playbill vip

Hello and welcome to The Chicago Club: where the drinks are cold and the murder is hot!

This is the 6th time in 8 years I have applied for the rights to produce Chicago at FUHS....and the 6th time's the charm. I am so proud of what we have created on our stage tonight! 

Conceptually we wanted to create a speakeasy where the evening's entertainment is Chicago the Musical. It has been a dream to work with so many talented performers, student designers and technical teams. Their work really has brought the vision of this production together. It is difficult sometimes to breathe new life into a piece of theatre that is so classic. Some parts of the wheel need to stay the same and other parts need to be reinvented. These students met that challenge and have collaborated to create a memorable experience. 

I want to thank Genni Klein for your love, partnership and creativity. Thank you to Jaclyn Stickel for being an awesome theatre collaborator this year. Thank you Scott Hudson, Katie Hudson, and the B.E.A.S.T. Academy for your continued support. Thank you to Mario Schwartz Cole and the Culinary Arts Academy for their front of house support. Thank you to Joanna Cronin, our new resident costumer, for her awesome expertise and work with our fabulous Costume Crew. Thank you to our student leaders Karissa Lentz, Tommy Stecher, Edward Burton, and Luke Sanderson for your time, effort and talents, stage managing this production. Thank you to Evan Shirk who is my technical partner and loves to find ways to execute all of our crazy ideas. Thank you to the FUHS Technical Theatre Team, especially Aiden Stephenson and Jett Shields, for all of the work you do to organize our technical teams. Lastly, Thank you to the wonderful directorial production team Stacey Kikkawa, Andrea Oberlander, and  Troy Trimble for always giving 100% of yourselves to support Arts Education. 

Cheers!

Michael Despars

Fullerton Union High School

Theatrical Arts Director

VAPA TOSA, FJUHSD

Past-President. California Educational Theatre Association

CHOREOGRAPHER'S NOTES

Thank you everyone for attending our production of "Chicago". It truly has been a joy to choreograph this show and pay homage to the great Bob Fosse. I greatly appreciated the professionalism that our students demonstrated throughout this process and am always in awe of the amount of talent that our students have. I want to thank my assistant choreographer, Samantha Monson, for helping my vision come to life and a huge thank you to the cast for giving me your all and your best "Jazz Hands." 

Andrea Oberlander

Choreographer