West Chicago drama students raise $80K for Scotland trip
Raising $80,000 in a year is no easy task, but a small group of West Chicago Community High School actors did their best to do just that, combining fundraising and money out of their own pockets to get themselves to the world's largest arts festival in Scotland next month.
Drama Director Mark Begovich said the students have been raising money for more than a year and preparing an original show called “Alan's Awkward (Choose Your Own) Adventures” that they will perform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
“The Fringe Festival is just this amazing thing. You turn the entire city of Edinburgh into a performing arts festival for the entire month of August. There are performances everywhere. Every single place possible becomes a stage,” he said. “There are huge productions, there are smaller productions for children and families like ours, there's musical, there's opera, there's a whole comedy section.”
The group leaves on July 29, and will start its 15-day adventure in London, with jam-packed days of sightseeing, theater workshops and attending performances in the West End. Members will head to Edinburgh a few days later to start rehearsing their show, which Begovich wrote and describes as “a live action choose your own adventure book” about a boy named Alan who doesn't fit in with everyone else.
“He escapes into the world of his books and mind and goes on an adventure to find out about himself,” he said.
The audience will decide what the story will be, picking from five main options and several sub-options that provide for many different scenarios the cast must rehearse.
“It's a pretty big undertaking,” Begovich said, adding that while the show averages about 35 to 40 minutes in length, the students have been practicing all of the options, which amounts to almost three hours of material.
“They're proud of what they've accomplished, they're proud of how hard they worked with their fundraising to accomplish this goal and now they're excited and also very anxious to share their work.”
To say thank you to local supporters, and to continue practicing, the students will put on three performances of their show at the high school, 326 Joliet St., before they leave. The shows are scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday and 2 and 4 p.m. Saturday. Entry is free.
West Chicago was one of a few dozen U.S. schools selected to attend the festival after being nominated in 2014 and completing an extensive application process. It is the first time the school has been selected to attend the festival since it began 70 years ago.
“West Chicago Community High School has had a strong drama program for years and this is just one of those next steps in our evolution,” Begovich said. “These students have had so much ownership in this process and they have an ownership in our program at WeGo Drama. They run it.”
A “small, but mighty” group of eight students, ages 14 to 18, are going to the festival, Begovich said.
The entire program of about 100 students was invited, but because it was such a huge undertaking, financially and logistically, only a handful agreed to go.
Collectively, the group fundraised more than $25,000 for the trip. All the students raised enough money to cover at least 30 percent of their individual cost, and some fundraised enough to pay for their whole trip. Any remaining costs were paid for by the students and their families over the course of the year.
Recent graduate Jesus Gonzalez said the first thing his mom asked when he told her about the trip was how much it would cost.
“'Almost $8,000,'” he said. “And she was like, 'Are you sure you're going to be able to do it?' I was like, 'Yes! Maybe ...'”
Recent graduate Katie Steininger said when her family found out about the trip there wasn't really a question as to whether she was going.
“They really wanted to make it happen for me,” she said. “We were willing to do whatever it took — cutting back here and there, I had to get a job. And it's so amazing to see how everyone wants us to have this experience and learn from it and use it toward the rest of our lives. I think it's really awesome.”
Every week, in between practices, the students hosted a pizza sale on Wednesday and a bake sale on Friday. They also took part in a variety of traditional fundraising efforts, such as a rummage sale and candle sales.
They hosted a talent show, started a new Mr. Wildcat contest and brought in professional comedians to put on a live show. Around Christmas, they sold wreaths and wrapped presents at Barnes & Noble. There were ongoing efforts to sell ads in their programs and they sent donation letters to individual donors. And in recent months, an online donation website helped bring in money from across the U.S.
“They know that this is an honor, they know they couldn't be doing it without the support of the entire community,” Begovich said. “It truly is going to be a once in a lifetime experience for them. It's a once in a lifetime experience for the community. This is something that we're all very very proud of.”
The students agreed, but said none of it would be possible without their mentors as well, including Begovich and technical director Christopher Jensen, who is coming with them on the trip.
“We have to say thank you to Mr. Begovich and Mr. Jensen because everything that they've done for us, it's amazing,” said junior Ricky Gieser.
Katie said that included pushing the students to fundraise, even when they were really sick of it.
“There were a couple of times you dodged me in the hall,” Begovich said to Katie.
“I think we all did,” Ricky said to the laughter of the other students.
The teens will have to advertise and promote their play while they are abroad to help draw in audiences that have more than 3,000 other shows to choose from at the fest. They will perform four times, including once outdoors on the Royal Mile.
“Our major focus is to do our performances, however it's also about the experience,” Begovich said. “We will see other Fringe performances, we will do a couple interactive workshops and we'll do some touring of Scottish highlands. It's a lot to look forward to.”