THOMASVILLE- Cross Creek Elementary School 3rd graders piled into the Thomas County Board of Education Auditorium on Monday morning for a performance from the TCCHS One-Act program, “Wiley and the Hairy Man.”

Before the show, One-Act Director Kimsey Hodge informed the students that the show was a folktale about a boy named Wiley (Cody Arnold) and his mama (Megan Mullins), who attempted to outsmart the Hairy Man (Connor Reagan).

“Wiley and his mama want to outsmart the Hairy Man because the Hairy Man got Wiley’s daddy,” she told the kids, much to their shock.

As the show began, kids squealed in excitement to see if Wiley and his mama would emerge victorious in outsmarting the Hairy Man.

Based on an African-American folktale written in 1932, the story of “Wiley and the Hairy Man” was published in 1976, and was a common read for Hodge in the classes she substituted in.

“Before I was a teacher, I would substitute,” Hodge said. “When I was subbing, I would go into the Media Center and ask what a really good book was that the kids hadn’t heard a lot about.”

It was during one of her encounters in the Media Center that Hodge was directed toward “Wiley and the Hairy Man.”

“I fell in love with it,” Hodge recalled. “No matter what we did in class, there would always be story time and the kids would gather around my feet and I would do all the voices of the characters and they loved it.”

However, the book was old, with its pages yellowed and as Hodge moved into teaching high school students at TCCHS, she didn’t expect to see it again.

Ten years ago, while judging a One-Act competition, she saw a rendition of “Wiley and the Hairy Man” and was hooked all over again.

“I never could forget it, and they didn’t even win,” she said. “I couldn’t get it out of my head and what I would’ve done differently. I had a vision for years.”

Hodge finally put her vision to life in August, when she took the position of One-Act Director for the first time.

“I’ve been judging One-Act for years, so I’ve tried to come at this from the point of view of a judge and attack it as a director,” she said. “I told the kids this would be a tough piece, but they could do it.”

The actors took on the challenge and have poured their heart and soul into the performance since the second week of school.

Monday was their first time performing in front of a crowd, where they learned to adapt to crowd reactions.

Hodge said adapting to those small moments will be key in preparing for the Region One-Act competition on Thursday.

“We’ve tried to practice that with them, but until you get in front of a crowd, you don’t feel it,” she said. “They aren’t used to pausing for people to react, or laugh, or scream.”

At the competition, TCCHS will compete with students across the region. If they win, they will move on to the state competition on Nov. 16th.

“They have some stiff competition, so I’ve just told them all I want is for them to do their best and leave it all on the stage,” she said. “I don’t care if they come in first or last, as long as they do their best, I’m proud of them.”

The community will have an opportunity to see the performance on November 7, at the Thomas County BOE Auditorium at 7 p.m. Admission to the performance is free, but donations to the TCCHS Theatre Department are appreciated.