Senior Zane Holloway’s love of musical theater and acting opened new doors — specifically Club Sway’s doors.
From Rector, Arkansas, Holloway has an active presence on and off campus with his involvement in the UCA Theatre program, his role as philanthropy chair in Sigma Nu and his pursuit of drag in the Little Rock club scene.
Holloway said he chose the UCA Theatre program because of the opportunities the university presented.
“I was always interested in theater, like my whole life, and I’ve always grown up on the stage performing,” Holloway said. “With the UCA Theatre program, they were very much more acting heavy when I first entered the program. They were much more focused on straight acting rather than musical theater, which is what I was really interested in. I was really interested in musical theater but I wanted to challenge myself a little bit more to better my acting skills.”
Holloway said Lauren Carlton, associate director of theatre, and Keagan Styes, costume director, inspired him to challenge himself.
“She [Carlton] inspired me a lot to kind of push myself and also Keagan Styes, the costume director here. She has been a tremendous help in getting my outfits together and making sure I’m feeling good for all of my performances,” Holloway said.
Holloway’s role in the “Head Over Heels” production influenced his drag performances at Club Sway.
“I actually got into drag through UCA Theatre last semester in spring of 2024. We did the production of “Head Over Heels,” where I was cast in the role of Pythio, who is a nonbinary drag Orale, and they’re performed by someone in drag. That was my first time ever being on stage in drag. I absolutely fell in love with it.”
Holloway said he took his drag outside of UCA over the summer and began to perform at Club Sway over the summer where he took on the persona of “Chandler Smoke.”
Holloway stuns in drag under the name Chandler Smoke. Holloway's love for drag began after his performance in "Head Over Heels."
“I got in contact with Club Sway through a couple of mutual friends in Little Rock when I was doing a production there over the summer. I got in through some contacts to some of the hosts and I was able to sign up for an open stage one night and then ballroom another night,” Holloway said.
When Holloway is not performing, he spends his time as philanthropy chair of Sigma Nu.
“I’m in charge of all of the fundraising and all of the service work that we do for our chapter. It has been a huge honor. I love getting to do it,” Holloway said.
Holloway said he joined Sigma Nu because the members were “welcoming” and “didn’t care about anything I identified as.”
“Sig Nu were actually some of the first friends I had on campus when I moved here. Some of the members reached out to me and they invited me to come hang out with them and go get dinner. They were just really cool,” Holloway said. “They just loved me for who I was and I just really felt like I needed that on this campus.”
After his graduation in December, Holloway said he plans to continue pursuing drag and theater.
He said, “I would like to be working in a professional show if I can get booked. But if that doesn’t happen, I would like to move to a more urban area, maybe the DC area or St. Louis area, to get started in that drag scene.”