The 66th Miss Georgia Scholarship Pageant begins this week. The contestants will rehearse in the Bill Heard Theatre inside the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts.
The 40 women have been placed into three groups and will compete in swimsuit, talent and evening wear in rotating groups in the preliminaries Wednesday through Friday. The finals are Saturday. The competition begins at 7:30 p.m. each night at the Heard Theatre. Tickets for Wednesday and Thursday cost $30. Friday is $60, and Saturday is $80.
New this year are hip hop dancers from South Carolina called UNEEK-EFX. DJ LuCa will spin tunes before each show and during intermission to get the crowd going.
Janet Roddy, a long-time Miss Georgia board member, is the director/producer of the show for the fourth year.
She’s assisted by another long-time board member, Barbara Motos, and this year, has a co-producer, Michael Ruddell, who works for Michael Blair Productions. Ruddell has been a co-host for several years and has been a featured vocalist as well.
Ruddell is also one of the hosts of the pageant, working with Miss Georgia 1998 April Brinson Slaughenhoup.
One of the judges will be a familiar face — Miss Georgia 1997 Candice Little Wickersham, who has been working as a television news anchor, including a stint at WRBL-TV 3. She’s a stay-at-home mother with daughter, Willow. She joins four other judges this year.
