Piedmont Academy earned top honors recently in the GISA State AA One-Act Play competition at Darton College in Albany, Ga.

The competition was held Nov. 17. Piedmont's cast and crew received two first place rankings and one second place ranking from the three judges, for a score of 281 out of 300 possible points.

This championship is Piedmont's first in the one-act play competition.

The school earned the event's "superior" ranking and an outstanding performance award for the entire cast in 2007.

Piedmont staged Ed Monk's "The Cards of Fate," a dark comedy about a game show where contestants win fabulous prizes and control the destinies of unsuspecting innocents.

Seniors Mary Ashlynn Dennis and Matthew O'Brien played the lead roles of "Buffy Youbetcha," the game show hostess and "Cinnamon," the game show announcer. She received an Honorable Mention in the competition, and he earned an Outstanding Performance Award.

The judges also named junior Samuel McGinnis as an Honorable Mention at state competition for his portrayal of the game show contestant, "Nick Kowslowski." Another Honorable Mention in the Piedmont troupe went to junior Davis Kimball for his portrayals of "Bob" and "Mr. Simmons."

The judges also had high praise for the entire ensemble, which included senior Andie Lewis as "Nurse," and juniors Amy Anuszczyk as "Alice Walker" and Jeremy Wood as "Bob's friend" and "Larry Parks."

Sophomore cast members also gave strong performances in the following roles: Lacy Adamson as "Stage Model," Carley Cain as "Ted the booth voice" and as "Otto," Audrey Cleary as "Mrs. Simmons," Clare Maloney as "Bambi," Samantha Ramsdell as "Susan Zimmerman," and Lucy Strickland as "Mrs. Zimmerman."

Emmie Kelly portrayed "Dr. Wilson, the principal," Savannah McGinnis filled the role of "Beth," and Katie Odegaard performed the role of "Punk." These ladies are members of the freshmen class and are in their second year of participating in the one-act play.

Filling out the cast were two eighth graders, who joined one-act play for the first time, Abby Hyde and Marissa Mooneyham in the roles of "Grad One, Anne Marie Young" and "Grad Two, Rebecca Jean Zukowski," respectively.

Also winning praise for their non-speaking roles were the crew members. Judges were impressed with how they moved set pieces and props without detracting from the actors on stage.

Leading the crew was senior Jessie Wagnon as the make-up artist. Sophomore Kacy Swart and eighth grader Lena Boyd served as the prop masters and stage crew for the side scenes. Rounding out the stage crew was eighth grader Gabriel Courtman who also served as the understudy for "Nick Kowslowski."

The two technical crew members were senior Jordana Pope who ran the sound board and freshman Gabe Hestad who ran lights for this year's production.

Piedmont teacher and literary coordinator Bobbi Sauls was the director of this play. Assisting with various aspects of the production was Piedmont teacher and fine arts officer Suzanne Arena.