Miranda Lowder (right) and Sarah Barnhardt (left) star as Luna and Sweetie in the play Which Way is Witch? Lowder is a third grade teacher at Boonville Elementary School and a founder of the production company responsible for the play. Boonville Elementary fifth and sixth grade students will also have parts in the performance.

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A Boonville Elementary School teacher and some of her students will take a little piece of Yadkin County performance art to Winston-Salem when they hold a performance of Which Way is Witch? from Oct. 25 to Oct. 28.

The play will be held at the Black Box at Summit School in Winston-Salem. Show times are Oct. 25, 26 and 27 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 27 and 28 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 can be purchased in advance by visiting www.paperlanterntheatre.com. Tickets can also be purchased at the door the day of the show.

The play is being produced by Boonville Elementary’s Teacher of the Year, Miranda Lowder. In her spare time, Lowder is a founding member of the Paper Lantern Theatre Company.

“I helped start the Paper Lantern Theatre Company about four years ago and we wanted to do a children’s show,” Lowder said. “My friend Sarah Barnhardt and I met with a local playwright named Ross Mihalko, who has since moved to Los Angeles and is working for Phineas and Ferb for the Disney Channel. But we met with him and we told him what we would our characters to be like so he wrote the play just for us to star in it. I wanted to be a princess because I love Disney princesses and Sara wanted to be a villain so he came up with this whole premise.”

Lowder and Barnhardt will star as the play’s main characters Luna and Sweetie. Luna (Barnhardt) stars as the antagonist 11 year old wicked witch who wants to wreak havoc on Halloween day. Luna’s plans are dashed, however, when her sugary sweet cousin Sweetie (Lowder) comes to visit. The one act play follow Luna and Sweetie as Luna tries to carry out her evil plans and Sweeties tries to lure Luna over to the good side.

“It’s a great play,” Lowder said. “It has a great message about being nice to others, not bullying and that it’s ok to be different.”

Boonville Elementary School students will also step into the spotlight for their first play outside of school. Sixth grader Abbey Johnson, sixth grader Sandra Hamasfar and fifth grader Gabe Hamasfar all play the trick or treaters in the show.

“They do such a good job,” Lowder said. “I asked them to be in it because I saw that they had a love of theater from the shows we’ve done here at Boonville Elementary. It’s really exciting to see them work with adults and not just kids at the school.”

Lowder said that the Black Box at Summit School was chosen because she had some friends on the inside to help her out.

“Amy, who is also a member of the Paper Lantern Theatre Company, works for the Summit School’s Black Box and so she arranged for us to use that space,” Lowder said.

Lowder said that she hopes to see several of her Boonville Elementary students and their families come out to the play. She expects that it will give them a new perspective on theater and gets them excited about the upcoming spring theater production at Boonville.

“I think that this play is going to be so good for students to come see,” Lowder said. “It allows them to see professional actors at work. It’s a show that’s for children but adults will love it too because it’s really funny. It will open their eyes a little more to the different types of theater.”

Reach Lindsay Craven at 679-2341 or at lcraven@heartlandpublications.com.