who have sponsored to make that evolution possible as well as the many volunteers who have brought EPAF’s productions to life.
“I think it is amazing – the success we have had with the support of the community,” said Evans.
EPAF entering its 20th season is an absolute thrill to Evans.
“It’s exciting. Don’t you think? I think it is exciting. I am thrilled with the shows we have. I am thrilled with the response we have had from our sponsors,” said Evans.
EPAF’s second show this season is slated for early October. Dead Accounts, directed by Evans, will show at the SPI Convention Center on Oct. 9, 10, 11 & 12. For more information, and to purchase tickets, interested parties can visit elpaseoarts.org.