By Whitley Kilcrease

The Troy community is abundant with young, local talent and one Pike County resident will step into the spotlight next weekend at an upcoming gospel drama by Life Change Productions.

Ashlin Osborne, 12, an upcoming seventh grader at Goshen High School, will perform during intermission at the production of  “Don’t Count Me Out” next Saturday at Highland Home High School.

The play was written and produced by Callie Willis of Crenshaw County.

“I am very honored and very nervous at the same time,” Osborne said.

“The writer and producer of the show heard me singing in her store. She asked me if she could work with me.”

According to Willis, when she first heard Osborne strike a few notes in her retail store, Simply Fashion in Montgomery, she was impressed and knew she wanted to work with her on a project.

It wasn’t long before Osborne was enlisted to perform intermission entertainment at the upcoming production.

“I recruit by ear,” Willis said. “When I first heard Ashlin sing, it was that old spiritual voice, one you don’t too often hear.”

Osborne said she began singing in her local church at age two and received her vocal talents from her late grandmother.

She will be performing “Daddy, Can I Please Come Back Home” from “Preacher’s Kid.”

“It is an honor to see such a big gift in such a little girl,” Willis said.

“I love finding great talent and most of all when that talent has a connection with God,” Willis said. “

Ashlin is a very beautiful young lady that loves God and I am honored to work and teach her theater.”

“Don’t Count Me Out” will be Willis’s second project with Life Change Productions.

The plot follows the plight of a “mama’s boy” torn between loyalties to his mother and sister, whom he swore to care for over his father’s deathbed, and his own wife and children. Willis promises the performance will be “filled with laughter, music, tears and, most of all, God’s grace.”

Willis is also working on her third production dubbed “Daddy Help Me,” which centers on period youths leaving home for all the wrong reasons.

“Don’t Count Me Out” begins at 7:00 p.m. on July 28 at Highland Home High School.

Advanced tickets are $10, or admission is $15 at the door.

For more information, contact Callie Willis at 334-531-6031 or 334-672-5756.