Episode Transcript
[00:00:20] Speaker A: Hi, everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Southern Fried Podcast, a production of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. I'm Rex Nelson, senior editor at the Democrat Gazette, and those of you that listened to our previous show may have heard me visiting with Bevin Keating, the executive director of Wildwood park for the Arts in far West Little Rock. But I thought that I better do another show because Bevin ended up saying to me, you know, Christina Munoz and Holly Judd, they're the ones.
They're the voices and faces of the future at Wildwood, so you better get them on. So here we go.
But I do want to, because there's so much happening in West Little Rock and so much happening at Wildwood, I do want to focus in on that. So welcome.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Appreciate y' all having me this morning.
I'm going to do what I did with Bevin, though, and I want to get in how your journeys led to Wildwood. Christina, I'll start with you because you're so well known by Arkansans for the years you spent as an anchor at KTV Channel 7. And I've heard you say this before, but you come Here in your 20s, you're raised in the Dakotas. You come south of all places in your 20s, young, young reporter, then anchor.
And I've heard you say in the past, you really came here. You know, we see TV people climbing that ladder, and you're going to be here about two years and be gone. Right?
[00:02:04] Speaker B: That was the plan. 18 months to two years, tops.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: And that was 21 years ago.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Wow. Wow.
So what happened?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Yes. Okay. So, yes, born and raised in South Dakota. My dad was a professional violinist, which is neat.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Yes. He was in the South Dakota Symphony and Sioux city symphony for 40 plus years.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: And he was a native South Dakota, too.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Yes, born and raised. Went into the Peace Corps. And that is where he met my mom in La Serena, Chile. That's where the Munoz park comes from, and we just love it. His peacekeeping mission, if you will, was teaching at a music school in Chile. And that my mother was taking ballet and piano at the same conservatory. That's how they met.
We always laugh about moving to South Dakota because it was January, it was 29 below zero, actual temp. She didn't speak a word of English.
She said she cried for six months. But they were very in love and raised three daughters, all of us. I'm the youngest of three, very involved in the arts, in theater, and I actually was pursuing a professional career when I left Yankton, South Dakota. Yankton the only reason anyone might have heard of it is Tom Brokos from there.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: That's right. I got to work at the same radio station that he did. My sister now owns that radio station.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Does she?
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Very in the family, yes.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: And I take it you've met Tom Brock.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Oh, yes. He's so gracious to Yankton. He comes back and he'll sign his books, and we have to honor him. He's fantastic. Yes. So went to the University of Minnesota as a musical theater major.
And as I was pursuing that, I actually got into a professional theater. And I always joked if Broadway had been my dream, I might still be chasing that. But my dream was Chan Hessen Dinner Theater. Because growing up in South Dakota, you'd go to Minneapolis for your summer vacation. You go to Valley Fair Amusement park, you go see a Twins baseball game, and you go to Chanhassen Dinner Theater. So I'd seen every show since I was five, probably.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: And that was like, end all be all for me. So I had gotten into a community theater show, Cabaret. Well, the choreographer of that show was the choreographer of Chanhassen. The director of that show, just a side note, was directly. Worked directly under Bob Fosse, was in the video Thriller and choreographed Purple Rain.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Michael Jackson or Princess. Purple Rain.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: So community theater is huge up there, let alone professional theater. So over 200. Some dancers audition. They take eight, and I got in. I thought I had won the lottery. This is like life achieving goals. This is it. I'm so thankful I stayed in school. When I speak to teenagers, I always say, I don't know why I stayed in school. And I'm so thankful I stayed in school. Had to rearrange my schedule. Cause we had two shows on Wednesdays, and I made it work. We did the show Can Can. Cole Porter's Can Can. And we counted one time. We did 98 Kicks a show. Eight shows a week.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Wow. Tires me out thinking of it.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: 302 performances of the same show, including every.
I'm 19 years old, and I kind of had this I don't know if I want to do this the rest of my life moment.
And so I had done radio since I had been 16, and everyone had talked about a backup degree, so I switched my degree.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: So you started radio at 16?
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Yes, both of my.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: I started in radio at 13. That's a great thing about a small town.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I still have the little license you used to get on air.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Holly, you're saying. What are these old radio people talking about? But you used to have to take a test to be on the air with the Federal Communications Commission called radio television operator, Class 3 license.
And they had to put them in a little frame and put them in the studio. I still got mine, too, but I was so young.
My dad had to drive me. I didn't have a driver's license. I was 13. He had to drive me from Little Rock from Arkadelphia to Little Rock to take the test on a Saturday.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: Still remember. Love it.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: All right, I'm getting off.
But we got that in common. Yeah.
[00:05:45] Speaker C: Well.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: And I did enjoy it even as a teenager. I got to play my own music, I got to read news, I got to read sports, and I always enjoyed it. And, you know, I picked a lucky school because the University of Minnesota actually has a great journalism department. I didn't realize that going in. And as I'm taking these classes, there are some advisors and teachers that just see something in me and get very excited and start pushing me down that road. So I continued performing professionally for the next three years as I got my degree. But I could see this kind of shift in me. And I'm telling you, it was 9 11.
I was a senior in college.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: And I had taken a job at the CBS affiliate, WCCO. My shift was 2:00am Well, I was affiliate.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Yes. 2:00am to 7:00am was my shift because this is how you start in the biz. And Don Shelby was the main anchor there. He was there for years.
And my shift was ending on 9 11. And so, you know, I was going about my day. And then that first plane hits. And, you know, this about news people. We tend to be a little on the crass side. We see a lot of death and destruction. The first plane is just an accident. A New York story. We all move on.
When that second plane hit, you know, newsrooms are never quiet. And there was this silence in the newsroom of recognition that this is an attack.
This is a Minnesota story. This is a national, this is everybody story.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: This is our Pearl Harbor.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Basically, for our generation.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Minneapolis had an election that day, and they had to decide whether or not they would continue or not. They did decide to continue. So we, of course, go to national programming, but we would bring on the mayor, we would bring on the governor in between. And I stayed and I helped. And, you know, we didn't have phones at the time. It was. You had to turn TV on to get your news. And I felt like I was making a difference informing the public on such a huge day. And that was it for me that day. I knew when I graduated I was going to be of the world.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: So then you made the switch.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: I did and I took a job in Duluth, Minnesota. Not far from Canada at this point.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: And I reported there for a year and then I actually had a job offer in Green Bay, Wisconsin a year later. You know, you do the small market and you jump to the medium market. I laughed about Green Bay. I said, I'm a Vikings fan, they're going to hate me there. And they're big Packer fan. And so I called the anchor that was in Minneapolis at the time at WCCO, Randy K. She's now on Anderson Cooper 360 CNN. I said, where did you work your middle market job? She said, KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was here for Clinton. She was working with Peter Jennings.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: I don't remember when Randy was here.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: She was only here 18 months, but this is Randy. So I said, well, they don't have any openings. She calls my news director, Randy Dixon and he says that week they were moving Scott Inman from, from a week in sports anchor to a five o' clock news anchor. Justin Acree, who's now at the Buzz was going to be doing a week in sports anchor and they have a news reporter position open.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: I come down, I interview. They actually did not want a contract, which is appealing to me because I only wanted to be here two years or less.
And we moved from Duluth, Minnesota and come down.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: Wow, wow, what a great story. And I know a lot of people listening know this, but Christina will confirm this in the industry, you know, under what Jim Pitcock and then Randy Dixon developed KATV News for many years was considered one of the top ABC affiliate local operations in the country. It's who, it's who people in New York would point to and say, this is how you do it.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Absolutely. Lead ins are huge in the news industry and we were the only ABC at the time. The 9 to 10 programming wasn't great. CBS had great program. We were the only one in the nation that people would change between the 9 to 10 programming, the 10 o' clock intentionally for our newscast. And we were that for years.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Now Holly, your journey a little bit different coming to Wildwood, you, your family. Bevan told me on the show a couple of weeks ago, your family was using it.
You're living in West Little Rock. Talk a little bit about your journey and how you end up there. Now as the development director for, for Wildwood.
[00:09:33] Speaker C: Yeah. Not near as exciting.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: Oh no, it's exciting, I hope.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Yeah. I just talked for a little while.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: I used to be editor of Arkansas Business, too. Business success stories, which your family has, are exciting to me.
[00:09:45] Speaker C: Well, yes. Yes. So I'm from Batesville originally. I'm in Arkansas all the way. Went to UCA and loved it.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: My youngest son just married a Batesville girl, by the way. Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: She's lovely.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: I'm sure she is.
[00:09:59] Speaker C: So, yeah, yeah, I went to uca. And what's crazy is I have a speech degree with an emphasis in pr.
Never did anything with that, really, because I liked speaking, but I didn't want to write speeches for other people.
Not really going political, but, yeah, so went that way.
Ended up in banking. Worked for a bank, Arvest bank, for about eight years. Did a lot of training and speaking with about 48 of their branches in central Arkansas and north central Arkansas. And it was a great place to grow and learn.
And then I went to work for my husband, who has had a pharmacy here in town, the drugstore, for 30 years.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: 30 now.
[00:10:44] Speaker C: Wow. Yeah. So about 14 years ago, he was in need of some help. Growing pains. And I said, you know, yes, why don't I come help you? Why don't we do this together?
And we did and grew the business, remodeled a new place, and then had a son and have raised him in there as well. But also living in West Little Rock, I had made connections with Bevin, in a sense. I sang in his community course at ualr.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: That's where I first met Bevan. And I needed a voice coach. I've always taken a voice lesson.
Not a music major, but I've always. I did the pageant circuit and stuff. I got you. I always. I always had a voice lesson going. And I said, Bevin, I. Dr. Keating, I need. I need a voice. I need a. I need a voice lesson. Can you do that? And he said, you need to speak to my wife. And so that's how I became. Had a relationship with them is Kira Keating. His wife gave me voice lessons. And then we all lived in West Little Rock. And so that's how that relationship started.
The son I mentioned, at 8 years old, Wildwood, was doing Oliver. And they needed lots of small, young boys to be the orphans.
And so Jack's big buds with Bevin's son and he took to that.
He loves Wildwood. They would fish. And then you add the theater onto it and the spotlight, and it was just a dream come true. The kid's been hooked ever since.
And so that's how we became. And then as a parent, I just became very invested in Wildwood. And even more so than that, the Lanterns Festival, that is our largest fundraiser that's going to happen, everybody. Yes. The Keating's got us all on board helping out with that. So I chaired that for about three of the last five years.
[00:12:42] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: So, yes, very invested in Wildwood and it just seemed like a very natural thing to.
To have established our business together. Philip and I got it in a great place, had to have wonderful staff there where Wildwood needs to grow. And I was very happy to step on board and help with that because the relationship there is that we love Wildwood. It's. It's excellent for our family, but it's wonderful for the community and what it's done for our son as far as growth, development and interpersonal skills and meeting people. And he went to whammo when he.
Oh, might have had a little exception there for the age, but the kid has, you know, he's been grown. He grew up with adults, bless his heart. So it made sense to move and to be invested and to help Wildwood grow. And I was in a wonderful place. Our business was. And so my husband very graciously said, yes, yes, you can go do something else.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: I'll be okay. I'm out. Yeah.
[00:13:46] Speaker C: He's like, I got it. So, yeah. So that's how I came here. And then it's just been a blessing and a joy and a blast hanging out with Christina. You know, you don't realize how tiny or small Little Rock is with all the connections. Her dear friend has been our friend who was in Philip's.
Worked for Philip when she was in pharmacy school.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:14:06] Speaker C: So just the connections. And so that's the draw there for me to.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: That's one of the great things about Arkansas now, Christina, talk about a small world.
And Holly, you'll remember when I came out and visited last year, you know, Christina never, never gave up that artistic side. You gave your story of going into broadcasting, but you never gave that up.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: I didn't get that.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: And I had this flashback because years ago I used to have the honor of being a judge when 10:37, the buzz did this thing called Christmas karaoke. And it was huge.
And not to be sexist, but we called them the Channel 7 girls, you know, because they were all so talented and also young and good looking.
But Christina would choreograph and they won every year. I mean, that was. The battle was for second every year.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Really well. And I mean, we credit Ann Presley with a lot of that because she's the one that came to me and said, let's choreograph, let's go big. The first one we did was instead of hey Mickey, you're so fine. Hey Permi, you're so fine. We wore cheerleading outfits. We went all out. And the crazy thing is three of those years they were at Wildwood. Yeah, it got so big. We were kept finding bigger entities and then Wildwood's in their 600 seats, it got too big for that. We went to Simmons bank arena after that.
So yes, that does take me back a little bit.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: But you have gotten more back into, back into the art side of things in recent years. And this just seems like a perfect melding of your PR background and the art style.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: It really was. I tend to say I took a 17 year hiatus and then I blame Slash credit my kids for bringing me back.
But I did do Ballet Arkansas. I was president of the board there for a while. They would let me be Clara's mom and the Nutcracker for all these years. And then I came back when my kids were able to be on stage, but I really thought I had hung up my dancing shoes and I just really thought that was just a part of my past.
And then when I left channel 7, I blame slash credit my kids. When I work nights, it's okay. When they're babies, I was home in the morning and that's great. When they were going to school. My Sydney, my oldest was 5. If she's gone 8 to 3 and I'm gone 1:30 to 10:30, I'm never gonna see my kids.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: That's a good point.
[00:16:13] Speaker B: Very incredibly thankful for Tom Courtway and uca. They brought me there and I did PR marketing communications in the president's office. And while I love the experience and great public schools in Conway, that's another reason that we went. I was working an average of 73 hours a week. Still not seeing my kids. Oh my gosh, it was crazy. A lot going on at uca.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Still is.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: Still is. Love the bears bear claws up. Absolutely. But because I wanted to see more time with my kids, I left and started my own PR marketing firm. My business partner, Michelle Pugh was the rep on the account for a while. So I was client, she was rep. We have our own agency, we have lots of different things going on. I still emcee and I still do all these different things that I do to create my own business as an entrepreneur. And right around then my now 17 year old was 8. And she wanted to try theater. And we had tried everything. We had tried softball and horseback riding and tennis, and nothing really clicked.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: I raised two kids. I understand we gotta keep trying to find the answers.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: She was really on the very shy side, and so I was kind of curious. We tried theater and oh, my goodness, she absolutely loves it. She learns all these skills, the communication, the how to talk to.
And of course, the owner at the time just kind of casually said, oh, we just lost our ballet instructor. I said, I used to teach ballet. She goes, do you want to. And I said, sure. I went to my attic to get my ballet and pointe shoes back out.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: I was just so thankful that I still remembered how to do anything. So I teach five dance classes a week still at Red Curtain Theater.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: And this is because this is where they dance. This is in Conway.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: And they started dancing. Totally brought me back. And then I got very interested, so I started choreographing shows for them and directing shows for them. And then that's when Wildwood comes along and had seen some of my work there and asked me to come do Peter Pan, which was last year at Wildwood. And then we've done High School Musical, we've done Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. And so I have this now background of dance from years ago in choreography, and now I have this communications history as well. It was a perfect fit. I have never just the opportunity to be able to do both of my loves, both of my passions, combine them together at the same time at Wildwood. It was just absolutely perfect.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
You know, when I did the show with Bevan and when I came out last year, both I was really, really excited about the vision. And I know all of you that are on the staff now share it. For Wildwood, of course, as the development director to the pressure, it's on Holly to raise the money.
[00:18:33] Speaker C: No joke, no pressure. I feel it. Yeah.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: To feel the pressure to raise the money to make all this happen. But. But there's some pretty big dreams going on right now, are there not?
[00:18:43] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know, every year Lanterns gets bigger and bigger and bigger. We have, you know, close to 10,000 people that come out. Typically it's been a three day event, like a Thursday, Friday, or excuse me, a Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Last year we did four days. This year we're going to do another four days. But we have close to, you know, 10,000 people that come out. And every year we try to add to that.
So that being our largest fundraiser has More of the community involvement coming in for that.
That's one of my loves is lanterns, of course. But yes, we have shows, of course, that bring in more and more people.
Every show as that's gone out as far as Christina's wonderful communication and spreading the word about that to get people to come out and to know where Wildwood is. Because it has always just been this gem out there.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: Lots of people don't. Absolutely. When I, when I wrote my columns, I.
Because it's. I try to stay away from cliches and, you know, hidden gem is such a cliche, but I almost, I wanted to do that because it really was for many years.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:59] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's becoming to be that shiny diamond that people now know about. When you say Wildwood, they actually do know where Wildwood is. And the joke is, you know, since Costco came in, you can you hit Costco and go left?
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: We're right down the road, you know, and that's helped immensely. But yes, we have big dreams. We want to be the community center for West Little Rock. And those dreams are actually becoming very, very visible. Like, like tangible. We could, we could just reach out and grab those as far as, you know, we could get pickleball, you know, have more people come out to fish and walk the, walk the, the trails. We have more people bring their pets out. It's just a, it's a lovely, A lovely place. So, yes, it would be great to have a, a restaurant, some cafe to sit.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Really would be. As a foodie.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: A guy who likes to eat.
[00:20:52] Speaker C: Yeah. To have your walk, to come in, have, have some coffee, a sandwich.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: Let your kids play at the park. If we could have like an actual playground for them. So there are things and we want people to come out for, whether it's a wedding or you're just having a photography session out there. Yeah. Bring the kids, bring the family, have a picnic and have dinner at night and then go see a show.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Really exciting. So meanwhile, while Holly's out raising all this money and finding these business partners, Christina, you're making sure it's not hidden, this gym everybody knows about. But again, the great thing about a smaller state like Arkansas, Holly, you mentioned all the connections and knowing each other, but Christina, I dare say virtually every media outlet in central Arkansas, whether it's television, radio, newspaper, magazine, you already know people there on a first name basis. So you've got a good story to tell. And I guess that's what you're doing now is telling that story and Making sure wildwood is not hidden anymore.
[00:21:58] Speaker B: Exactly. And it's been kind of interesting because for the beginning, I like to do a lot of assessments. So what do people think about it? What is perceived about it? Some are accurate, some are not. And for so long, it was middle of nowhere. It was so far out. It was just so different than everything else. And that's not the case anymore. Everything has grown up around it. We mentioned Costco. Everything is there. And so it's interesting to kind of feel people out and go. Some of them will get. They say, I'm confused. It confuses me. Is it arts? Is it nature? And so I kind of, I went to bed and I said, let's talk about this. You know, what is our goal? And you can be all things. You can be both. And we are. And that is absolutely. We're not backing down from either one. It is nature. It has these trails, it has people walking their dogs. But now for many years, that wasn't a thing, that wasn't possible. So there are people that don't know that. So that's my job, to come in and tell the world and tell everybody through media, through outlets, through whatever means we can figure out to let people know that, yeah, you can bring your dog, you can go fishing, you can enjoy this beautiful land and at the same time, this gorgeous 600 seat theater where we do high level, professional level theater. And I think that's so important because there are lots of community theaters here and we all support each other and we're all one big community.
But you can really start comparing the level of performances that we're doing to these tours that come in. And the tours are fantastic. But again, that's not that local dollar. We pay our performers, we pay our musicians, and it's such a big part of that, being part of this community, but still doing this high quality level that you don't need to drive to these bigger theaters or other places to see that level of theater and that we can be both of those things. And then when you go in the future and look down the road and go, a restaurant, a pickleball, a hockey rink, a daycare, a preschool, a dance studio, we have the space, we've got this here. And we want these private partnerships with businesses to come to us, talk to us and say, yeah, we want to be a part of this. Because when we look down the road, there's a lot happening at Wildwood.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: Absolutely. And it's no longer, like you said, that hidden place out in the woods. It's Surrounded by neighborhoods. I'll tell you a funny little story to start with. So when my wife and I moved here from Washington, D.C. in 1989, we were in that apartment complex that's right across from Belle Chevrolet. And it was new then. It was called Jenny's Vineyard at the time. And my mother in law gave us this old Buick deuce and a quarter that backfired. You know, first marriage, you take anything.
And so on Saturdays, I would call it blowing it out. I would take it out, blow it out so it wouldn't backfire so much. So I'd go all the way to the end of Chenal. There was nothing past there.
I mean, there was nothing. And then I would go out Canis and go past the wild woods where there was nothing way out in the woods. And Melissa would say, where you been? Way out in the country, driving around.
And it's all developed now.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:49] Speaker C: It doesn't look the same, but you've.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: Got this basically park now in the middle of all this development, Holly. And a term I used when Babbitt and I visited a couple of weeks ago is you really could be the Central park, if you will, of West Little Rock.
[00:25:08] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, absolutely. The way things are moving and continue to grow out there and the community.
The community and the family, we are that green space that could be left out there. Yeah, yeah. It's these dreams that we have. Yes, yes. To bring folks out because we're not way out there anymore.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: And plus, you do so many different things, Christina. I think part of your role in educating people, old timers, people like me, old timers, a lot of them have in their mind still that Wildwood's just opera and it's so, so much more. Right, right.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: Well, and I always relate it to the TV news business because consumer habit is incredibly hard to change if you.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Give it as an opera place.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: Right. I mean, people still think Ned Permey is still on the tv.
I still hear that, too. I watch you every night. I've been going 11. Oh, yeah. More than that, 12 years. So it is so hard to change that. So those that were there all these years ago still think that it might just be an opera house or not open to the public or these different perceptions that are no longer realities. And that is my job. That is. That is where I come in, tell the world and say, no, that is not the case anymore. We have lots going on out there.
And the shows that we have, you really gotta follow our Facebook page. You can also get on our email list I mean, those are just good ways to find out what's going on with there. You can follow me as well, because I post everything and anything about Wildwood all the time. And so to really learn that for this audience in particular, they don't need to drive somewhere else or go anywhere else. It's in their backyard.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: And that they can access it. They have public access to it. But not to mention the weddings engagements. Actually, engagements are really popular out there because it's beautiful. And so, yeah, you can call ahead and schedule those kinds of things. And senior photos as well. I mean, it's just a beautiful backdrop. Beautiful. So just so many different things happening that you really kind of do have to follow us to kind of keep track of everything they're doing. Not to mention all the new stuff coming.
[00:27:00] Speaker A: Yeah. By the way, it will go on a lot longer than 12 years. I kid you not, Christina. I still have people come up to me and say, we watch you on Arkansas Week every week. Are you? I was last on Arkansas Week in 1996.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:27:20] Speaker A: When I was political editor of this newspaper. And then I joined the governor's staff 30 years.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: They say when you see something so open, you think you're still seeing it, but that's a long time.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: A long time.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: I know.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: But it still happens again.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: Beth Hunt and I don't look alike, so I don't know what they are confusing, but it's fine. I just take advantage of it.
[00:27:38] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. Just don't even correct them. That's right.
It's just a lot easier.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: It's funny.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: All right, so I'm going to end in this the way I ended it with Bevin.
Holly, dream big. Where do you see Wildwood five years from now, ten years from now?
[00:27:59] Speaker C: I think it'll look very different. I think.
I think that we will continue to have all the wonderful things we still have. We still want to be your. Your. Your spring festival. We still will have these shows that are. That are next level. I think that we will. We want to partner with private entities because we can have a nonprofit and a private entity relationship there because they. They can. Can co. They can co. Support each other. You know, you have a vested interest if you can get some private industries out there to keep things going.
I think we will become more.
People will become more aware of us, and so the popularity of the park will increase, but we can also support the other industries around us, the other businesses around us. So I think, yes, let's look for a preschool that can also support and enjoy the arts and the nature around. Let's look for a dance studio or pickleball for the community or, or a putt putt, something like that, you know, and hey, why don't we have some, some fishing derbies, you know, I mean there's something, there's something for everyone and it will look different. Let's have, let's have some, some snacks. Let's get, let's get in, in paddle boats on the lake. So. Yeah, lots of things going on. Dreaming big.
[00:29:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: Christina, how about you? Your vision going forward five years, 10 years.
[00:29:24] Speaker B: Okay. I'm gonna put my marketing hat on first and go with the first year because we have coming up this year we've talked about Pirates of Penzance will be in March and lanterns in April of course. But I'm super excited about. We are the first in the state of Arkansas to do one of these senior productions. We are doing Singing in the Rain and I'm directing it.
[00:29:43] Speaker A: Oh wow, you're directing it.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: I will be directing it and I'm so excited for this because there are lots of people out there that maybe used to dance like me and then, you know, decided to come back to it and. Or the adult dance classes out here in west Little Rock have blown up up in the last few years. Maybe it's Covid, I'm not sure. But there are so many people that are dancing again. 55, 65, 75. And they get to put on their tap shoes, dancing shoes. And we will be doing this. Junior productions have been going on for over 20, for over 20 years. So the 13 to 18 year olds, they've never done this. They just released them last year. And this is the first time Arkansas will be doing a 55 plus senior show in the state of Arkansas. So we think it's going to be good. We think this west Little Rock community, which is a booming aging community, but we've seen it with pickleball. Like they are interested in being active and doing different things. So we want to bring them to Wildwood, get them on stage and that will be in June. Of course we have our summer camps, Triple Threat in July, whamma in June as well. And there'll be more shows coming. So stay tuned of course for everything that we'll be doing as long as, as well as come from away, which is the 911 story that we'll be sharing in September with a 911 event. Outside of that, every year we're doing theatrical productions, very high level theatrical productions that will stop that will always continue. We just want to give you a place to have dinner maybe before you go to the show.
You know, different things that you can do with your kids and places you can take them to make this area really that central hub. When I think about 10, 20 years, I mean, it really could be that Central park mentality where exactly there are theaters and restaurants and all of it happening at Wildwood. And like Holly mentioned, the surrounding businesses in this area. It's such a booming community. There's so much growth in West Little Rock. I just really think that it's the place and the time for Wildwood to really grow.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's a great place to stop.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: Thank.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: Thank you both for coming in. I'll. I'll have you both back.
[00:31:35] Speaker B: Oh, wonderful. Thank you.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: Good, good. That. That was. That was fun. And I know there are things going to keep happening. I mean, there new things popping up every month at Wildwood, so we'll definitely have you guys back.
Thanks again to Holly Judd. She's the development director and Christina Munoz, the communications director for Wildwood park for the Arts in West Little Rock. You've been listening to the Southern Fried Podcast, a production of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
[00:32:20] Speaker B: Sam.
