ACTRESS STEPS IN TO TAKE LEAD ROLE IN PULASKI PLAY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 5, 1993                   TAG: 9302050199
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                LENGTH: Short
ACTRESS STEPS IN TO TAKE LEAD ROLE IN PULASKI PLAY
It was uncomfortably like the melodrama in which a starring actress must withdraw from a key production at the last minute and the understudy finds herself thrust into the limelight.
In this case, it was the one-act play that the Pulaski County High School Players will perform in the annual Virginia High School League district competition Saturday.
Pulaski County has won both district and regional competitions with its one-act entries for the past three years and, this year, is hosting the competition. So the pressure is on for another win.
The play, Woody Allen's comedy "God," included veteran school performer Courtney Cox in a key role. But the Players learned two weeks before the performance that league scholastic requirements will make her ineligible to be in the play this time.
Her role is being performed by April Corvin. The play was presented Thursday night so the actors could get reaction from a live audience.
It will be presented again tonight at 8 p.m. in the school's Little Theatre for the public. Admission is $1.
Tracy Skeens, another student performer who also is an assistant director on this production, said stepping into a key role at the last minute was a challenge for Corvin.
"But Courtney's been there every second of the way helping her get her character," Skeens said Thursday, following the last rehearsal Wednesday night before the first public performance. "And last night it all came together."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB