STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Cherry Bell Farrington (from left), Ian Price, Brooke Bradshaw and Donna Hogan rehearse last week at William Byrd High School for the school's production of "Oliver!" Donna and Ian have won awards for their performances in New York.

Click the button above to see all of our community coverage, or go straight to your community's homepage with the menu below.

Find your community Bedford County Botetourt County Franklin County New River Valley Roanoke City Roanoke Co. (North) Roanoke Co. (Southwest) Salem & Glenvar Smith Mountain Lake Vinton & E Roanoke Co.

More education stories

• Odds and ends from your schools
• Board of education: Cave Spring Elementary School
• Lowdown on schools is a numbers game
• Back to school information
• Teacher proud to go where she's needed

Archive

• Education index

While wrapping up rehearsals for a play last fall, William Byrd High School drama teacher Carol Webster was invited on behalf of her theater program to apply to the National Performing Arts Festival.

When Webster found out in early November that her department had been selected to compete, the first people she told were her students.

"We were all just stunned, we didn't really know what to think of it," freshman Christie Vernon said. "It didn't sink in for a few days."

The children's show they'd been rehearsing, "School House Rock Live," seemed the perfect play to bring to the competition.

The William Byrd production was intended to entertain and educate local elementary school students, but some of the high school performers relearned some "School House Rock" concepts during rehearsals of the live show.

"I learned the difference between adverbs and adjectives, 11th-grader Donna Hogan said. "Eight times 12."

"Yeah," agreed fellow junior Maegan Puckett. "I think in my exam, I actually sang the preamble in my head."

After singing about nouns for nearly a school year, the students knew their parts of speech like the backs of their hands, but had to keep the show fresh for people who might not have heard "I'm Just a Bill," in a few years, especially the judges in New York. The members of the cast and crew said it was easy keep the show alive because of how much fun they were having.

"We were running soundboard for most of the shows, but we were right there dancing with the cast," ROTC senior Tyler Shell said. "It didn't even matter we weren't onstage, we were still having fun with it."

While on their trip, the group visited Times Square and Central Park and saw the Broadway musical "Grease." The highlights, though, were performing, attending workshops and winning numerous awards, including the Superior Award, the Judges Award and several individual awards for outstanding performances.

In workshops held by theater professionals, the students experienced what a real Broadway audition is like and got tips on how to start their careers.

Dorian Dozier, winner of an Outstanding Performance award, said he learned that show business is not easy, but the junior still wants to pursue a career in the field he loves and go on to work in film or television.

Many of the students want to pursue acting and theater careers, and this trip helped a few to solidify their plans. Senior Hannah Mankin will attend Radford University in the fall. She was going to major in media studies and get a minor in theater, but now she's changed her mind -- she'll work toward a double major.