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By DAVID CLOUSTON / Salina Journal

Salina South High School drama instructor Kate Lindsay expressed her feelings about a gift from her students with tears and tissues Saturday.

And at the conclusion of a tribute performance at the Salina Community Theatre, Lindsay forsook the opportunity for a thank-you speech in favor of individual hugs, smiles and handshakes.

The tribute was to celebrate Lindsay's 21 years of teaching at South High. The performance included full numbers and medleys of songs from shows Lindsay has directed at South since 1988. About 40 former and current students participated.

"I'm stunned and shocked. I feel very lucky," Lindsay said. "To have worked with all of these people. They're wonderful. I had absolutely no clue about this. They were great about keeping the secret."

Grew out of conference

The idea to honor Lindsay grew out of this year's Kansas State Thespian Conference in January.

"We realized Kate had been here for 20 years and we kind of bypassed it," Ryan McCall, a former student of Lindsay's and one of the organizers of the event, said. "We decided to do a huge celebration for her."

McCall, a keyboard accompanist and assistant for the music theatre department at the University of Kansas, helped choose and arrange the musical numbers for the show. Community theater education director John Henningsen also helped with the organization and helped communicate with alums of the program through Facebook.

'It's been nerve-wracking'

"It's been nerve-wracking because for about the past month and a half we've been trying to tell as many people as possible without Kate finding out," Henningsen said.

The former and current students spent the morning and part of the afternoon rehearsing music and learning some choreography to make the show happen. The audience started arriving about 2 p.m., about an hour before Lindsay arrived. They included alumni, parents and friends of Lindsay's.

Many spent time looking through scrapbooks set up at the back of the auditorium compiled by drama club members at the school through the years.

Kathy Mitchell, 116 W. Lake Drive, came to the show with her daughter, Marisa, an eighth-grader at Salina South Middle School. Both Marisa's older sister and brother, Cassie and Scott, were Lindsay's students.

Great with little kids

"Miss Lindsay's been great with the little kids, letting them help with the sets and stuff," Kathy Mitchell said. "So they kind of get broken in to it before they're there. They let her (Marisa) paint things and do stuff. She'll already be at home when she goes there."

The returning graduates in some cases hadn't seen each other since high school, Henningsen said. And some, such as Jenny Danaher, 38, class of 1989, hadn't been on a stage for that long.

"She was just a very warm personality. You felt like she was your friend, and she was there to help you be successful," Danaher said of Lindsay. "She's someone I've remained friends with all these years."

To Erin Debold, 25, class of 2003, Saturday's performance was about honoring Lindsay and "having her see us having fun on stage and what she's done for us. Giving back to her is the main thing."

n Reporter David Clouston can be reached at 822-1403 or by e-mail at dclouston@salina.com.

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