SCT's Eleemosnary spells success

Starkville Community Theatre’s competition show took top honors Sunday at the annual Mississippi Theatre Association festival and will be advancing to regional competition in March.

Several SCT performers also won individual awards, and Starkville High School’s competition show and several students also won several awards.

Held this year at Tupelo Community Theatre’s Lyric Theatre, the MTA Festival saw SCT’s production of Lee Blessing’s play Eleemosynary win the Warren McDaniel Award for best production, sharing the honor with the Actor’s Playhouse in Pearl.

The win means Eleemosynary will advance to competition at the Southeastern Theatre Conference Festival in Lexington, Ky., in March, marking the third time in four years that an SCT production has won top honors in the state and advanced to regional competition.

SCT has previously advanced to SETC competition with Smoke on the Mountain in 2007 and Catfish Moon in 2009. Catfish Moon eventually advanced to national competition in 2009, winning multiple awards.

Performed in MTA competition Sunday morning, the three-woman, three-generation family play featured SCT veteran Marsha Williams and newcomers Mary-Kay Belant and Claudia Bennett.

Belant won best actress honors, and Williams was named to the All-Star Cast. Paula Mabry won the award for best director.

A crew consisting of Thomas LaFoe, Edwin Ellis, JSette Belant and Maureen Hughes supported the production.

“I cannot express how proud I am of this cast and crew,” said SCT President Krista Vowell, who attended the MTA conference and festival last weekend.

“These women performed with such grace and heart that it would have been nearly impossible for them not to walk away with a win. We will certainly give the Starkville community another chance to see them in action before they head off to SETC in March,” Vowell said

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