Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 23, 1993 TAG: 9302230174
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
WANT TO TALK DRAMA? THESE KIDS LIVE IT . . .
You could title it "The Perils of the Pulaski County High School Players" if you were doing the story of the group's trek to and from its one-act play competition."We expect plague and pestilence next," drama instructor Rhonda Welsh said Monday.
Nevertheless, the troupe came in second in regional competition at Garfield High School near Washington, D.C., over the weekend and will go on to state competition in Charlottesville this weekend.
If they are up to another trip, that is.
The 35 students and their chaperones piled into their school bus to return home Saturday, Welsh said, "and then . . . a wheel on the bus caught fire."
It was the classic bus trip from you-know-where. They had left the D.C. area Saturday about 3:30 p.m. and didn't make it home until 13 hours later, about 4:30 a.m. Sunday - in the midst of a snow and ice storm.
The storm kept many parents without four-wheel-drive vehicles from getting to the school to pick up their students. Those students slept on the floor at Welsh's home until conditions improved and their rides got through.
The Players have won first place in district and regional competition for the past three years. They knew they were taking a risk by switching from drama to a comedy this year - they did Woody Allen's "God" - but they liked the play enough to try it in competition.
Then things began to go wrong.
Two weeks before the district competition, which Pulaski County hosted this year, a student in a lead role had to bow out because of scholastic requirements, and a last-minute replacement had to be found.
Another lead had a death in the family shortly afterward.
There were illnesses and technical problems. But when the play was performed Feb. 6 at district competition, two judges rated it tops with scores of 99 and 95.
The third judge gave it a 78 rating. That brought it down to second, behind Roanoke's Patrick Henry High School, but it still was high enough to qualify for the regionals.
When the cast and crew arrived at Garfield on Saturday, they found the stage different from the one in the Pulaski school's Little Theatre. They had to re-block much of the show.
"All that went off without a hitch," Welsh said. Again, two judges gave them top marks, 100 and 99 this time. But the third gave them an 85 which, again, dropped them to second.
Garfield High finished first. Patrick Henry was third this time, switching places with Pulaski. They all will go after the top spot again next weekend at state competition in Charlottesville.
It was on Saturday's trip home, as the bus neared Harrisonburg on Interstate 81, that a wheel problem developed. The driver made it almost to Roanoke before the wheel gave out altogether.
The 35 students and their chaperones hiked about 1 1/2 miles to White's Truck Stop, barely visible in the distance, shouting nonsense such as "Duck, Duck, Waddle, Waddle" on their way.
"What we didn't know was that it had a huge fence all the way around it," Welsh said. They had to walk all the way around the huge complex to reach the entrance.
The wait lasted about 2 1/2 hours, Welsh said. "We had such a good time."
They considered performing the play for the other people they met there, she said, but couldn't find enough space.
Ron Nichols, supervisor of transportation for Pulaski County schools, personally drove a replacement bus to the truck stop to bring everyone the rest of the way home. Welsh soon dozed off.
When she woke up 20 minutes later, all she saw outside the bus windows was white.
The snow and ice made the rest of the trip tedious, but Harry DeHaven, the school system's director of operations, had the high school open for the travelers when they arrived at 4:30 a.m.
Welsh was back at school Monday with laryngitis - not the first time she has been inflicted with it during her direction of this play - but ready to direct more rehearsals on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before the group leaves Sunday for the Charlottesville competition on Monday.
This is the fourth year Pulaski County High School has made it to the state level, having finished first at district and regional levels previously.
"This is the first time we've gone as second place, but we don't care," Welsh said.
And however they come out at the state level, they will not be finished with the play - or vice versa.
"We take the show to Norfolk two weeks after that," Welsh said.
They are among 800 students across Virginia selected to perform a one-act play at the International Thespian Conference in Norfolk. Individual performers from across the country also were invited.
In fact, while Pulaski County is among those doing plays, Welsh is one of those appearing individually. "So they're performing and so am I," she said.