Every year Rock Island High School’s Theater Department puts on 3 shows; Fall Play, Winter Showcase, and the Spring Musical. But this year, the department’s director, Mrs. Dorian Foster, decided to submit their show as a candidate to be performed at the Illinois High School Theater Festival at Illinois State University in January of 2024. Back in November, cast and crew of “Pure As The Driven Snow” had festival responders come in and judge whether they should be selected or not. They took into account the actors, of course, but also the set, the lighting, the music, costumes, and just everything that had to do with the show.
In the instance the show was selected, it would allow high school thespians all across Illinois to see how great and talented Rocks are in their show! Closing night of “Pure as The Driven Snow”, Foster announced to cast and crew during bows that the show had been selected for the festival! At the Rocks’ home theater, students perform 3 night shows on Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. But being selected for the festival meant that students had to perform 2 shows back to back, with a 30 minute break in between. Actress Stella Houk (11), who also doubled as one of the tech members, gave some insight on other difficulties with bringing in a new show, stating, “The biggest difference was that the stage was larger than the one we have at Rocky.” Houk says, “But, overall, of the challenges, it was great to see the audience’s reaction, definitely one of, if not, the biggest pay off.”As Theater Fest is an environment where peers who, obviously, enjoy the same activity come together, there is a certain appreciation for shows, and how much goes into them, which is a great experience for the Rocks.
Although, it wasn’t just actors who experienced issues. One of 2 stage managers, Adrian Mills, Sophomore at Rocky, also explained how difficult it was for tech to maneuver and manage the show in such a new space that no cast or crew members were familiar with. “Making sure we didn’t damage anything while loading in and out was pretty stressful, along with setting up in a timely manner,” says Mills. “We had to focus a lot on how to move the walls and doors, as they were very big pieces, and were a lot harder to move, compared to the smaller set pieces.”
Even though theater is an extracurricular, Rocky students can still take skills learned from the department, how it feels to travel a show, and get a feel for what professional theater could endure and include from this experience, especially if they are considering going into the arts after high school. “We realized that putting a show together takes a lot of thought and teamwork, especially in the instance of traveling,” Houk says. But regardless of a production aspect, students learned about themselves, and how to handle high stress situations. “I learned more not to stress so much about things that haven’t happened yet and to just hope for the best,” said Mills.
After the final show at Theater Fest, Foster, cast, and crew was awarded a plaque to congratulate them on how far they have come as a company, and how hard they worked on this show. Everyone in the community is proud of the theater department and the director who runs everything. Go Rocks!
