Creative Focus
Above: Watauga High School Pioneer Playmakers; Sarah Miller and Zach Walker
“OOPS… They Did It Again!”
Watauga High School Wins Third State Theatre Championship in Six Years
By Keith Martin
“It’s déjà vu all over again!” is arguably baseball legend Yogi Berra’s most popular Yogi-ism. However, with the Watauga High School (WHS) Pioneer Playmakers and their award-winning drama program, it’s déjà vu all over again… and again.. and again, as their original play, “SURGE,” captured the Distinguished Play Award at the North Carolina Theatre Conference (NCTC) State Play Festival for the THIRD time in six years.
In fact, this is the fifth state theatre championship for the school, following previous wins for the play “Dearly Departed” in 1999, directed by Playmakers founder Trimella Chaney, the production of “John Lennon and Me” in 2007, directed by Sarah Miller, “Ernest and the Pale Moon” in 2019, directed by Zach Walker, and in 2023 with “Our Place,” also directed by Miller. In 2017, Miller and Walker were named co-recipients of the NCTC K-12 Theatre Arts Educator Award, “presented to a current or former theatre teacher in NC schools, who has demonstrated excellence in the classroom, superior production achievement, and has served as a leader among peers.”
It was an embarrassment of riches for WHS. Not only did they capture the top prize, the “Judge’s Choice” Distinguished Play designation, but they also won the coveted Daniel A. Seaman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Ensemble Theatre. In addition, co-directors Miller and Walker took the C. C. Lipscomb Award for Excellence in Directing, and a trio of talented students (Kyleigh Hogan, Clara Lappan, and Liliana Lemus) won a special award for “Best Composition of an Original Song.”
Miller said she was “humbled and stoked and stunned” to share their success, while noting that “SURGE” received yet another Superior Rating, the 20th year in a row for the Playmakers and the 44th time overall for the program.
“SURGE” is an original devised play recounting the experiences of the troupe, their school, and community during and following the devastation of Hurricane Helene in September. Devised theater is a collaborative process for creating a live performance without a pre-existing script. The student creative team originally had worked together to develop another theme but, after Helene, started the process anew focusing on news reporters chronicling stories of three High Country families: the Shepherds, Critchers, and Andersons.
This year, over 2,400 students from more than 90 schools performed 118 different plays at eight regional festival sites. The top 16 productions were invited to perform on the state level on November 21-22. “We continue to celebrate a spirit of community at the play festival, giving students an enriching environment to learn from each other and celebrate each other’s work,” said NCTC Executive Director Angie Hays. “Young artists leave feeling accomplished, energized, and inspired.”
The storied history of WHS theatre dates back to 1987 when Chaney founded the program that she would lead for 18 years before retiring in 2005 and turning the troupe over to former student Sarah Miller, a member in the original Playmakers class. WHS stalwart Greg Pope worked with both Chaney and Miller until his 2013 retirement, with Zach Walker joining WHS that same year.
At a benefit performance of “SURGE,” Lees-McRae College Professor Emeritus Dr. Janet Barton Speer offered pre-show comments, noting how the creative torch has been passed from one theatre generation to another. “I got to work with LMC students who filled me with joy and took the message of theatre into the world. One of those students was Trimella Chaney.
“In 1978 I was given the opportunity to direct musicals for Blue Ridge Community Theatre. From that time forward, community folks, including hundreds of children, got their theatrical start in a BRCT musical. Sarah Miller is one of them. It is a circle. Sarah went from community theatre to high school productions with Trimella. And here we are with one of the finest high school drama departments in the nation.”
Chaney remarked that Speer was on the selection committee for the original Playmaker troupe who selected Miller. “Theatre is powerful. It stirs our emotions. Through theatre we express, entertain, educate, create, strengthen, and unify. This group has definitely provided a service to our community helping us to process the destruction caused by Helene. They are telling our story in a powerful way.
“I may have birthed the drama program at WHS, but Sarah Miller and Zach Walker have grown it, nurtured it, and parented it to new levels. They are two of the most creative, dedicated, talented, and insightful theatre arts educators in North Carolina.”
WHS now advances “SURGE” to the Southeastern Theatre Conference in Baltimore in March 2025. And who knows… perhaps the next head of the Pioneer Playmakers will be onstage, and someday follow in the footsteps of Chaney, Miller and Walker.