Keith Salter’s career was decided by a coin toss. In college at Arkansas State, he debated becoming a commercial artist or pursuing theater.
His fate was decided on a 50-50 chance of how the coin landed.
“I flipped and I’m glad,” said Collierville High’s theater teacher, who heads the school’s drama program and will retire at the end of this semester, ending a 21-year career at the school.
Salter — a self-described “Arkansas hillbilly” — grew up in a family of poultry farms in the Ozark Mountain region of the state. But when he was about 4 years old, he remembers being enamored by drama after seeing “The 10 Commandments” in the movie theater.
“It was the most incredible thing I believed I’d ever seen,” he said. “Three-and-a-half hours long, symphonic music and special effects. It was a grand glorious thing.”
So he was interested in movies, but realized theater was more accessible to someone with roots in the Arkansas mountains, turning to the stage to fill his dramatic talents.
This week, Collierville High will put on its production of “Two by Two,” the tale of Noah and the flood. The performance will also serve as the final curtain call of Salter’s career as head of the theater program.
Salter is not just directing the performance. He stars as Noah, the father of the family. During the show he marches and sings with the eight-member cast. He waves his arms as he tries to explain a flood to the family and convince one of the sons to find a wife.
“‘Two by Two’ will either be a triumph or a complete embarrassment on my part,” he said, laughing, three days ahead of Thursday’s opener. “… It’s old school, and it’s Old Testament, and I’m old, so I like it.”
It’s been 11 years since he was in a performance, and he notes it’s harder to memorize his lines.
“It’s a real test of my mettle,” he said.
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