Experience the gift of storytelling through theatre arts.
Our Mission
City On A Hill Youth Theater provides a quality theatrical experience for home-schooled high school students.
We offer a vibrant peer community that enriches students’ artistic education, equips them with Biblical values, and empowers them with essential life skills, while producing wholesome stage plays that entertain the families in the Central Virginia region.
COAHYT has been telling stories since Fall 2011.
Entertain
We produce high-quality, God-honoring, family-friendly shows for our local Lynchburg community.
Educate
We supplement your homeschool curriculum by teaching skills in the performing arts and providing a living history experience through period dramas and comedies.
Enrich
We offer a vibrant peer community that allows students to create friendships and encourage each other while they grow as storytellers and as young adults.
Equip
We seek to prepare our students with essential life skills and Biblical values as they learn how to integrate their worldview into our modern culture.
Meet Our Team
John Knaus
Founding Co-Director
John Knaus, hailing from picturesque upstate New York, has always been drawn to the enchanting world of theater. His journey into the spotlight began in his formative years, where he honed his acting skills on the stages of his local high school.
Today, as John continues to inspire and uplift audiences with stage directions, he remains steadfast in his commitment to fostering a legacy of passion, perseverance, artistic excellence, and ministry for God for generations to come.
Alyson Wagner
Founding Co-Director
Alyson Wagner has a passion for teenagers that began when she was a student at Liberty University. She has taught literature, history, rhetoric, and worldview in the local homeschool community since 2006.
As a founding Director of City On A Hill Youth Theater, investing in the lives of over 250 teenagers who have participated in COAHYT is one of Alyson’s greatest privileges and responsibilities.
Jaymee Wagner
Production Manager/
Summer Production Director
Jaymee holds B.A. degrees in Theatre Arts: Production, Theatre Arts: Dramaturgy, and English from Liberty University. She has worked locally with Alluvion Stage Company and several community theaters, as well as Provision Theater in Chicago.
She loves using her skills to teach and invest in COAHYT’s students.
Pride and Prejudice
By Andrew Davies
SHOWING: November 5 - 14
7:00pm | Thursday, Friday, Saturday
2:00pm | Saturday Matinee
This delightful, new stage adaptation of Austen’s most popular novel was written by Andrew Davies, author of the iconic 1995 BBC TV adaptation.
In Georgian England, when it was customary for only male heirs to inherit an estate, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet live in some comfort, but as they have five daughters and no son, it is imperative that the girls marry well.
Hopes rise when Mr. Bingley, a rich bachelor, rents the nearby Netherfield estate. He attends the local ball with his sister and his friend Mr. Darcy. He is immediately attracted to Jane, the eldest Bennet sister, and she to him. But Mr. Darcy seems haughty and aloof, and declines to dance with Elizabeth, (our heroine) the spirited second Bennet daughter. She dislikes him on sight and fails to notice that he gradually becomes more and more attracted by her wit and intelligence.
Mr. Collins, a distant cousin who stands to inherit the Bennet estate, comes to visit, with a view to marrying one of the Bennet sisters. He proposes to Elizabeth, who rejects him.
Jane and Mr. Bingley become fond of each other and Elizabeth’s secret adoration for Mr. Darcy becomes apparent. The love between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy blossoms, despite his prejudice of her low social connections. — Samuel French Publishing Co.
Critics find Andrew Davies' stage adaptation of Pride and Prejudice to be a highly faithful, energetic, and streamlined version of his iconic television miniseries. Reviewers consistently highlight its brisk pacing and its nostalgic nods to the 1995 BBC adaptation, complete with many crowd-pleasing moments.
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