Live drama presentations in our area have impressed recently

I have a ton of respect for the performers in all of our local drama clubs. I cover a lot of sports for the News Journal, and while I am always impressed with the amazing feats of athleticism that our young athletes are able to pull off on the court and/or field, there is just something different about watching kids on stage, nailing a dance routine, successfully hitting every note in a song, and memorizing every line in a play that lasts over an hour.

It takes a lot of talent to do this, and I’m sure it requires countless hours of practice as well. Frankly, I don’t see how they have time to adequately prepare for a play AND keep up with all of their classroom responsibilities, but I guess it just takes a special breed of person to successfully navigate a demanding schedule like that.

I have been fortunate enough to check out a few live drama presentations since earlier this year, beginning with the debut performance of the Kentucky Playhouse back during the summer.

This community theater group, led by Corbin native Matt Manning, put together an incredibly well done murder-mystery dinner show called Murder Within Us for their inaugural event, held at the Kentucky Creative LLC Bistro in south Corbin. I have seen some social media posts from them recently announcing a new Christmas dinner show on Dec. 15-17 that is titled A Juneberry Christmas. Apparently, this show will have an Andy Griffith/Mayberry type of vibe, and I’m sure it will be great. Anyone interested can call (606) 521-5268 to get more information.

Just a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see the drama club at Corbin Middle School perform A Christmas Caroline, which is a modern take on the classic holiday tale, A Christmas Carol.

The play was written by a good friend of mine, Zac Pensol, and let me tell you, I sure was impressed with the way these young kids brought the story to life on the stage. I was truly blown away, and look forward to hopefully checking them out again at future presentations.

Then there are our high school drama clubs at Whitley County and Corbin high schools. Unfortunately, I have not been able to see the Colonel Players since they performed a series of skits based on Edgar Allan Poe stories a few years back, but that is a night that I will never forget.

It was just before Halloween, and the play was presented outside at the WCHS amphitheater. I remember there being a large, bright moon that rose above the treeline behind the stage as the players acted out scenes from some of Poe’s most famous works. It was really, really cool.

I have been able to catch a couple of plays from the Redhound drama club recently, including taking my young daughter to see their presentation of Frozen last spring. That was a great show! Seriously, you’d be hard pressed to find a better performance anywhere in the state. At any level.

With that being said, I had high hopes when I went to CHS last Friday evening to watch the drama Hounds’ presentation of White Christmas. They definitely did not disappoint.

For more information about the show itself, I encourage you to check out the feature story about it elsewhere in this week’s paper, but let me just say that I was blown away with the musical numbers and choreography. The performers were all great, and the crowd was really into everything that was happening on the stage. I can’t say enough about the job that everyone involved did, and I am really looking forward to seeing more from them in the future.

Once again, great job (and thank you) to everyone in our local communities who is working hard to entertain folks with awesome live performances, whether it be at the elementary/middle school level, the high school level, or beyond. From the performers themselves to everyone behind the scenes… your efforts are appreciated!