Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 23, 1993 TAG: 9303230090
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Long
HIGH DRAMA FOR PULASKI PLAYERS
AN ACT OF "GOD"? Perhaps in more ways than one as foul weather played a role in this high-school troupe rendition of a Woody Allen work.
At least the snow that closed Pulaski County schools last week gave the Pulaski County High School Players time to rest up from their latest cliff-hanger of a trip.
"Only my troupe would go to a theater in the middle of a hurricane," mused drama instructor Rhonda Welsh.
That was to perform their one-act play, Woody Allen's "God," by invitation at the International Thespian Conference in Norfolk, a trip which also included blizzards, traffic hazards, soaking rains and being trapped in a motel.
It began March 11 when 29 students and six chaperones left Pulaski County for Old Dominion University in four vehicles, three of them provided by chaperone Clinton Leary.
The conference began the next day with a lip-synch performance competition. The Players had nothing prepared, so they improvised with their mime performers.
Unfortunately, their turn wasn't scheduled until 11:30 p.m. They got back to their hotel at 2:30 a.m. - and had to leave again by 5 a.m. for their one-act performance.
Winds were being clocked at 60 mph when they got back to the theater building, only to find it locked. Their makeup, togas and other costumes were soaked by rain by the time they got in.
"By the time we were unloading the equipment, it's a quarter after eight and that's when the storm was really hitting," Welsh said.
Phyllis Leary found herself being blown by winds in the wrong direction when she tried to carry in a huge cube that was part of the set.
Luckily, the play is a comedy about the tribulations of a theater group, so it found a receptive audience - a huge audience, in fact. With hurricane winds outside, it was impossible to cut off access to the auditorium when the seats were filled.
Welsh said it proved to be their most appreciative audience ever.
"The show was the talk of the conference," she said. "It was really nice to take the show to a non-competitive conference."
The one-act entry had finished second in district and regional competition and fourth at state. Each time, two judges gave it top marks and a third judge gave a rating that knocked it out of first place.
Afterward, Welsh had to lead four hours of 15-minute mime workshops and the students rushed from one workshop to another all day.
"You just hoped the wind was blowing the right way, because you get there faster," she said.
Snow trapped them in a Howard Johnson motel that night, away from Princess Anne High School where the parties were being held. Welsh and six other directors with stranded students explained the situation to the manager, who turned the motel's ballroom over to them.
Sheirod Russell used a borrowed boom box as disc jockey for the impromptu party and other members of the troupe helped entertain.
"We were the hits of the evening," Welsh said.
They dragged themselves back to the campus March 14 for the next set of activities starting at 6 a.m. "That was when we found out we won the performance competition," Welsh said.
They used the Cougar Information Network at Pulaski County High School to let their parents know they were surviving wind and snow. "We were updating the messages every couple hours," Welsh said.
They started back March 15, their caravan joined by Christiansburg High School drama director Charlene LaLoiz and her two students. In the Richmond area, they passed the scene of an accident and saw a body being covered.
"At that point, the kids got really quiet. We all did, because we didn't know what we were going to face farther down the road," Welsh said. But they made it back through the snow without incident.
Other chaperones included Karen Lorenz and teacher Becky DeHaven, and two Pulaski County High graduates who had worked with the drama program as students - Danny Leary and Robbie Crockett.
"You know, we've had some really tough trips," Welsh said. Their trip to regional one-act play competition near Washington in February included the loss of a bus wheel, walking a mile or so for help, and getting back in the early morning hours amidst another snow and ice storm.
"We've talked about what else can happen at this point, like actors spontaneously combusting," she said. "It's almost getting funny. One of the kids looked at me and said, `Are we still going to do a spring show?' "
But she expressed pride in how the students handled it all.
"Never did these kids get impatient, irritable - I don't know how they do it," she said. "Maybe we have a mutated species of teen-ager at Pulaski County High School. And I'm really glad we do! . . . I've never had a group that has gone through what this group has gone through, and done it with a smile on their faces."
With schools closed last week, they missed auditions for their spring show.
"We want to do something specifically for children," Welsh said, and the play will be the C.S. Lewis story, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."
Most of its budget for the year went toward its ambitious musical, "Godspell."
"We are just as broke as we have ever been but, generally, when we're broke, we still do as well," she said. They will be borrowing animal costumes and building their set out of student bodies - literally.
"Bodies are cheaper than sets," Welsh said. "So I'm going to ask students if they can be chairs. It should be a challenge, don't you think?"
What else? Anything less would bore this group.