Local schools provide professional-level entertainment.

When folks in the southwest Gwinnett area are looking for entertainment choices beyond the bar scene or movie theaters, they probably don’t think about the budding talent growing in the local schools. If they consider a high school musical or even a one-act play from middle school students, they’re likely to be pleasantly surprised.

For years, local young thespians have been delivering professional quality performances at bargain prices.

The Shulers

It’s no wonder that many schools find themselves listed among the best and brightest in the country. Locally, the ArtsBridge Foundation conducts a competition for schools as a precursor to the International Shuler Awards®, or The Shulers, named for the Marietta-born stage and screen star Shuler Hensley. The April 20 show at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre features a live performance and awards event.

Live broadcasts of the ceremony have earned ArtsBridge Foundation and partner Georgia Public Broadcasting/GPB-TV the Southeast Emmy® Award in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 for special event coverage, indicative of the superb quality and high production value Georgia students bring at showtime.

Greater Atlanta Christian (GAC), a long-time participant in the event, will be competing in this cycle.

Left- Mrs. Thames and the cast of Anastasia doing their preshow warmups – Spring 2022. Middle- Sophomore Nick Nandlal-Smith in the role of Dmitry in Anastasia Spring 2022. Right- GAC High School’s production of Anastasia, which won the Shuler Spotlight Award. Additionally, Georgia Thomas’s performance in Anastasia won the Shuler Award for Leading Actress.

“While about half of the Shuler Awards competitors represent Metro Atlanta high schools, it’s exciting to see participating schools spanning all of Georgia, including five counties competing for the first time,” said Elizabeth Lenhart, director of arts education for ArtsBridge Foundation.

“While many aspects… uphold long-standing traditions, format updates implemented last year also enable schools, volunteer adjudicators and ArtsBridge Foundation’s team to share a fun and fair competition celebrating the state’s best in musical theater.”

In the 2022 competition, GAC won the Spotlight Award at The Shulers for the ensemble’s performance of “Stay I Pray You” from the musical “Anastasia.” Additionally, student Georgia Thomas won Best Performance by a Leading Actress for her portrayal of the title character.
Since 2009, the Shuler Awards has engaged over 60,000 students from 142 schools and 38 counties/school systems.

The main objectives of the Shuler Awards are to increase awareness, advocacy and support for Georgia’s arts education programs, to develop and foster growing talent by providing learning and performance opportunities and to cultivate and nurture productive relationships among Georgia’s promising thespians and educators, according to information provided by the nonprofit organization.

The Shuler Awards leading actress and actor winners will travel to New York City as Georgia’s entrants for the National High School Musical Theatre Awards program, named The Jimmy Awards. They will participate in the awards show at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway during summer 2023, with merit scholarships and professional opportunities up for grabs, organized by Broadway League.

Greater Atlanta Christian

With 17 years at GAC, Director of Fine Arts Regan Burnett knows first-hand all the sweat and tears that go into pulling off these award-winning productions. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was promoted to her current role.

“For the last two years, you could say that I have helped our performing and visual arts communities navigate the very unpredictable waters of and turbulent waters of COVID,” she said. “We were able to, with our facilities and resources, put on our performances, which was really important to our community. And that was not an easy thing to do.”

The school offered more performances and followed CDC guidelines of social distancing, masking and disinfecting surfaces. The audiences were much smaller — consisting mainly of other students, staff and family — but as the adage says, “The show must go on!”

“We were just very fortunate, and we were very grateful,” said Burnett. “As a performer, you have to be very flexible. You have to have a plan, have a lot of discipline, be very structured, but you also have to learn resilience and flexibility.”

The opportunity to keep as much normalcy as possible was a positive element for the school year. “It gave me hope and that’s what I needed personally. I got the support from our administration to spend my time and my energy and my resources into making sure that our students carry on as best we could, as faithfully as we could,” she said.

While a lot of people may not see the value in extracurricular education, Burnett said she’s grateful that the GAC administration believes that what she and her department do is important.

“Colleagues and people that I report to may not be performers and they may not be artists, but they have an appreciation for it, and they support it,” she said. “So, we’re very blessed to have that.”

Norcross High School

Gina Parrish, theater director at Norcross High School (NHS) has been in that position for 31 years. “We tried to participate in the Schulers, but they only allowed 25 schools in, and it was first come first served,” she explained. “We missed getting in [this time].”

But local theater lovers can still enjoy the NHS entry to the GHSA Region One-Act Play Competition, Laundry and Bourbon, a delightful comedy about three housewives in the 1970s in a small town in Texas.

In late February, NHS will be performing a hilarious farce called The Play That Goes Wrong, and in April, the school will be doing The Addams Family. For information, visit nhs-drama.com.

“We always have great costumes and wonderful high school actors,” said Parrish. “It should be a wonderful season of great shows with lots of color!”

Upcoming shows

Community members are encouraged to attend GAC and other local school productions. Here are a few to consider.

Pirates in Wonderland is the creative naming for two plays that are being presented as a combo ticket for two dates. One starts at 7 p.m. and the other at 8 p.m. on October 6 and October 19.

Alice in Wonderland is a one-act play performed by the school’s elite VISIONS ensemble. “How I Became a Pirate” is another one act play by the younger high school students. Both are going into competition.

Wesleyan Middle School Recent Play

The program has won 22 state championships (Georgia High School Association and Georgia Theatre Conferences) and GAC student actors have repeatedly won the highly respected Shuler Hensley Awards for High School Musical Theatre.

The Sara D. Williams Fine Arts Center holds the state-of-the art Clifton Jones Theatre, which seats an audience of 400. Tickets are at eventbrite.com/o/greater-atlanta-christian-school-6783130853.

The middle school theater will present the one-act play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s famous story of fairies and Athenian youth on Wednesday, Oct. 12. The fairies of the wood attempt to reconcile an argument between their king and queen, the working men of Athens rehearse a play of their own invention to be performed at the Duke’s wedding celebration, and the youth of Athens navigate the perils of falling under love’s spell.

The play will be performed at the Georgia Theatre Conference competition in Kingsland, Ga. on October 15.

Wesleyan’s High School will present The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on Friday, Oct. 21 and Saturday, Oct. 22. Two performances, at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. each day, will be held at Wesleyan School on the green next to Davidson Natatorium.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is set in Tarrytown in 1790, and tells the tale of Ichabod Crane, the love-struck schoolteacher who must decide if he believes the story of the town’s Headless Horseman to be true or just a figment of his imagination.

As Ichabod faces his fears and superstitions, all manner of characters jump in to tell the story, share a few laughs and put the town newcomer, Ichabod himself, to the test. Ultimately, all of the characters are challenged to decide if fear will rule their lives or if faith in God’s promised providence will triumph.

In this adaptation of America’s first ghost story, the audience will be immersed in the experience in an outdoor setting on the Wesleyan Campus. For details and reservations, visit wesleyanschool.org.