State festival selects Wauconda High School’s musical

WAUCONDA – Wauconda High School’s fall musical, “All Shook Up,” has been selected for the 43rd annual Illinois High School Theatre Festival that will take place in January.

The 2018 Illinois High School Theater Festival is the largest and oldest noncompetitive high school theater festival in the nation, according to a news release. Wauconda’s musical is one of 11 full-length productions that will be presented. Antioch High School’s production of “The Crucible” also was selected. In addition, seven high schools were selected to perform showcase productions.

The festival will take place Jan. 11 to 13 at Illinois State University in Normal.

This is the second time Wauconda High School has been selected to perform in the past three years. “The Addams Family” was selected to perform at the festival in 2015, Drama Club adviser Scott Metzger said in an email. Before that, the school had not gone since 1982.

More than 72 students worked on Wauconda High School’s show, and 60 of them will be going to the festival, Metzger said.

“All Shook Up,” the school’s fall musical, was performed Nov. 16 through 18 at the school.

The Illinois High School Theatre Festival strives to showcase student performances from throughout the state. To that end, two or three theater educators view a submitted production. After the performance, they lead a discussion with the cast and crew. They then complete a written critique form that is submitted to the Play Selection Committee, which makes the final decisions, the release stated.

Wauconda students will be performing Jan. 12 and 13 at the festival. The performances will not be open to the public.

Over the main two days of the festival, attendees will participate in workshops, student showcases, high school productions and various social activities, plus the All State Production of “Big Fish.”