Sweet to take final bow as Colonel Players director

When the curtain closes this weekend on the Whitley County Colonel Players’ final production of the year, the drama program’s instructor will take his final bow in that role, where he has taught and directed for 21 years.

David Sweet, known affectionally by his drama students as “The Sweetness,” will be entering retirement at the end of the school year. Sweet began his professional career right out of college as a journalist with The News Journal in the late ‘80s before taking a public relations position with the Whitley County School District in 1992. While continuing to work for the district, Sweet was inspired by his wife, Lisa, who has now taught at Whitley Central Primary for 31 years, to return to school to obtain his master’s degree. Upon completion, he transitioned into a teaching role at Whitley County High School in 1997.

During his time as an instructor, Sweet has taught a broad variety of subjects, ranging from journalism to creative writing to broadcasting, but there was one class that he was always drawn to: drama and theater. Though WCHS had previously had a drama program, it had been defunct for about 10 years before Sweet revived it in 2001.

Over the last two decades, Sweet has built a respectable program where he has aided numerous students in overcoming their fears, honing their skills and even finding talents they didn’t even know they had. And even with all the care, attention and time he has devoted to the program over the years, he is still quick to defer praise to his students.

“I think—for me—one of the things I see the most in theater is kids come in and they’re really shy and afraid to get up on stage and afraid to get up to speak in front of anybody. Then they get up on stage and they realize they have a confidence that they didn’t have before,” said Sweet. “That’s what I’m most proud of.

“I’m just standing on the shoulders of all the students who have performed the last 21 years. They’re the ones that do all the work. I direct, but they’re the ones that do the work. People don’t come to watch me perform, they come to watch the kids perform. It’s really the students that have built what we’ve done. In the end, that’s really what it’s always about.”

But before Sweet settles into his comfy backyard hammock (which he said is his favorite place to relax) for good, the Colonel Players have one final hurrah with Sweet at the helm. The troupe will be presenting their rendition of “The Outsiders” Thursday through Saturday, with a performance at 7 p.m. each night and a special 2 p.m. show on Saturday.

According to Sweet, the idea for the play was given to him last year by a student, Makenzie Lunsford, who is a fan of the book/movie. While initially hesitant due to the drama program not having enough male actors to play the roles, plans were discussed for having female actors play some of the traditionally male roles. However, the program saw an influx of students this year, which allowed for enough male actors to play the male roles.

Despite having enough actors, Sweet said the students still wanted to move forward with playing opposite-gendered roles, so the cast was broken up into two parts and there will be two versions of the play—one with all the actors in their traditional roles and one with the male actors in the female rolls and vice-versa.

“The kids have really embraced it,” said Sweet. “I’ve got some really talented actors.”

When the production wraps Saturday night, Sweet will have just a few more days with students before they go home for the summer and he moves on toward retirement. Once he gets there, he said he is looking forward to relaxing a bit more, but doesn’t anticipate staying idle in his retirement. He and his wife—who is also retiring at the end of the school year—are planning a move to the Newport, Tennessee area, which is where his wife is originally from.

He said he has been working on a number of fiction pieces he plans to devote more time to during retirement and hopes to be able to get them published. But he also has a backup plan just in case.

“I joke all the time about getting a job at Dollywood and being the guy that operates the Thunderhead rollercoaster ride and says ‘Let the thunder roll,” said Sweet. “I doubt I would do any of that, but it would be a great job for me. That would be fun.”