NATCHEZ &045;&045; For Timbre Brewer, drama isn’t a one-hour elective course and school plays aren’t extracurricular activities.

Brewer, a Natchez resident in the off-season, is part of the first senior class at the Mississippi School of the Arts in Brookhaven.

As a drama major, the 18-year-old spends two class periods and about two hours of rehearsal time each day on theatre.

She lives on campus at the public school in a dormitory room and participates in two productions a year. The drama senior class, or the First Company, will put on six performances of &uot;She Stoops to Conquer&uot; starting this Friday.

Brewer, who plays a bar maid, said she’s had a lot of fun playing her character.

&uot;I have a really great part,&uot; she said. &uot;I’ve learned that stage kissing is not hard.&uot;

Brewer enrolled in MSA at the start of her junior year after hearing about the new school from her high school drama teacher in Greene County.

&uot;I really liked theatre and did a lot of competitive forensics and community theatre,&uot; she said. &uot;I toured here and met teachers and really fell in love with the place.

&uot;I wanted to come here because I wanted to learn more about acting.&uot;

After a complex application process including taped monologues and multiple references Brewer was accepted to the school. When she moved to Brookhaven, her parents moved from Greene County to Natchez to be closer to her. Her mother is a teacher at Natchez High School.

Ken Bolinsky, director of the MSA theatre program, said Brewer had done well at the school.

&uot;She is a really dedicated young woman,&uot; he said. &uot;She is very dynamic on stage, and she is learning a great deal about subtlety and color in her work. She has learned how to be brash and other skills she’ll need as a mature actor as she becomes and adult.&uot;

Brewer said she is looking at Ole Miss and Southern Mississippi for their theatre programs. She said she plans to be a theatre major and an education minor. Teaching is her backup plan, but she plans to shoot high in her acting career.

&uot;My dream job is to work on Broadway,&uot; she said. &uot;My practical dream is to be a professional actor, having a consistent amount of work.&uot;

&uot;She Stoops to Conquer,&uot; an Oliver Goldsmith comedy of 1773, will be at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, at 3 p.m. Sunday and again next weekend at the same times.

The production will be in the MSA Theatre Studio in Johnson Institute on the campus in Brookhaven. Admission is $5 and tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance at (601) 823-1300.