The Colonel Players debuting ‘Digging Up The Boys’ Friday evening

Three miners: A father, Floyd (Ryan Gibbs), a young husband, Paul (Zachary Broyles), and a brother, Jack (Jacob Sutton) are trapped by a gas explosion in a failing coal mine.

Whitley County High School’s drama department, “The Colonel Players,” will be giving their first public performance of the season Friday night with a play that centers around a coal mine.

This is the first time that the play, “Digging Up The Boys,” will be performed by a high school in Kentucky.

“We are excited about performing this play because of the close ties to coal mining in Whitley County,” said drama instructor David Sweet.

Sweet said that The Colonel Players received permission from the author, Texas playwright Laura Lundgren Smith, to change the location of the coalmine to Kensee Hollow.

The story involves Floyd, Paul and Jack, who work in an old, nearly picked clean mine that is about to be closed. The mine partially collapses trapping them inside.

Ruth (Hannah Hamblin), Addie (Lauren Elliott), and a pregnant May (Cassidy Moses) keep each other hopeful as their brother, father and young husband are trapped in the mine.

Floyd’s daughter, Addie, Paul’s pregnant wife, May, and Jack’s sister, Ruth, race to the mine. There the mine’s foreman gives them the company line, “go home and pray.”

The men are seen as “no accounts” in the class-conscious coal camp.

“Those above and below are left to whistle in the dark, desperate for a miracle, but the mine holds a terrible secret that will change their lives forever,” Sweet noted.

There will be a public performance of the play Friday at 7 p.m. in the Whitley County High School cafeteria. Tickets are $5.

The play will also be performed at 3 p.m. Saturday at Corbin High School as part of the Kentucky Theatre Association Regional Drama Festival.

Seven schools will compete with the top three going on to the state competition.

The mine foreman (Brandt Jones) warns Addie (Lauren Elliott) that her father will most likely never return to her again.

Whitley, McCreary, Perry Central, Middlesboro, Greenup and Madison Southern are the seven schools that will be competing.

Corbin High School is hosting the competition but is not competing.