2020- "Smoke on the Mountain" Book by Connie Ray/Conceived by Alan Bailey/Musical arrangements by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick
Smoke on the Mountain tells the story of a Saturday Night Gospel Sing at a country church in North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains in 1938. The show features... rousing bluegrass songs played and sung by the Sanders Family, a traveling group making its return to performing after a five-year hiatus. Pastor Oglethorpe, the young and enthusiastic minister of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, has enlisted the Sanders Family in his efforts to bring his tiny congregation into “the modern world.” Between songs, each family member “witnesses” – telling a story about an important event in their life. Though they try to appear perfect in the eyes of a congregation who wants to be inspired by their songs, one thing after another goes awry and they reveal their true – and hilariously imperfect – natures. By the evening’s end, the Sanders Family have endeared themselves to us by revealing their weaknesses and allowing us to share in their triumphs." ~Concord Theatricals
2018: "Around The World In 80 Days" by Mark Brown
Join fearless adventurer Phileas Fogg and his faithful manservant as they race to beat the clock! Phileas Fogg has agreed to an outrageous wager that puts his fortune and his life at risk. With his resourceful servant Passepartout, Fogg sets out to circle the globe in an unheard-of 80 days. But his every step is dogged by a detective who thinks he's a robber on the run. Danger, romance, and comic surprises abound in this whirlwind of a show.
2017: "The Lottery" by Brainerd Duffield
Adapted from a story by Shirley Jackson.This unusual play with its shattering last scene has proven so successful it is probably winning more contests presently than any other short play. Published originally in The New Yorker magazine, it produced an unprecedented reaction, and this dramatization captures the story that has become an internationally known classic. Like the story, the play starts as people are assembling for the lottery. What family will it be this time? Which member? Only gradually do we begin to suspect the nature of the lottery as the play builds swiftly to its crucial and moving climax. The tension and thrill of the play are built into its very structure.
2016: "The Dining Room" by A. R. Gurney,
The play is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, the place where the family assembled daily for breakfast and dinner and for any and all special occasions. The action is comprised of a mosaic of interrelated scenes—some funny, some touching, some rueful—which, taken together, create an in-depth portrait of a vanishing species: the upper-middle-class. The actors change roles, personalities and ages with virtuoso skill as they portray a wide variety of characters, from little boys to stern grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids. Each vignette introduces a new set of people and events; a father lectures his son on grammar and politics; a senile grandmother doesn't recognize her own sons at Christmas dinner; a daughter, her marriage a shambles, pleads futilely to return home, etc. Dovetailing swiftly and smoothly, the varied scenes coalesce, ultimately, into a theatrical experience of exceptional range, compassionate humor and abundant humanity.
2015: "A Piece of my Heart" by Shirley Lauro
This is a powerful, true drama of six women who went to Vietnam: five nurses and a country western singer booked by an unscrupulous agent to entertain the troops. The play portrays each young woman before, during, and after her tour in the war-torn nation and ends as each leaves a personal token at the memorial wall in Washington.
2014: "The Voice of the Prairie"
Prep Players will perform this one-act play for Jackson Prep on December 4, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. in the Fortenberry Theatre. They will travel to Mississippi State University the following day to perform in the North Mississippi Drama Festival.
2013: "Crushed" by Don Zolidis
Prep Players performed in the North Mississippi Drama Festival and received the Peer Award, Best Ensemble and Most Distinguished Play. Sam Boone was awarded Best Actor and Elizabeth Thiel made the All Star Cast. Pictured here are (back row, from left) Leslie Woods, Amy Woods, Sarah Adison Phillips, Nicole McCaa, Mary-Hailey Sinyard, Collin Hoffman, Sylvia Hartung, Solomon Keys, Elizabeth Thiel, Will Meadows. Second row, from left: Morgan Hydrick, Bradley Hydrick,Alex Goldstein, Brianne Powers, Alex WIlks, William Townsend. Front, from left: Director Kenneth McDade, Trey Box, Emily Graham, Kaitlyn Myers, Gracie Hubacek, Nathan Brown, Sam Boone, Daniel-Hayes Brister.
2012: "A Delightful Quarantine"
Jackson Prep's One Act was one of three schools advancing from Starkville's Mississippi Theater Association competition to the state-wide competition on the coast; Nathan Brown received the Best Actor Award, and Gracie Hubacek's received the All-Star Cast Award.
2011: "Bells of Charlemont" by Don Zilidast
In 2011, Prep took the play Bells of Charlemont by Don Zilidast to Mississippi State University for the North Mississippi Drama Festival. We won, Overall Theatrical Experience, Peer Award, Two AllStar Cast Awards and Best Supporting Actor.
Contact
Emily Waterloo, Director of Performing Arts
ewaterloo@jacksonprep.net
