Wauconda High School fall musical, 'The Addams Family,' selected to perform at All-state Theatre Festival
For 40 years, the Illinois High School Theatre Festival has been igniting the flame of passion for the arts.
Produced by the Illinois Theatre Association, the festival is the largest and oldest noncompetitive high school theater festival in the world. More than 4,000 students from 150 schools, teachers, university representatives, exhibitors and volunteers come together to put on more than 25 different high school productions and over 150 workshops.
As part of this celebration, Wauconda Community High School has been selected to perform its fall musical, "The Addams Family," by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, and composed by Andrew Lippa, at the festival, Jan. 8-10, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. With over 150 schools participating in the festival this year, only 21 were selected to perform shows ranging from small showcase productions to full scale musicals.
WHS is the second high school in Illinois to produce the musical, and, since rehearsals began in September, more than 76 students in the high school participated in bringing the show to life. WHS will be taking 26 actors, 13 crew members and 17 pit members to the University of Illinois to present the show on Friday, Jan. 9. This production marks the second time in 33 years that the school has presented a production at the festival with 1982's production of "The Spoon River Anthology" being the first.
The cast includes: Megan Bartuch, Alyssa Castronovo, Tori Chaffee, Mikayla Ciesil, Isaac Davis, Isabelle Esquivel, Kaitelynd Gledhill, Ethan Jankowski, Ryan Krewer, Ethan Lupp, Emma Lupp, Torrey Mebust, Hannah Pichman, Maranda Riley, Megan Ringel, Stephanie Robertson, Steven Robertson, Victoria Rymut, Kara Schlabowske, Juan Miguel Sedonio, Seth Tanner, Noah Van Alstyne, Annalisa Vitucci, Isabel Yandall, Kathleen Yap and Jack Yost.
Student Assistant Directors are Sam Smith and Brittany Delgado. Students on Crew include Zoe Battaglia, Hailey Brew, Maya Berrelez, Rena Beyers, Josh Brunn, Zak Chaffee, Hailey Christoph, Drew Dickow, Michael Egorov, Jade Evans, Peyton Gasta, Arthur Gilbert, Emily Hansen, Allison Inglimo, Sam Jacobson, Connor Latham, Angela Lewis, Dalton Maesch, Savannah Mastro, Colin McHugh, Martin Bustos, Colleen Prosek, Brianna Robinson, Donlea Schmitz, Sabryna Secoy, Jenna Sorensen, Carlos Gutierrez and Jessica Quiroz. The pit orchestra consists of Shawna Weber, Aubrey Linning, Madison Dibas, Jenny Hunt, Maddy Kleiner, Justin Batitang, Angela Cruz, Ali Djokic, Mackenzie Masters, William McCarthy, Jake Ribich, Paige Rivers, Willow Schanz, Shannon Winkiel and two additional students with Brad Rychecky, Claire Birmingham, and Corey Richardson playing in the pit. The directing team includes Scott Metzger, Aimee Evans, Jack Holt, Andrew Hunter, Brenda Glawe, Megan Reimers, and Susan Arnburg.