Theater students left school in the middle of their first day back from break to head to college. However, they will not be attending classes. They will be performing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne at the Illinois High School Theater Festival.

For only the fifth time in the school’s history, LZHS was selected to perform at this event that showcases high school theater productions from around the state.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet. We’ve seen pictures of where we’re going to be performing and we know what it means and what we’re expected to do,” Emma Belew, sophomore who plays Jill, said. “For me, it’s just like, ‘we’re gonna go do the show again,’ just in front of more people. It’s just the severity or the intensity that just hasn’t really set in yet.”

Part of what makes the experience more “intense” is that the audiences of the various shows will be more engaged into the production, since drama is widely respected at the festival. At the festival, the audience all appreciates theatre as much as the actors and actresses do, which makes the experience so much more surreal, according to Jack Frommelt, sophomore who plays Andy.

The cast will perform Love/Sick, which was the fall play. The play fit the festival’s overall theme to “find your truth.” The plays are chosen for the festival by their genre and quality. Judges from the festival came to the November 12 showing of Love/Sick and provided feedback to the cast and crew so the play could improve before performing again.

“I was very happy for the students to get to perform again. We worked with [the goal of going to the festival] in mind, so we were very happy to see the outcome,” Tom Skobel, theater and English teacher, said.

Skobel also said it was an honor to be accepted into the festival and for some, it’s easier to perform the play at the festival than at school.

“I would say that it’s a lot easier to [do the play a second time] than to learn [the play the first time] because we’ve already established this kind of relationship with our partners and our cast mates,” Frommelt said.

The cast and crew all seem to be excited for this opportunity.

“I thought it was pretty cool,” Mike Joynt, senior and assistant stage manager, said. “I guess I was intrigued. We’ve never done it before, at least when I’ve been here, so I guess I’m kinda excited to see how it all plays out.”

The festival runs January 5-7.