Joni Smithwick Joined the South Forsyth family at the beggining of the 2014-2015 school year. She holds an AFA in Musical Theatre from Young Harris College, a BFA in Musical Theatre from Valdosa State University and a M.Ed in Secondary Education from Grand Canyon University. At South, she teaches Advanced Drama, Drama Fundamentals, Advanced Musical Theatre, and Acting for Film.
Ms. Smithwick has been performing for twenty years on stage and, more recently, on camera. Her favorite stage roles she played along the way include Lola in Damn Yankees, Velma Kelly in Chicago, Marian Paroo in The Music Man, and Ellie May Chipley in Showboat. After graduating from Valdosta State University, Ms. Smithwick worked for a local cable company for two and a half years where she held various positions such as TV journalist, host and producer.
Ms. Smithwick feels so blessed to be a part of the South Forsyth family and loves growing the program alongside program director, Kirk Grizzle. Earlier this year (2017), Ms. Smithwick's production of Peter and the Starcatcher won best play in the GHSA Play festival at the Georgia Theatre Conference.
Kirk Grizzle has been at South Forsyth since 2004. He has taught musical theatre, chorus, guitar, tech theatre and dramatic arts. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from Georgia College and State University and a Master of Arts Degree from Piedmont College.
As a choral director, his chours consistently receive Superior ratings at the GMEA Large Group Performance Evaluation. His choirs have also performed twice at the GMEA In-Service Conference in Savannah, GA. Under Mr. Grizzle's direction, SFHS choirs have won the Heritage Music Festivals in New York and Orlando as well as Music in the Parks and Southern Star Music Festivals in Atlanta. He has had the honor of being the guest director for several GMEA regional honors choirs in Districts 9 and 13. Mr Grizzle has also coached literary teams which have won numerous state championships for quartet, trio, soloist, and dramatic interpretation.
As theatre director, Mr. Grizzle has continued South's long standing tradition of quality theatre which includes South's performance of Shrek the Musical (2014) that earned seven Shuler nominations including Best Director and Best Overall Production. In 2015 South's One Act production, Children of Eden, was selected to perform at the georgia thespian conference. Most recently (2016) South's Performance of Ghost the Musical was nominated for eight Shuler awards including Best Director and Best Overall Production, and recieved the Shuler awards for Best Lighting and Technical Direction. Most recently South's One Act production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame has been selected to perform at the Georgia Thespian Conference this Feburary 2018.
