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VALDOSTA — Levi McKinney is seeing life from the other side of the curtain.

For the past few years, the Lowndes High School student has performed in several LHS Off-Broadway productions. With “5, 6, 7, 8,” opening this week, McKinney is directing his fellow students.

“Some of these people are my best friends,” McKinney says, preparing for a rehearsal of the song-and-dance revue. “It’s strange ordering them around and telling them what to do.”

In the case of “5, 6, 7, 8,” the students are in charge of the production, reviving a show that started as a student-produced creation last season. Phyllis Childree, LHS Off-Broadway’s faculty director, says the students hope to make the song-and-dance show an annual tradition.

With exception of a dance number based on Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” this “5, 6, 7, 8” is a new and different show from last season. Reviving one number from the past year will likely also become a tradition, Childree says.

This show gives students the opportunity to present a show from the other side. Students are in charge of all aspects of the show, says Childree, who supervises the production and answers student questions.

But the production is up to students such as McKinney and his assistant director/stage manager Jarred Flores, along with their student tech and stage crews, as well as a large student cast.

Two of this production’s students perform solos to songs which they composed. Charley Hall sings “Auburn Sky” and Joseph Hardeman performs his “Amen.”

Other featured performers within this ensemble cast include Chris Roquemore and Kimber Lovern, “Phantom of the Opera”; Austin Crockett singing a solo; Ansley Childree performing the modern ballet piece “Hanging By a Thread”; Althea Mims and Eltonia Henry with “Dangerous” hip-hop; Chris Roquemore singing solo on “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.”



THE CAST: Breanna Adams, Lindsey Bailey, Kaylynn Bain, Barrett Beck, Rebecca Beck, Chelsea Beals, Anna-Marie Boyer, Kristen Carlson, Heather Cohen, Cody Darr, Keith Dyson, Kelsey Gulliksen, Charley Hall, Loren Hall, Joseph Hardeman, Sarah Hegener, Eltonia Henry, Joanna Huang, Jon-Jon Huang, Bre Ivy, Ciara James, Christina Leon, Kimber Lovern, Caitlyn MacMillan, Brandy McMullan, Althea Mims, Kersha Odom, Austin Rivers, Chris Roquemore, Kelsey Russo, Candice Smith, Brittany Snell, Ashley Webb, Jamie Williams.

DIRECTION, PRODUCTION: Levi McKinney, director; Jarred Flores, assistant director, stage manager; Elizabeth McLeod, Kayla Schmidt, Courtney Sapp, tech crew; Sierra Davis, Jamie Miles, stage crew.