Three students from LZHS will be performing at Theatre Fest in the All-State Production of Pippin on January 8-10.

“Theatre Fest is like the state [level] for drama kids,” David Harmon, drama director, said. “It’s a pretty big deal that we have three students not only performing in the All State Production, which is the big show at Theatre Fest, but they also all have or are the understudies of lead roles.”

This is the largest number of students from LZHS that are being featured in the All State Production at Theatre Fest at one time. Seniors Daniela Crocco and Conor Jordan both have lead roles in Pippin, and Laurel Wenckowski, senior, is in the ensemble cast and is the understudy of Catherine, another lead character.

“This show has been a lot of work because we don’t practice together as a cast very often, only on certain holiday weekends, and we have yet to practice on the actual performance stage,” Wenckowski said. “But it has also been a really fun experience to work with people who are so motivated and have a great work ethic.”

The whole cast practices together about every six weeks on sporadic holiday weekends for about 12 hours at a time onstage. The cast learns their own personal roles during practices at home or at school.

“We’ve been rehearsing since August and we’d [have rehearsals on] Labor Day weekend and then we’d have six weeks in between, so having to remember it when we’re not doing it constantly [makes it easy] to forget details,” Crocco said. “So when we come together, we really have to stay on top of things and get focused.”

Despite the long hours of work the company has been putting into the production, Wenckowski said she enjoys getting to work with people who share her passion for acting and creating relationships with other students who are as dedicated to musical theater as she is.

“[Being in the All-State production] is just an amazing experience because with [the cast of Pippin] versus working with people at your school [in standard high school theater] you have people who know they’re not going to go into musical theater [after high school], so people aren’t as motivated and dedicated. Here, everyone in cast knows that they’re going into musical theater [in the future]” Crocco said. “Everything just happens fast and we are such a close group. We all love each other [and] we consider ourselves best friends.”

The whole cast treats the show like it is a real Broadway production and most drama kids refer to the All State Production as high school on Broadway, Crocco said. Everyone works really well together and over time they have become like one big family.

“People always say that All-State is like ‘high school on Broadway,’” Crocco said, “so I think it’ll make [aspiring high school actors and drama club members] more motivated to want to try harder.”

Only members of high school drama clubs as well as members of the Illinois Thespian Society will be attending Theatre Fest at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Harmon has selected 40 students to accompany him and the three actors to partake in various workshops and observe other students’ performances.

“[People taking part in] Theatre Fest and the All-State show always try to outdo themselves,” Jordan said. “Having everyone in the audience love theater and know something about theater helps because they can appreciate what we’re putting on and it’s so much more meaningful.”