Everyone here at Central High School knows Mrs. Sally White as a caring, selfless person who all of the students and faculty know and love. She always puts her students first and wants to make their experience here at Central as smooth and fun as possible. She even gives up part of her summer to try and provide special, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. White has brought in a group of actors to pass on their knowledge to several of her classes.

“Carol [Ponder] and I worked together on all of the logistics over the summer, and we made sure we were ready to go on the very first day that the Tennessee Arts Commission began accepting grant requests this year, which happened to also be our first day of the new school year,” shared White.

White has known two of the actors, Carol Ponder and Robert Keifer, since she was a theatre major at Austin Peay State University. Ponders taught summer workshops to acting students there. Keifer gave White her first professional acting job, outside of school, when he cast her in a Knoxville production of Macbeth. They were both mentors to White, so she admires and respects them as both actors and people.

While the group is here, they are going to work with one of White’s English classes to guide students through the process of adapting a personal narrative into a stage play. They will also work directly with Theatre Arts students on performance skills. They will perform their feature play, My Father’s War, for students in Honors English 10, Honors U.S. History, and Theatre Arts, and will lead students in a discussion after the show.

“I am thrilled that our students will have the opportunity to experience the transformative power of live theatre. I believe this may be one of a handful of really memorable high school experiences students will carry with them for a lifetime,” expressed White.

The group will be making their way to Central High around February, so get excited!