Senior Caleb Hopkins first took the stage at the age of eight. Studying for the past ten years Hopkins honed his craft for acting at Fort Smith Community School of the Arts for ten years.

This past summer Hopkins was nominated for a National Youth Arts Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his character Lumiere in the musical Beauty and the Beast.

On average Hopkins dedicates two and a half months in order to prepare for any upcoming musical while have rehearsals three times a week. As he focuses on acting, Hopkins has learned to also balance academics and extracurricular activities throughout his senior year.

“Time management is very important. If I’m working on school, my focus is on school. If I’m working on something else my focus is only on that,” Hopkins said.

Nov. 5 Hopkins begins the audition process for The Wizard of Oz which the Community School of the Arts will perform in March. Next, he plans to audition for a musical titled Newsies scheduled for a spring performance date to be announced. While Hopkins plans to pursue music education as a career he also hopes to continue theatre thanks to the Youth Arts program.

“[Theatre has helped] me understand who I am as a person, as an actor, and a musician. It’s been very important to me,” Hopkins said.