Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1995 TAG: 9506070053
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
But it was Rhonda Welsh's drama program that helped her to decide that while those disciplines are still largely associated with men, nontraditional roles are fine for women, too.
"They say most of the time girls are better at English, but I'm better at math," she said.
At the senior picnic, she was the only girl playing softball. She also likes basketball. "Maybe I'm not a good shooter, but I'm good at defense," she said.
Owens, who stands 4-foot-11 "and three quarters" and had to show her driver's license to see the R-rated film "Pulp Fiction," has been taking advanced classes since fourth grade.
She was also a student at the Southwest Virginia Governor's School during her junior and senior years, taking calculus and physics for college credit.
With her stature in seeming contrast to her academic skills, she did not always mix easily with her classmates. But the drama troupe is made up mainly of highly individualistic students and she fit in just fine.
"It's been a big influence in my life. I was always trying to fit in with groups and now I realize I can be my own person, I can be an individual and not be like everybody else," she said. "This class and Rhonda have helped me realize."
Owens had been in the school choir during her first two high school years and, as a sophomore, was among the school's singers joining the Pulaski County High School Players in their production of "Godspell."
"I liked it so much that I quit choir and got into drama," she said.
But it was not a promising start. Welsh gave her a number of lines in "Godspell" but Owens spoke them so quietly that she ended up having no lines at all.
"She'd give me a line and I'd say it and she couldn't ever hear it," Owens said. "I just wanted to do better and get over the fright of it. So I took the class in 11th grade."
Owens had the leading role in "The Serpent," the play with which the troupe won the top state drama award this year. She and two other Pulaski County students, Matt Hancock and Chase Loney, also won three of the seven individual state acting awards given by the judges from among some 170 student actors.
"We kind of racked up," she said. "After they awarded us ours, they said 'We had a mistake' ... We were walking off the stage and we just stopped," she recalled. "You can imagine how we felt."
But it turned out the mistake had to do with the second-place award.
Then she won the female lead in last month's production of "Romeo and Juliet," even though Welsh was hesitant to have the same student doing two leads in a row. Owens had been successful again, this time at drama.
"It had such a big impact on the way I feel about myself. I have to say Rhonda's the teacher that had the most influence on me," she said.
She and Welsh will be leaving Pulaski County High together at the end of the year. Welsh's husband was transferred to another part of Virginia in his job, and she has already secured a special education teaching position there.
Number of graduates: 372
Going to college: 55 percent
Going into military: 2 percent
Valedictorian: To be announced
Salutatorian: To be announced
Time: 7:59 p.m. Thursday at Kenneth, J. Dobson Stadium
by CNB