Several H-F students were selected to perform in this year’s annual theater fest production. The Illinois Theatre Association’s (ITA) 2025 All-State production has given roles and other positions in this year’s production to several of H-F’s bright theater students.
The Illinois High School Theatre Festival is a statewide fest for students to join together from all over the state. Each year the fest holds a state-wide production, and this year H-F has a very prominent presence in the cast.
This year’s production is “The Prom,” a comedic, heartwarming musical about four Broadway stars who come together to support a high school girl in a small town who faces backlash from the school’s PTA for wanting to attend prom with her girlfriend.
The auditions for “The Prom” were held at the end of the 2023-2024 school year, which is when several students received roles.
H-F senior Stella Hoyt got the lead role of “Emma Nolan,” Bryce Stewart as “Sheldon Saperstein,” Robert Wakefield and Sawyer Horcher are in the ensemble, Tessa O’Keefe is part of Dramaturgy with only two other students from the state, Chloe Pease is an assistant stage manager which is one of the most fought over roles within the production, and Harry “Ash” Komorowski is on production lighting.
Komorowski shared how impressed he was with the outcome this year. “I think it’s important to say how H-F has the most people who made it into the show which only has 100 slots of hundreds of people who applied,” Komorowski said. “I also think it’s important to highlight the roles everyone got, and I think it’s amazing how every single person got a role, that is insanely hard to do.”
As stated on the ITA website, “The ITA is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to advocate for the important values that theater at all levels in the state of Illinois brings to individuals as we work to expand hearts and minds through work both on the stage and off.”
“Before 1976, there had been ‘theater leaders’ in the state who felt there was a need for an alternative to a statewide student theatrical event of a competitive nature. Several of these theater educators formed local theater festivals in their general geographic areas. School leaders Jerry Proffit of Niles East High School and Cary Libkin of Riverside-Brookfield High developed a regional, localized theater festival, which became the Illinois State Theatre Fest.”
The road to stage success was very competitive, with almost 25,000 public high schools in the state, many students were able to attend an audition, making the odds of receiving a role slim, but that didn’t stop H-F.
“We had over 300 students from the state auditioning for the production and about 120 in the company. From H-F we have seven in the production which is more than any other school in the state who auditioned,” stated J.R. Willard Rose, an English and theater teacher for H-F.
“The Prom” will take place during the Illinois High School Theatre Festival at the University of Illinois from Jan. 9-11. More information is available on the Illinois Theatre website.
