Our Story...

Blame it on clogging shoes.

In 2004, Marilyn and Wendell Hogan bought a building on the historic town square in Pocahontas, Arkansas in order to form Marilyn’s Clogging Company. Before long, more instructors came along and began offering ballet and jazz dance classes as well. As we pass the 20-year milestone, our dance programs are thriving as ever.

But it’s no fun to dance without good music. It’s all the more fun if you make your own good music.

Being a lifelong musician as well as a clogger, Marilyn Hogan began giving violin and guitar lessons in 2005. Other instruments came along in short order. Today, our music program has expanded to include violin, guitar, piano, banjo, percussion, ukulele, and voice—all busting at the seams every year.

As our school advanced to include these different disciplines, Marilyn’s Clogging Company became Marr Street Productions. We have been a non-profit organization since 2014.

But the growth didn’t stop there—we were having far too much fun.

When you have dancers and musicians under the same roof, what do you do? Musical theater, obviously. As such, we added classes in drama training in 2016. Our growing acting troupe regularly stages drama productions in our own theater.

At some point, we decided that martial arts looked interesting, too. Since 2007, our NPS Taekwondo program has trained over 300 students in self-defense, with 22 of them achieving the black belt level and beyond. Our dojang is currently led by Master Instructors Marilyn Hogan and Jon Walter, and several other instructors of various black belt degrees (and counting).

In 2023, our horizons widened drastically (again) when we acquired the historic Downtown Playhouse. With the old theater itself, we took on its heritage of quality, family-friendly productions—something dear to our hearts already.

This move was a thrilling opportunity—and a massive responsibility. Our name changed again to Marr Street School of Performing Arts to recognize what our organization has truly become. We perform multiple large-scale musical and theatrical productions each year in our beloved Marr Street Playhouse in Pocahontas, Arkansas.

We currently have over 20 instructors on staff at Marr Street SPA. Our entire staff, including our director Marilyn Hogan, work on a volunteer basis. Half of our instructors are former students, now voluntarily passing their knowledge to the next generation. Why? Because that is what passion does.

Our mission goes beyond teaching performing arts. We believe that the self-discipline a person develops in studying these arts will benefit them in all areas of their life. Over 20 years, we have seen this environment foster confidence, integrity, and camaraderie. We are here to encourage the youth (and adults) of our community to broaden their skills and pursue excellence. We call it:

Building character, one note at a time.

To support the work of Marr Street SPA, come see one of our productions (we offer season tickets!), or make a tax deductible donation here.