There’s something special about the Drama and Group Interpretation teams from south suburban high schools.
Richards High in Oak Lawn won the IHSA state championship for Drama with an all female cast that wowed judges with a production called “Mac/Beth.” Oak Lawn Community High School placed third with “Wolf at the Door,” Thornton Township in Harvey was fourth in drama with “Pipeline,” and Reavis was sixth with “Steel Magnolias.”
Other Drama finalists included Thornton Fractional North with “Skeleton Crew,” and Lincoln-Way East in Frankfort with “Kodachrome.”
In Group Interpretation, it was nearly a clean sweep of the top six spots. Reavis High in Burbank was this year’s state champion in Group interpretation with “Illegally Yours.” Thornton Fractional North in Calumet City was second with “The Gilded Ones,” Marian Catholic in Chicago Heights was third with “Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend,” Thornton was fifth with “Self Made: The Life of Madam C.J. Walker” and Thornwood High in South Holland was sixth with “Akeelah and the Bee.”
Bob McParland, public information director for School District 218, isn’t sure why, but said the success from area schools has been impressive.
“It’s always been that way. The competition is just very intense, particularly our conference. Oak Lawn, Richards, Reavis, Eisenhower and Shepard have all produced state champions. It’s an annual occurrence,” McParland said. “We’re really proud.”
While an all female production may sound surprising, it’s a reversal of sorts. As Mike Badger, one of the show’s five directors, noted, history gave the play a different spin.
“Shakespeare was only allowed to be performed by males back in the day it was written, so why not, right?” he said.
Badger said the idea of an all female cast was partly dictated by the high level of talent that Richards’ female performers possessed.
“The other part would be that it is indeed atypical for a Shakespeare production to be 100% female, so it may catch the attention of the judges, but, ultimately, the acting talent would be the main reason,” Badger said. “The idea of women exploring these characters from their perspectives added something special to the show for sure. Each student and director added ideas the entire time. It truly was a group effort.”
If you want to see what a state champion looks like, Richards will present its take on a Shakespeare classic at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the high school.
Badger, an English teacher at Richards for 17 years, is proud of the cast and crew that won conference on March 11, the sectional on March 18 and state on March 25.
Five judges in Springfield watched shows presented by 12 schools.
“We had three first places, a third and a fourth. You drop the high and the low, so we had one, one, three to win,” Badger said.
Judges watched scaled down versions.
“You have to make it make sense from start to finish. Say it’s a two-hour play, you do 40 minutes that capture the essence of the play and still make sense,” Badger said.
This is the first state title for Richards’ drama team, which had finished second in two previous years.
“(It feels) pretty great” Badger said.
Especially because the first rehearsal of the show didn’t happen until Feb. 22.
“We were live on March 11, so it’s a super-fast turnaround – 15 practices to get ready for the first competition,” Badger said.
Jon Nebor, another director and English teacher at Richards, was impressed how the students masterfully handled the words of Shakespeare written roughly 450 years ago.
“It’s almost like a different language to some of the kids,” Nebor said.
More Top Picks Carts Beach
“A lot of prep work was done to make sure the kids understood their lines. It’s something the judges appreciated,” Nebor said.
Two of the performers said it was a challenge.
Senior Stella Chinchilla, 18, of Oak Lawn, played Lady Macbeth.
“I had never played anybody who was that dark, but I was excited to play the role and I had a lot of fun with her,” Chinchilla said.
She said winning state “was the happiest moment of my life.” What set Richards apart was “we had that one goal that united us.”
Junior Mary Gacek, 17, of Oak Lawn, played the title role.
“I didn’t view it as playing a man,” she said. “At the end of the day, I wanted to put on a good production for the audience.”
The directors helped her and other performers “get the tone of the message of the line.”
She thought Richards had a good shot to win thanks to the story, “with teenage girls going around having fun. The set was beautiful. And our lights and sound were all working together.”
Badger agreed.
“We had a 25-person crew, seven in the cast and another four people running lights and sound. Everybody has to do their job. It’s a lesson in teamwork pushing for the same goal,” he said.
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.