Spartans Present Award-Winning Spring Contest Plays April 3-5

By JOSEPH McCURDY

Oak Lawn Community High School's talented thespians will present three short plays in the school's spring theater production starting April 2.

The spring production consists of a contest play, a group Interpretation, and a children’s play. 

The contest play is a 40-minute selection from The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer, that utilizes full set, costumes, lights, and sound. The set has a timed set-up where the crew must construct it and take it down in 20 minutes total.  The Normal Heart deals with the outbreak of the HIV virus in New York City during early 1980’s.  

Cast members in the contest play feature Taylor Lindemann, Leonardo Quezada, Joe DeLaMora, Lauren Montesano, Danny Swanberg, Jonathan Cortez, Charlie Doria, Carl Seibel, Vaughn Smith, and Josh Cash. Riley Faille is the student director.  The play is directed by Billy Denton, Thomas Dzurison, Theresa Wantiez, and Marcus Wargin.

 Group Interpretation is a 30-minute “reader’s theater” style performance with offstage visual focus and choral line delivery, Qui Nguyen's She Kills Monsters. The play is about a woman finding a Dungeons & Dragons-style game that her late sister created and playing it in an effort to learn more about her and to keep her sister’s memory alive.  

Featured cast members in She Kills Monsters are Laura Akouris, Erin Beland, Kaeley Clark, Cameron DeLaMora, Paul Harris, Valentina Lopez, Tina Maciaga, Joey Probst, Emily Salomone, and Andrew Waterstraat. Julia Bugaj is the student director.  he play is directed by T.J. Kahriman and Bob Beland.

 The Children’s Play is a 20-minute adaptation of Toy Story 3, inspired by the movie of the same name. Cast members include Madeline Sievers, Abby Mendoza, Bailey Kean, Xavier Jacquez-Flores, Genesis Zepeda, Joe Amado, Lauren Snee, Alex Overland, Bailey Leora, Brandon Hollenback, Marisa Castrogiovanni, Nariman Shehabier, Olive Dankowski, Hannah Spilane, Rosie Metzger, Gina Snyder, Sean Mottl, Samantha Izaguirre, Vanessa Madrigal, Jacob Montesano, Pat Hughes, Curtis Griffin, Veronica Bugaj, Brook Leach, Stephanie McFann, Mariel Perales, Mercedes Lopez, Derek Shapiro, Megan Baker, Julian Camacho, Klaudia Janik, Emma Palhegyi, Rocky Martin, Katie Sowinski, Emily Hartman, Anthony Rocio, Jessica Rodriguez, and Sam Kuzel. The play is directed by OLCHS students Megan Pripusich and Kamile Lazauskaite.  It is supervised by Bob Montesano.

Both the contest play and the group interpretation earned superior rankings at the South Suburban Conference Drama Festival and first place finishes at the IHSA Sectional Tournament. Both student teams will travel to Springfield this weekend to compete at the IHSA State Tournament.

Billy Denton said, “I’m just amazed at how much talent we have among our three productions this year," Billy Denton said. "Whether or not they have been in many OLCHS productions or this is their first, these productions give our students an outstanding venue to showcase how strong the drama program at our school is."

Denton also praised the stage crew, which he said has done an outstanding job in creating beautiful sets to highlight the performers. 

"I’m just proud of how dedicated our students are and how they continue to excel in every way,” Denton added.

All performances will take place April 3-5 in Oak Lawn Community High School's Little Theater, at  9400 Southwest Highway. Shows start at 7 p.m. 

Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door; reservations for the presage price by calling the OLCHS ticket hotline, 708-424-5200 ext. 5920.

A complimentary show for parents, staff members, and senior citizens is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 2.