Colonel Players bring home EKDAS Festival awards

Whitley County High School’s Colonel Players brought home several honors during the 12^th Annual Eastern Kentucky Dramatic Arts Society (EKDAS) Festival, which was held Saturday at Whitley County High School.

The Whitley County Colonel Players play “In the Garden of the Selfish Giant” was awarded a third place finish in the festival and garnered two tech awards for best tree and best light/sound design.

“Most remarkably, three out of the four actors were also awarded. Makenzie Lunsford and Destiny Cureton were awarded with Mountain Top Ten Cast awards, and Kara Helton was awarded a Best Supporting Actor award. All, including our fourth actor, Makena Jaide, had tremendous performances, putting many tears in the eyes of the audience and touching people with warmth and emotion with their performances,” Whitley County drama instructor David Sweet wrote.

“In the Garden of the Selfish Giant” is about 11-year-old Maggie Campbell and her mother, Susan, who have come to Susan’s childhood home to be with Maggie’s dying grandmother in her final days.

Maggie has never known this cantankerous grandmother, who still exerts a powerful effect on everyone. Maggie resents giving up her summer, but is introduced to Allison, a funny, warm and insightful hospice nurse, and a very imaginative 9-year-old neighbor, who hates unhappy endings and never lets facts stand in the way of a good story.

Unhappy endings can’t always be avoided, but understanding, forgiveness, and friendship do eventually blossom, along with roses, in the garden of the “Selfish Giant.”

The play is based on the Oscar Wilde fairy tale about “The Selfish Giant.”