Fremd makes most of state theater festival
Fremd High School theater students recently attended the Illinois High School Theatre Festival held at Illinois State University. The IHSTF is the largest noncompetitive theater festival in the United States, with over 4,400 attendees, and featured hundreds of workshops for students and teachers, as well as showcase performances by high schools from around the state.
Some students participated in the “Tech Olympics” a series of events sponsored by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, that showcased their talents in the area of theater technical support. College and university representatives attending the festival provided opportunities for students to audition and/or interview. The IHSTF also sponsored an All-State production, whose cast and crew are selected from a statewide pool of high school students.
Along with the general opportunities at this year’s festival, Fremd High School students also were recognized. Valerie Pizzato was cast in the all-state production, “Almost, Maine.” Seven FHS students competed in the Tech Olympics — Karlee Burns, Sara Chamberlin, Maggie Dunn, Patrick Fiedler, Diane Kohlin, Michael McWilliams and Samantha White — placing third in the team competition.
Three students took part in college auditions — Jonathan Stoller-Shoff; Samantha Noga and Hannah Krull — and each got more than 20 callbacks from colleges at the festival.
Fremd students were accompanied by teachers Josh Cattero, Betsy Dusenske, Mike Karasch and Judy Klingner, who are sponsors of school drama productions.
“This is the 37th annual Theatre Fest, but only in recent years have we had the chance to bring students,” Karasch said. “It has been amazing the amount of opportunities students have been afforded.”
State Superintendent Chris Koch attended the festival this year, and wrote in his weekly newsletter: “We put so much focus on Math, Science and English Language Arts and unfortunately, sometimes, neglect areas that are not tested. I believe the arts are every bit as important to a student’s education as algebra, biology or composition.”