Delaine Gates taught drama at El Dorado High School in southern Arkansas for 28 years. When she sat in the audience for the El Dorado Film Festival Thursday night, she was watching seeds she planted years ago come to fruition.
One of her former students, Moriah L. Hicks, is a co-lead in the very affecting short film “Three Sessions,” written by, directed and starring Erica Michelle Singleton, who was also, briefly, one of Gates’ students. The festival is run by filmmaker Alexander Jefferey, who also studied under Gates.
“Ms. Gates changed my life,” he told MovieMaker. “I’m getting a little emotional. She made high school tolerable for me. She really fostered my creativity, my filmmaking abilities, and made me fall in love with the thing I do for my whole life.”
Gates’ former students also include playwright, screenwriter and director Qui Nguyen, whose credits include co-writing Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon.
El Dorado has rich legacy of stories — it was an oil-boom town a century ago, and on a tour of the revitalized downtown Thursday, Darrin Riley, the curator for the South Arkansas Historical Preservation Society, kept festival guests captivated with tales of gunfights, feuds, buried cars, horses and dolls, a secret tequila bar that he says gave the town its name, and the town’s connections to both Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind and Charles Portis’ True Grit. The town is also the home of Fright Night star William Ragsdale, who shared his memories of growing up there to kick off the festival.
But still, a southern Arkansas town of less than 20,000 people is not the first place anyone would name when they think of those industry hubs — like Los Angeles, New York City and Orlando — where child stars seem to grow on trees. The main jobs in El Dorado are in oil and chemicals, not entertainment. Teachers like Gates are the gateway and lifeline to a life in the arts. They can make high school, as Jeffery put it, tolerable.
Drama and Listening
One of the biggest compliments to Gates’ work is that Hicks, her former student, became an acting instructor herself. In addition to being an actor, poet and playwright, she teaches students in nearby Shreveport, Louisiana.
In “Three Sessions,” she plays a determined therapist who helps a young, professional couple deal with their marriage drifting apart as they consider whether to have children. The film is about the vitality of communication within families.
She said from the festival stage Thursday night at the South Arkansas Arts Center that she often finds herself repeating things she learned from Gates.
“She would always tell us we had to listen — you have to actively listen. That’s a big part of acting. I used to run through that,” she told MovieMaker.
“Beats are a big part of it. I’m always telling my kids: take your beats, take your beats, take your beats. Stop running through it. And I’m always regurgitating. Because it’s very important to give your audience time to understand, and take in what you’re doing. And you as your character have to live in the given circumstances of your character.’
Gates, listening at her side, chimed in, “I’m so proud of her.” She added that she always told her students to “50 percent act, 50 percent re-act. Because audiences look to how you react, and what you’ve said and done.”
She remains committed to El Dorado in retirement: In addition to attending the film festival, she found time to make snacks for out-of-town guests. (Full disclosure: the bourbon-glazed meatballs were so good we asked for the recipe.)
Sometime tough love is part of teaching. Years ago, she told Singleton she shouldn’t stay in her class because she was “chewing up the scenery,” Singleton recalled.
“I was such a distraction! I was bad,” laughed Singleton from the stage Thursday.
But she went on to become a professional actor and filmmaker, appearing in films including The Last Exorcism Part II and TV shows including American Horror Story, Scream, NCIS: New Orleans and All American. About a decade ago, Gates invited her back to her classroom to teach some of her students.
“You have really planted more seeds than you know,” she told Gates from the stage.
Singleton made “Three Sessions” for the Louisiana Film Prize, based out of Shreveport, which shares a tight-knit film scene with El Dorado. About a hundred miles apart, they are the closest population centers to one another. The film prize awards $50,000 to a film shot in Louisiana, and many filmmakers from Arkansas cross state lines to qualify.
The latest winner was the charming “Sex Date,” by local filmmaker Mike Nicholas. In addition to “Three Sessions,” the rest of the Film Prize Top 5, shown at the El Dorado Film Festival on Thursday, were “Napoleonic Code” by Michael Cusumano, “Most Likely to Succeed” by Ty and Rachael Hudson, and “Toots,” by Chris Alan Evans.
Hicks won the award for best performance for playing the therapist in “Three Sessions” to a couple played by Singleton and Jamad Mays, both of whom are also excellent in the film.
While many filmmakers strain to explain their personal connection to their material, Singleton was refreshingly upfront about the fact that sometimes talented people just make up good stories — with help from above.
“I just prayed. I said, ‘God, guide my fingers. You just tell me what to write.’ I just started writing,” Singleton told the El Dorado audience. “I’ve never been pregnant, I’ve never been married, I ain’t even been to counseling. I don’t have any experience. I just wrote,” she said.
Hicks, meanwhile, said Gates is “still pushing me” because of the lessons she learned in her classroom.
“You have to be careful what you put into the universe, and what you put out there, and I realize that children are impressionable. And I was an impressionable child when I first entered into her drama room. And she created this monster,” Hicks laughed.
At that moment, Jeffery interjected to ask Gates to stand up. She did, and earned an auditorium full of applause.
Main image: Moriah L. Hicks, left, and Delaine Gates at the El Dorado Film Festival. MovieMaker.