07/15/2025
Romeo & Juliet July 18-19 at Old Cisco Zoo
Anna Ford Sees Lyric Art Center
As Place for ‘Building Community’
By Linda Spetter
Eastland native Anna Ford is a designer and visual artist who is intimately involved behind the scenes in the Romeo and Juliet production to be presented Friday and Saturday, July 18-19, at the Old Cisco Zoo.
She is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Lyric Art Center, of which the Bankhead Community Theatre is an important part. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Cisco College, teaching online Art Appreciation, and in-person Ceramics and Sculpture classes.
She has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Maine College of Art and Design, located in Portland, Maine, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Art from Grinnell College, a small liberal arts school in Grinnell, Iowa.
Growing up in Eastland, she graduated in 2007 from Eastland High School, where she was involved in all things performative. She was a drum major in the band for 3 years, and she was involved “in every play, the whole time I was in high school, two plays a year, where I would do crew, lights, sound or stage management.” In college, she did set design, taking 3 set design courses.
That training comes in handy as Ford has been deeply involved in set design and props for the current Romeo and Juliet production, the second year a Shakespeare play has been presented at the Old Cisco Zoo.
“Like those stairs–they were arranged differently at the last Shakespeare play. They were squished together, where the steps splayed out, but this year, we’re having them facing each other, with space in between, and a platform on top.” Last year, she painted the stairs, but this year, she sketched out a design in which the stairs have a panel across the front becoming a bridge, and “then it’s a different space.”
For another scene, she and Lyric Vice Chair Bethney Jacobs are working to create a marketplace, gathering wooden crates and flowers, which are now piled high at the Lyric, waiting for transport to the Old Cisco Zoo.
Anna Ford is the daughter of architect Gary Ford, treasurer of the Lyric Board, who has worked in construction and design. His father, Henry Dee Ford, also grew up in Eastland. Her mother is Corrie Cowley, of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage, who was a math teacher at Eastland High School for 15 years. “They met on a winter camping trip and have been together ever since!”
“In my childhood, they had their own business, working from home. I didn’t realize this for the longest time. They were artists! I grew up surrounded by the design process. They were making home decor out of barbed wire, rusty metal, and used lassos. They then would travel to wholesale trade shows all over the country, and sell work, and then make and ship out stuff.”
Anna’s older sister Elyssa is a history professor at Northwest Missouri State University, where Anna herself has taught art appreciation and history of graphic design online. Her older brother James is a video game programmer.
When Anna was in college, she developed chronic migraines. “That really changed things for me. As I was taking art classes, my art work became about communicating these migraine experiences, sensory experiences, and the livelihood impact of it, because none of my friends really understood what was going on.”
“I do not have one main medium. I do ‘immersive installation.’ I like to have a space that I can turn into another space for viewers to enter and walk through and experience. I’m not just putting a painting on the wall, or a sculpture on a pedestal, but using light, sound, sculpture, in a variety of mediums—textiles, ceramics, video, photography.”
In between college and graduate school, Anna established an art studio in Eastland where she created sculptural and functional art works. But after graduate school, Anna returned home to Eastland and was looking for a challenge. She was attracted to the Lyric Art Center because of “its potential as a place for building community, in a time when things are really polarizing.”
“So my father and I joined the board, and since then we’ve recruited other board members, like Bethney Jacobs, and her daughter Leah Flowers. They’re amazing! What’s happening now wouldn’t be happening without them. They are so key.”
Anna sees the Lyric Art Center as a space for the entire county to come together as one community. “The Lyric is a place for building community, for everyone. And I hope it can also grow into a place that people from elsewhere come to, for maybe art classes, or workshops. I think it could eventually help the local economy, too.”
“We would love to build out the space or have more spaces so we can do more things. When our community theater is in production, it’s hard to have other things going on in the space.
“I would like to do another art exhibition at some point. We also do something during Ripfest. Our doors are open, and people can come in and sit down, rest, and enjoy live music. it’s called Rip’s Respite.
“And we also do an art competition during Ripfest. That has been a lot of fun and it has grown so much. We had 172 art works submitted last time. It’s open to all ages. And we intermix all of the arts. I love seeing someone’s artwork in elementary school next to artwork by someone who’s an adult.”
“And that’s also what’s fun about being an artist. You’re just problem solving. You’ve got a problem, a thing you want to make, and you’re like, okay how do I get there, what are the things I have to learn, what’s the new process.”
She gave an example:”I made a sculpture, it’s a human figure made out of silk chiffon, and then I collected my head hair for a year, as it fell off or I showered, and then I had to learn how to make a wig, and the wig knot. And then I attached the hair to the figure as its body hair. So it’s like you have a cool idea, or an image in your head, and then you’re a little scientist.”
In Anna’s free time, which is rare, she loves gardening with her Mastiff mix dog, Whiskey.
The Romeo and Juliet performance will be at 7:30 Friday and Saturday, July 18-19, at the Old Cisco Zoo Nature Trails. To get there, one should take Highway 6 north from Cisco to County Road 112 just beyond the dam and turn left. Signs along Highway 6 will mark the way, such as a sign with Shakespeare's face and an arrow. Once on the county road, guests will be directed where to park. Food booths will be available from 6:30 p.m. People should bring their own seating, sunglasses, big hats, and bug spray. People who do not already have tickets should bring cash. Tickets are $12 for students and $15 for adults.
