A little more than a third of the groups participating in the IHSA Drama and Group Interpretation state finals competition hailed from south suburban high schools, but the Southland students placed as five of the six top finishers.
A team from Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor finished as state champions in the group interpretation category, while performers from Reavis High School in Burbank took home the state championship in the drama category.
Southland College Prep Charter High School in Richton Park took third place behind Northbrook-based Glenbrook North High School in group interpretation while a second team from Homewood-Flossmoor took second place and Thornton Township High School in Harvey came in third place.
The state champion Homewood-Flossmoor team performed “A Head Full of Dreams: The Life of John Merrick.” That squad included students Joey Cipriano, Michael Kennedy, Joy Woods, Jacob Rodriguez, Laila Malak and Madeline Moxley. That production as well as the drama entry relied upon the same technical crew.
Reavis High School won the drama category with a production of “Napoli, Brooklyn” by students Teresa Estrada, Victor Casco, Jr., Isabel Sanchez, Isabel Perez, Amanda Przygonska and Elise Surzyn. It was the school’s third first-place in three years and fifth since 2007.
Placing second and third in Drama, respectively, were Homewood-Flossmoor and Thornton High School in Harvey. In the Group Interpretation competition, Southland College Prep Charter High School in Richton Park took third place behind Northbrook-based Glenbrook North High School. Both H-F productions relied on the same technical crew.
Altogether, there were 56 schools participating in the event March 23 and 24 in Peoria.
“The south suburbs have really had a great tradition of success at this tournament,” said Tom Witting, a 25-year teaching veteran who directed “Napoli, Brooklyn” with his wife, Erika Banick, and technical director Dennis Anastasopoulos. “The competition is always very tight.”
“Merrick” director Janine Stroemer, in her 15th year coaching students, said she urges them to focus on perfecting their craft, rather than trying to win awards. “It’s always the process over the product,” she said.
Witting said both winning performances were based on “relatively new scripts” that set the two schools above others.
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Each script emphasized female characters, as “Napoli, Brooklyn” was written by a woman and “Merrick” was adapted by Stroemer from Christine Spark’s novel, “The Elephant Man.”
Stroemer said her adaptation changed during rehearsals in response to the cast’s and technical crew’s feedback.
“The students were very actively involved in creating the whole production,” she said. “We mapped it out together.”
Stroemer, who directed the 30-minute production with help from H-F alum Nate Aikins Jr., also praised the ambient music composed by student Andronicus Marati and highlighted the technical crew’s efforts on behalf of both H-F productions.
Witting said the Reavis cast made the IHSA tournament’s all-state cast, and Stroemer said judges singled out four “Merrick” cast members as all-state cast members.
“To be recognized as all-state is a real testament to their talent,” Witting said.
Dennis Sullivan is a freelancer for the Daily Southtown.