Lee County High’s Dotty Davis named state’s top theater educator

LEESBURG — Dotty Davis, the theatre arts teacher and director at Lee County High School, has been named Georgia’s Outstanding Theatre Educator of the Year by the Educational Theatre Association at this year’s Georgia Thespian Conference.

Davis received the award recently during the opening ceremony of the Thespians’ conference, which is the largest Thespians-only gathering in the world. More than 5,000 of Georgia’s best theater students and educators attended.

Davis was recognized for her many contributions to the performing arts in Lee County and all of Southwest Georgia, including her incorporation of dance and Shakespeare into the high school’s theater arts program, her expansion of performance opportunities for elementary school children in the area, and her leadership of the effort to bring theater classes to the school system’s middle schools.

Recipients of the Outstanding Theatre Educator Award must be nominated by a student and receive written endorsements from school leaders, colleagues, parents and community figures. Davis was nominated for the award by Chase Graham, a senior theater arts student at LCHS who currently serves as a state officer for the Georgia Thespians.

Davis was selected for the award from one of the largest fields of candidates in the award’s history. She received endorsements for the award from several parents and community leaders, as well as Lee County High School’s principal, Karen Hancock.

Davis is in her 10th year as theater arts director and teacher at Lee County. She came to the classroom from professional broadcasting. She was a widely recognized radio broadcaster for more than 25 years.

Davis has been active in the theater since her youth, and she has appeared in numerous community theater productions. She has served as choreographer for high school, elementary school and community productions throughout Southwest Georgia. She most recently choreographed the latest “Swamp Gravy” production at the famed Cotton Hall Theater in Colquitt.

During her tenure as Lee County’s director, Davis’ students have garnered numerous region competition titles and many awards for outstanding individual performances.

Davis received her award from the Georgia Thespians, the state’s theater education organization and an affiliate of the Educational Theatre Association. The Georgia Thespian organization manages the state’s Thespian Society, which is the honor society for high school theater.

Students named to the Thespian Society are the most exceptional theater performers and technicians in the state’s high schools. The organization has been serving and recognizing the best high school theater students and the country’s best theater teachers since 1929.