WILLIAMSBURG — Three Williamsburg-James City County high schools earned state championship titles at the Virginia High School League State Theater Championships in Charlottesville this past weekend.
Lafayette High School theater company earned the 3A Class State Championship for its performance of “Unexpected Tenderness.” The one-act play was directed by Suzan McCorry, the LHS theater director and centers on a dysfunctional Jewish family from Massachusetts in the 1950s. It is structured as a memory play in which Rodder Stern recalls what it was like growing up in a family dominated by his paranoid and pathologically jealous father.
LHS’s state championship is the fifth in program history.
Warhill High School earned the 4 Class State Championship for its performance of “A Monster Calls.” The show was directed by Jacob Noble, the WHS theater director and centers on 13-year-old Conor, whose experiences late one night with a monster lead to his acceptance of his mom’s cancer diagnosis. The monster teaches Conor to understand it is OK to selfishly not want his mom to die and to, at the same time, want her suffering to end.
The 2023 4 Class State Championship marks the first time that Warhill has won the title.
Jamestown High School placed third in the Class 4 competition for its performance of “Donut Dollies.” The show was an original piece, created by JHS theater director J. Harvey Stone. The show is set during the height of WWII and depicts the lives of four Red Cross volunteers who are deployed as “Donut Dollies” who serve donuts and hot coffee to the army’s enlisted men. They also provide a listening ear, companionship, and a reminder of why the men are fighting.
“We are proud of the successes all three WJCC Schools theatre companies achieved at this year’s VHSL State Competitions. Our three amazing theatre directors and their students are raising the bar for the division’s theatre companies,” said Williamsburg-James City County Schools Coordinator of Fine Arts John Rasky.
