Department of Theatre Mourns Passing of Professor Emeritus Kent R. Brown

Kent R. Brown, 79, professor emeritus in the Department of Theatre, passed away Dec. 6, 2020 in Greenville, South Carolina.

Brown, Ph.D., joined the University of Arkansas — in what was then the Department of Speech and Dramatic Art and ultimately became the Department of Drama in the fall of 1974.

Brown was already an accomplished director and playwright when he joined the U of A, and also had a background in film. His doctoral thesis, from the University of Iowa, was centered on writing for film but he taught undergraduate and graduate coursework primarily in directing, with an occasional departure into acting in general, acting in comedy, acting for the camera, theatre history and playwriting.

Brown also taught playwriting, acting and directing seminars at colleges and writers’ workshops throughout the country, including at Manhattanville College, Clemson University, The Writers’ Center at Chautauqua, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference where he co-taught with Horton Foote. He also served on the selection panels for the Millay Colony and New Dramatists.

Professor emeritus D. Andrew Gibbs, one of Brown’s long-time colleagues and friends, said Brown was also an excellent stage director.

“He had a gift for making everyone around him on the production team — cast, artistic staff, stage crew — feel good about themselves and believe that their work was significant no matter how minor or major it was,” Gibbs said. “He had a penchant for detail, as witnessed by the seemingly endless yellow pads full of notes taken during rehearsals. But he was always generous with praise while working to maintain the necessary discipline and focus required for a well-knit production.”

Gibbs said Brown was instrumental in building what would later become the Department of Theatre.

In 1980, with the support of the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the theatre faculty separated from the overarching umbrella of Speech and Dramatic Art and became the Department of Drama.

For the new department’s first five years Roger Goss served as chair, and then from 1985 to 1993 Brown took the helm.

“The Department of Drama’s reputation for excellence in performance and production continued to grow under Kent’s leadership,” Gibbs said. “Several new faculty were added and student growth was notable.”

During Brown’s tenure as chair, he also co-founded and directed the Mount Sequoyah New Play Retreat in Fayetteville for 14 years. The program brought six carefully vetted playwrights to campus each year in order for each to develop a new script while working with actors from the department.

“Many of the Mount Sequoyah playwrights continued to pursue their professional goals with significant productions of their work including appearances on and off Broadway and at prestigious university playwriting centers,” Gibbs said.

During all this, Brown also remained an active playwright himself.

Eventually, he stepped down as chair in 1993, turning the role over to Gibbs. Brown remained active in the program for about five more years before retiring, moving to Connecticut to continue to pursue playwriting, and as Gibbs said, “most importantly, to marry Gayle Sergel Brown!”

Gibbs then served as chair of the Department of Drama until 2013, when current chair Michael Riha took on the leadership role. In 2014, the department’s name changed to its current moniker — the Department of Theatre.

Riha said Brown was an inspiration to all as well as a beloved colleague, who continued his work as a playwright, director and artist long into his retirement.

“His amazingly prolific resume includes original scripts and adaptations, and he always focused on the values of human interaction, commitment to important principles, and, in most cases, love between individuals,” Riha said, adding that Brown also taught several courses at Fairfield University in Connecticut in his later years as well as served as a guest director in the Greenville theatre community.

Brown’s directing credits at the U of A included, among others, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Other People’s Money, Broadway Bound, Our Town, Witness for the Prosecution, Breaking the Code, Driving Miss Daisy, Agnes of God, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Deathtrap, The Odd Couple (male and female), Biloxi Blues, Talking With, On Golden Pond, The Octette Bridge Club, Lone Star, Laundry and Bourbon, The Dining Room, Fiddler on the Roof, Vanities, Plaza Suite, The Glass Menagerie, Death of a Salesman, Cabaret, Gypsy, Wait Until Dark, The Mousetrap and A Man for All Seasons.

His acting credits included the roles of John Honeyman in A Walk in the Woods, Scotty Templeton in Tribute, and Judge Wargrave in Ten Little Indians.

Brown’s original plays — produced throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, Australia and The Netherlands — have earned multiple awards including a Drama-Logue Award for Valentines and Killer Chili and a Beverly Hills Theatre Guild/Julie Harris First Place Award for In the Middle of Nowhere. His playscripts for young audiences include Gooney Bird Greene and Her True Life Adventures, and The Hound of the Baskervilles: A Comic Thriller Starring Shirley Holmes and Jennie Watson.

Brown also researched and wrote Fayetteville: A Pictorial History in 1982, the first book providing a visual history of Fayetteville. 

Brown’s most recent directing credits included Steel Magnolias for Greenville Little Theater; Two Rooms, A Party to Murder, In the Middle of Nowhere and The Christians for Centre Stage; and The Shadow Box at Furman University.

“Kent Brown will live on in our minds and the minds of the hundreds of students he connected with as a professor, the audiences who saw his work as a director and playwright, and especially in the minds of his children, his grandchildren, and of course, his wonderful wife of 23 years, Gayle,” Gibbs said.

“Rest in peace dear friend,” Riha added. “Your contributions to our lives were endless and will continue as your spirit and the beautiful memories live on.”