During this past school year, I joined a sports team for the first time since elementary school. After spending middle and high school devoting my after school hours (and, for three years, my summers) to theatre, it seemed at first to be something of a change.
The funny thing is, though, that it wasn’t really that much of a change. Okay, so collegiate athletics and stage crew are hardly the same thing, but being part of a team and being part of a theatre group are. WST is not a one-man show onstage or behind the scenes; this theatre is just as much a team as any sports club you’ll find.
I started working on this show at the end of last summer as a clueless about-to-be-college-freshman. I’d done three years of WST as crew, pit, and designer, but I didn’t really know how WST was run. With the “coaching” of WST veterans and previous producers (especially Kelly, Lauren Beth, Izzy, “Mr. McCord,” Will, and Cynthia), we miraculously ended up with a fun show and the rights to perform it. Then, the fifteen members of the board worked together to select what is, in my opinion, the best team of staff ever. This experience wouldn’t have been the same for me without Branden’s dreams, Jared and Kim’s patience, Yaara’s organization, LBD and Brad’s enthusiasm, Brian’s hard work, Allie and Josh’s senses of humor, the persistence of Rachel, James, Mike, LM, and Tania, and the talents of Harrison, Dan, Harry, Tom, Liam, Alex, Joellen, and the rest of the staff and, in fact, the entire company.
As the summer has progressed, I have watched the amazing teamwork of the cast, crew, orchestra, and staff as everyone put in tons of energy to get this show on the road. In my nineteen long years of life, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such effort and talent from my peers, and I am so proud of each and every single one of my WST “teammates.”
And now welcome to this season’s big game, where WST plays against the idea that a bunch of kids can’t run a theatre on their own. I think we’re going to win.
Denise Levitan
...and Chicago makes 41!