David Schwimmer visits Mundelein High's production of his play

Mundelein High School theater students received quite the thrill an hour before their final performance Saturday of "Trust," when their teacher told them that David Schwimmer, who wrote the play and also starred on "Friends," would be in the audience.

Theater teacher Jonathan Meier said he had told the students that Schwimmer, who had corresponded with Meier since first giving them permission to put on the play, would try to make it to one of the performances but was unsure it would fit his schedule.

Meier said Schwimmer told him just two hours before the show that his plane had landed in Chicago and that he was on his way.

Meier said having Schwimmer there was a wonderful experience for his students. After the performance Schwimmer spoke to the cast, offering praise and feedback.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Meier said. "My feet still haven't hit the ground."

"Trust" had only been performed once before, in 2010 by the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago, which Schwimmer co-founded.

Meier's wife, Jill Meier, worked with Schwimmer at the Lookingglass Theater, and over the years they have become friends. Meier said when he asked Schwimmer if they could perform the play, Schwimmer sent him the file from his computer because that's the only copy of the script out there.

The play is about a teenager, named Anne Cameron, manipulated into a sexual relationship with a man she meets on the Internet.

Phillip A. Smith, an actor from Lookingglass, also attended the play with Schwimmer. Smith played the part of the girl's father, one of the lead roles, in 2010.

Unlike Schwimmer, it was Smith's second time seeing the Mundelein high schoolers at work. Smith and fellow Lookingglass Theatre actor Alison Torem, who played the role of Anne Cameron in 2010, hosted a workshop with the cast and crew in Chicago a few weeks before opening night.

Meier said the professional actors gave the teens excellent notes on how to put on the play. He added that Torem exchanged emails with Patricia Roques, the high school actress playing the role of Anne Cameron, in the days leading up to opening night.

"Our 'Anne' got to communicate one-on-one with Alison, the only other person to ever play the part," Meier said. "It was amazing."

Meier said on Saturday night it was difficult to know whether to tell his students Schwimmer was going to be in the audience.

"I knew the second he would have entered the theater the news would spread backstage, especially with teenagers," Meier said. "But, in a perfect world I would have just let them do their show and then at the end go over and say 'oh hey look, it's David Schwimmer.'"