Published: August 29, 2008 10:22 am            

Whitley Central Primary, Jenny Wiley team up for production

Students perform ‘Miss Nelson is Missing!’

By Sean Bailey / Staff Writer

Everybody at Whitley County Central Primary School liked to take advantage of Miss Nelson’s kindness — students joked and goofed off when she tried to teach.

That was until the witch-like Miss Viola Swamp showed up one day and gave the kids more work than they could handle.

Of course, if you look at Whitley Central Primary’s roster of teachers and substitutes, there are no Miss Nelsons or Miss Swamps. On Thursday the students at Whitley Central Primary gathered in the gym to watch Jenny Wiley Theatre’s Theatre-on-Wheels Program perform their version of the popular children’s book “Miss Nelson is Missing!”

The actors replaced names in the book with locales and people a little more familiar to the kids of Whitley County.

“The kids have loved it. And I know the elementary kids throughout the district got to see the play,” Principal Lee Hensley said.

District Gifted/Talented student program coordinator Vivan Cotterell contacted the theatre troupe, who performed “School House Rock” in the district last year, to perform for all the elementary students in the district.

The Theatre-on-Wheels Program gives students the opportunity to experience live and professional theater without having to travel. Jenny Wiley Theatre according to their Web site, is “Kentucky’s only professional theatre east of I-75.” The theatre is a non-profit group partially funded by the Kentucky Arts Council and is based out of Prestonsburg.

        

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