Glenbard East teacher, D-87 students selected for all-state play

LOMBARD – Mark Kaetzer, a fine arts instructor with Glenbard East High School, has been selected to direct the 2014 Illinois High School Theater Festival's All-State play, which will be performed in January at Illinois State University. Three students from Glenbard schools will also participate in the production of "The Grapes of Wrath."

In 2012, Kaetzer began discussing the possibility of directing an all-state play, which will include high school students from across Illinois, with Demetrios Pappageorge, executive director of the Illinois High School Theater Festival.

He agreed to direct the play and in June, 227 Illinois high school students auditioned for cast and crew positions. The cast includes 30 students and the crew has 26 students; eight students from the four Glenbard schools auditioned and three were selected. Sarah Marino of Glenbard North, Giana Biddle of Glenbard East and Molly Hernandez of Glenbard West will participate.

Kaetzer has also gathered a production team with current and retired faculty from high schools around the region.

Students will meet at Glenbard East to rehearse during the Labor Day, Columbus Day and Thanksgiving holidays. They previously rehearsed together Aug. 6 to 8.

In January, the cast and crew will begin rehearsing at the Braden Auditorium at Illinois State University, and the play will be performed Jan. 9 and 10 as part of the High School Theater Festival.

Tickets for the production are extremely limited because hundreds of students, theater sponsors and workshop instructors will be at the theater festival and watching the play. There is an open dress rehearsal on Jan. 5 at the Braden Auditorium, and local students, teachers or administrators interested in attending this showing should contact Justin Mayo at justin_mayo@glenbard.org.