Whitley County High School hosts 5th Annual Easter Kentucky Dramatic Arts Society High School Drama Festival

This past Saturday, April 13, the Top High School Drama Students of our Mountain Region traveled to Williamsburg, Ky., to the University of the Cumberlands to perform at the 5th Annual Eastern Kentucky Dramatic Arts Society (EKDAS) High School Drama Festival.
EKDAS exists as a cooperative group, of all high schools in the East Kentucky Mountain Region, from Ashland to Berea to Wayne County with all places in between, to promote the Fine Arts in our region’s schools with the goal that every high school in Eastern Kentucky will have Drama as part of their school activities.
Whitley County High School’s Colonel Players Drama Company were the Host program of the event under the direction of Whitley County Drama Teacher, David Sweet. Competing in the festival format were Drama programs from Whitley County High School, Harlan County High School, Perry County Central High School and Madison Southern High School.
In the afternoon, after the final performance closed, awards were given out to represent the Best in High School Theatre Performance.
Perry County Central’s Commodore Players were awarded First Place, Best Overall Performance, for the festival for their one-act comedy of "Screenagers", by playwrights Jane and Jim Jeffries. The production was directed by PCC Drama teacher Phil Neace.
Whitley County High School performed “Days of Our School Lives” by Jack Nuzum at the Festival on Saturday.
Will Kirgan, Colonel Player junior, received Best Actor Award for the Festival in his role as evil Grammar Governor Charles Dickens.
Haley Walters, a Colonel Player junior, received a Mountain Top Ten Cast award. John Fulton, Steven Eversole, Annabel Weiss, and Haley Walters received Judge’s Discretionary awards.
The play is a high school soap opera that centers around the lives of McDonald Carey Memorial High School, where the school has been taken over by the evil “grammar governor” Charles Dickens, who is actually a puppet of the true evil genius of Head Custodian George Patton.
The Governor faces justice after students and teachers begin to find evidence of exactly why Dickens and the janitors took over the school, and why their former principal, Henry Malone, was fired.
The WCHS Colonel Players will be performing the entire play Friday, April 26 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, April 27 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Kohn Theatre in the Grace Crum Rollins Center on the University of Cumberlands Campus.

Results of the 5th Annual EKDAS High School Drama Festival
Best Overall Performance — Perry County Central’s Commodore Players "Screenagers"
2nd Place — Madison Southern High School’s Eagle Players "The Least Offensive Play in the Whole Darn World"
3rd Place — Harlan County High School "12 Angry Pigs"
Best Actor — Will Kirgan, Whitley County High
Best Actress — Taylor Howard, Harlan County High

EKDAS All Mountain Cast
Seth Lewis — Perry County Central
Elliot Board — Madison Southern High
Will Kirgan — Whitley County High
Taylor Howard — Harlan County High
Ramsey Hall — Perry County Central
Lucas Slagle — Madison Southern High
Haley Walters — Whitley County High
Devyn Creech — Harlan County High
Makeisha Combs — Perry County Central
Foster Colvin — Harlan County High