ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Liberal High School’s Drama Department has been nominated for many Jester Awards for its productions the past few years, and recently, they were able to add more nominations to that list.
For this season’s “The Wizard of Oz,” the production received the following nominations: Emma Davidson for Best Supporting Performer as the Wicked Witch of the West; J. Brooks Kappelmann for Best Cameo Performer as The Guard; Atticus Carrillo, Tomas Ralios Cortez, Cairo Svaty for Best Pre-High School Performer as the Lollipop Guild; Best Stage Crew; Miriam Climenhaga for Best Program Design; and Nikki Frydendall for Best Lobby Display.
Climenhaga received the news only rather recently and said there was a lot of happiness and excitement for the news.
“They sent out the nominations around the first part of April, and I got an email with the list of everyone. They send out regional nominations the week before of which we had a total of 14 this year, and the six nominations we received would be included in that. However, we are not allowed to share those at that time,” Climenhaga said. “I would consider them like ‘honorable mentions,’ so I had an idea of who might be nominated. I was very proud that we received six nominations in the final group. The students were also naturally excited, and I was overall very proud of everyone. I’m also really looking forward to taking the students to the Jester Awards ceremony and seeing all of the talent the state of Kansas has to offer when it comes to high school theatre.”
Climenhaga said putting together “The Wizard of Oz” was a very enjoyable experience.
“I’ve said this before, but being able to introduce younger children to the exciting world of doing theatre, there’s nothing like it!” Climenhaga said. “And I know I’ve shared this story before, but ‘The Wizard of Oz’ was the first play I was ever in, I was like in 3rd grade or around there, and Mr. [Mikhail] Yeremin, our vocal teacher, said it was also the first play he was ever in when he was little, so there were multiple connections with this show. I also remember when I was younger, the annual TV airing of 'The Wizard of Oz' was a big deal in my family – it was always in the spring near my birthday, and that night was the one night of the year we were allowed to eat dinner in front of the TV instead of at the table, so it was almost like an event. This season was great as far as continuing to get the students involved and seeing them always working on getting better. I also have to give a big shout out to our unsung heroes: Bill VanWyhe, who creates the light and sound for our productions; Royce Kitts, who builds the sets; Mikhail Yeremin, who directs the vocal music for the musicals; and Andrew Johnson, who puts together and conducts the pit orchestra. All of them are invaluable to our productions.”
As for the LHS Drama Department’s next season, Climenhaga said that news will have to remain behind the curtain for now.
“I like to have a reveal for the musical for next year at our yearly speech and theatre end-of-year banquet,” Climenhaga revealed. “So that is currently being worked on and is a secret. We will announce all of that May 7.”
Even with that in mind, however, Climenhaga said she hopes for continued support of the LHS Drama productions from the community.
“I say this with every show, but for the students involved in putting on these productions, it means the absolute world to them to have an audience,” Climenhaga said. “We put on productions for an audience to enjoy, and a little bit for ourselves to experience, of course. But without the audience it really isn’t the same. The kids put in a good six to eight weeks of effort, if not longer, with every show, so to have an audience come and see what they’ve worked so hard on is everything.”
