CCHS Drama Club member La´Kyla Jones, a senior, has the power to transform into every character she plays.
Olive is a shy schoolgirl and spelling bee contestant who’s barely able to speak in front of people but comes alive when she sings. The Ballerina is a performer in a circus party that ends up with front row seats to an elephant-sized tragedy. Ronette is a street urchin who has nothing in the world except for her loyalty to her girls.
Despite their differences, drama club member La’Kyla Jones, a senior, was able to step fully into each character’s respective shoes, regardless of whether they were Mary Janes, ballet slippers, or no shoes at all.
Jones has performed five times in vastly different roles since joining the drama department when she moved to CCHS at the start of her junior year, but even before that, she has been experimenting with a wide variety of characters, such as transforming herself into a British ghost as a five-year-old.
“I try not to limit myself to one specific type of character, and I’m always pushing myself to do something different and be this person or be this character,” Jones said. “My range is what makes me unique.”
Before performing a role, Jones first gets to know her character intimately – she builds a background, deciding on their personality, how they talk, walk and dress. In the drama club’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” Jones knows her character Olive’s tics, what she’s scared of, and how she feels when she opens her mouth to sing.
When it’s time for the show, Jones herself vanishes. Audience members will see a shy girl on stage, unaware that within the span of the musical she will find herself.
This ability to shapeshift – not just with Olive, but with every character she encounters – is what earned Jones callbacks from 14 different colleges at Thescon, a statewide high school thespian conference, and she hopes it will take her beyond college to a career in both stage and screenplay.
Because Jones still has more characters to become.
CCHS Drama Club member La´Kyla Jones, a senior, has the power to transform into every character she plays.
Olive is a shy schoolgirl and spelling bee contestant who’s barely able to speak in front of people but comes alive when she sings. The Ballerina is a performer in a circus party that ends up with front row seats to an elephant-sized tragedy. Ronette is a street urchin who has nothing in the world except for her loyalty to her girls.
Despite their differences, drama club member La’Kyla Jones, a senior, was able to step fully into each character’s respective shoes, regardless of whether they were Mary Janes, ballet slippers, or no shoes at all.
Jones has performed five times in vastly different roles since joining the drama department when she moved to CCHS at the start of her junior year, but even before that, she has been experimenting with a wide variety of characters, such as transforming herself into a British ghost as a five-year-old.
“I try not to limit myself to one specific type of character, and I’m always pushing myself to do something different and be this person or be this character,” Jones said. “My range is what makes me unique.”
Before performing a role, Jones first gets to know her character intimately – she builds a background, deciding on their personality, how they talk, walk and dress. In the drama club’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” Jones knows her character Olive’s tics, what she’s scared of, and how she feels when she opens her mouth to sing.
When it’s time for the show, Jones herself vanishes. Audience members will see a shy girl on stage, unaware that within the span of the musical she will find herself.
This ability to shapeshift – not just with Olive, but with every character she encounters – is what earned Jones callbacks from 14 different colleges at Thescon, a statewide high school thespian conference, and she hopes it will take her beyond college to a career in both stage and screenplay.
Because Jones still has more characters to become.
CCHS Drama Club member La´Kyla Jones, a senior, has the power to transform into every character she plays.
Drama club member La’Kyla Jones, a senior, plays spelling bee contestant Olive during a rehearsal of the musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” on April 30 in the E.B. Mell Auditorium. Jones has performed in five Clarke Central High School drama productions, which has helped her gain empathy that she could bring to her own life. “You have to understand people’s feelings towards certain situations (to portray them) and you’re like ‘Oh, people in real life do feel like this,’ and then you kind of understand people in your own life,” Jones said. Photo by Aza Khan
Olive is a shy schoolgirl and spelling bee contestant who’s barely able to speak in front of people but comes alive when she sings. The Ballerina is a performer in a circus party that ends up with front row seats to an elephant-sized tragedy. Ronette is a street urchin who has nothing in the world except for her loyalty to her girls.
Despite their differences, drama club member La’Kyla Jones, a senior, was able to step fully into each character’s respective shoes, regardless of whether they were Mary Janes, ballet slippers, or no shoes at all.
Jones has performed five times in vastly different roles since joining the drama department when she moved to CCHS at the start of her junior year, but even before that, she has been experimenting with a wide variety of characters, such as transforming herself into a British ghost as a five-year-old.
“I try not to limit myself to one specific type of character, and I’m always pushing myself to do something different and be this person or be this character,” Jones said. “My range is what makes me unique.”
“I’m always pushing myself to do something different and be this person or be this character. My range is what makes me unique.”
— La’Kyla Jones,
drama club member
Before performing a role, Jones first gets to know her character intimately – she builds a background, deciding on their personality, how they talk, walk and dress. In the drama club’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” Jones knows her character Olive’s tics, what she’s scared of, and how she feels when she opens her mouth to sing.
When it’s time for the show, Jones herself vanishes. Audience members will see a shy girl on stage, unaware that within the span of the musical she will find herself.
This ability to shapeshift – not just with Olive, but with every character she encounters – is what earned Jones callbacks from 14 different colleges at Thescon, a statewide high school thespian conference, and she hopes it will take her beyond college to a career in both stage and screenplay.
Because Jones still has more characters to become.
