EDGEWATER — Chicago Public Schools sports teams aren’t the only ones going the distance to all-state events this year.
Senn High School was selected to perform its adaptation of Mary Zimmerman’s "Metamorphoses" in the mainstage slot at Illinois High School Theatre Fest’s 2015 theater and arts camp. Taking place this year at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the play will be performed in Gregory Hall in front of at least 350 audience members, according to festival representatives, who said they are expecting more than 4,100 attendees.
“Obviously we’re very biased, but we think it’s huge,” said Joel Ewing, lead theater teacher at Senn and co-director of the production with Mechelle Moe, a teaching artist at Lookingglass Theatre, 821 N. Michigan Ave.
Ewing also said being selected was especially significant because CPS has had “little representation” historically at the festival.
“As a teacher and an actor in town, it just kind of made no sense there was no representation from Chicago," he said.
The play features a series of six vignettes, each depicting a different theme rooted in ancient Greek mythology. Senn’s cast consists of 13 actors, each playing multiple roles throughout. Olivia Shine, 17, a junior at Senn and Edgewater resident who plays four characters in the show, said she first saw the play her freshman year and was “blown away.”
“As someone who really, really wants to act, it’s such an honor to be able to do something that has been so successful in Chicago,” Shine said.
Ewing said Senn’s choice in producing Metamorphoses was deliberate and thoughtful. The show’s Chicago roots have served as inspiration to Ewing and its students for years, with a viewing or performance often included as part of classwork. But it was this year, he said, they felt it was time to take the show from the classroom to the stage.
Ewing said in order to be considered for selection by the festival, high schools had to first put on a production, then submit the play to festival “responders,” or adjudicators with theater expertise. Then, responders come to see the play and meet with the cast after the show, an opportunity for judges and students to trade notes on the performance.
After responders evaluate each play against set criteria, schools get the call on whether or not they will get to showcase their production at the festival.
Senn received its “yes” on Nov. 22, right before Thanksgiving break.
Ewing said the honor of showing off the skills of Senn performers, as well as the chance to represent Chicago, is not lost on him.
“What drew us to it is ... what is it like to have the children of Chicago, the students of CPS, also doing a very Chicago-centric show from a company that has done so much to define our city’s theatrical aesthetic,” Ewing said.
The play, adapted by Zimmerman from the classic poem “Metamorphoses” by Ovid, originally debuted in 1996 as "Six Myths" at the Northwestern University Theater and Interpretation Center, then later at the nearby Lookingglass Theatre.
Five years later, in October 2001, the show opened at Second Stage Theatre, an off-Broadway theater in New York, before transferring to Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theatre in February 2002. It was that run that earned Zimmerman a Tony Award for best direction of a play and a Tony nomination for best play.
“I never thought it’d get this far, and to have it get this far, it’s just fantastic,” Shine said.
"Metamorphoses" will play at the state theater festival at 8 p.m. Jan. 9.
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