ProArts/ACC: Keeping Boyd's dream alive
To honor a man whose name was synonymous with community, ProArts Collective and Austin Community College have jointly established the Boyd Vance Scholarship Fund
By Barry Pineo, Fri., Feb. 23, 2007
If you're familiar with the Austin arts scene, then you know that the name Boyd Vance is synonymous with community. While Vance, who died an untimely death two years ago this April at the age of 47, became popular as a musical and comedy performer, his legacy rests in nurturing the Austin arts community for more than a decade, directing numerous productions featuring local African-American actors and co-founding ProArts Collective, Austin's most prominent African-American arts organization, now in its 14th year.
Thus, few things could honor Vance's memory more fittingly than for two local cultural organizations to come together to create something that benefits the community they both serve. "When I first came on board here after Boyd's passing," says Lisa Byrd, ProArts executive director, "one of the things we wanted to look at was how ProArts could collaborate with existing local entities. Austin Community College came forward and said that they wanted to be involved because they thought the arts were a good way to connect to a broader community. So we began what we call the Professional Partnership Initiative. When ProArts brings artists into the city to work in the community, we do workshops and residency activities at ACC in their dance and theatre departments, trying to help with their educational mission and hoping that also brings students from the community into ACC's theatre and dance programs. Another part of the initiative is to do an annual collaboration." The first of these collaborations featuring ProArts performers and ACC students will be a joint production of Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro, first produced by Edward Albee in New York's East End Theatre in 1964.
"One of the things that was always important to Boyd was education," says Byrd. "Another part of the initiative encompasses the desire of ACC to reach into the African-American and Latino communities in Austin, as well as ProArts' desire to have access to trained performers, so we came up with the idea of providing a scholarship for folks in the Austin community interested in continuing their education in dance or theatre. And, of course, because Boyd had done so much for this community, we wanted to name that opportunity after him." All proceeds from this and future February collaborations between ACC and ProArts will go directly to the newly established Boyd Vance Scholarship Fund.
So it's real simple, folks: Attend Funnyhouse of a Negro, and you support the Austin community in a very broad sense, while at the same time paying tribute to a man who very much made that community what it is today. Although, you might not want to bring the kids to this one. "Basically, Funnyhouse is the story of the moment of a young woman's suicide," says ACC's Marcus McQuirter, who is directing the production. "She's dealing with issues of race and identity that stem from the trauma of her conception. The funny house is in her head. She's interacting with these characters – Jesus, Patrice Lumumba, the Duchess of Hapsburg, and Queen Victoria – that are described as one of her selves. Structurally, it's more akin to music than to a play."
