School House Rock Live! brings back fond memories
By Greta Lieske
IV Leader Staff
The Illinois Valley Community College’s spring production
of School House Rock Live! gave its final performance Sunday, March 19, which
ended a series of three earlier performances the prior Thursday, Friday and
Saturday. The production, presented by IVCC’s theatre and music departments,
received large amounts of positive feedback and applause.
Opening night for the production was Thursday, March 16 and
director David Allan Kuester was very pleased with the turnout at the premiere
performance.
“I was really excited to see that it was well attended,” said
Kuester, “and I think that all the students gave a great performance.”
According to Kuester, there were 240 attendees on opening
night, 120 of which were IVCC students who received free admission with a
student ID. Another perk for IVCC students was the free pizza dinner before the
performance on Thursday.
There were smiles on the faces of those leaving the
production and many explained how it reminded them of their childhood.
“It brought back a lot of memories for me, especially the
songs ‘A Victim of Gravity,’ ‘Interplanet Janet,’ ‘Sufferin till Suffrage,’ and
the song about Capitol Hill [‘Just a Bill’],” said Anthony Horger, IVCC student.
“I remembered those from when I was little.”
“A Victim of Gravity” was sung by Bob Gibson, Jeff Kalina and
company. “Interplanet Janet” was sung by Meridith Donahue and company.
“Sufferin’ till Suffrage” was sung by Gabby Green and the rest of the girl cast
members. And “Just a Bill” was sung by Steve Kwiatek.
Brenda Martinez, a Northern Illinois University student who
decided to see School House Rock Live! on her spring break, also tied the show
to her childhood.
“It made me want to sing and dance because it reminded me of
the original ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ that I would watch when I was a bitty Brenda,”
said Martinez. “The music and band were both great and I have absolutely no
complaints.”
Norm Engstrom was the musical director of School House Rock
Live! and the orchestra consisted of Mary Gibson on keyboard, Kyle Buffo on bass
guitar and Joe Landers on percussion.
“All the students did a really good job covering the songs
too,” added Martinez. “The ‘Figure Eight’ song is my favorite and the girl did a
really good job singing it.”
The singer of “Figure Eight” was cast member Ashley Larabee.
“There were some microphone problems I noticed and there were
some times that I couldn’t hear very well, but I was very impressed by the
students who just ignored it and went on,” explained Martinez, who attended the
Friday night performance. “It really shows their talent and professionalism.”
Kuester also noted some of the same type of troubles that
occurred on opening night.
“There were some tech problems and some volume issues,” said
Kuester, but he explained that it had no reflection on the students who handled
it and did a great job.
IVCC student, Brittany Muller, explained that she enjoyed
everything about the production.
“It was really entertaining and all the students and singers
did a really good job,” said Muller. “It was choreographed really well too. It
was just a cute and sweet show and I enjoyed it.”
The production was choreographed by Don Grant Zellmer and the
student dance captain was cast member Eric Chambliss.
Cast member Katie Rainsburg, who played “Katie,” was full of
energy after the Friday night performance and was excited about the upcoming
weekend of the last two shows.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said Rainsburg. “Don’t get me wrong,
it’s really exhausting, but it’s still a lot of fun.”
School House Rock Live! was about an insecure school teacher,
Jeff, played by Kalina, who was nervous about his first day of teaching. He
tried to relax by watching TV when various characters representing facets of his
personality emerged. Through song they helped show him that he could win his
students over with imagination and music.
The entire cast included: Bob Gibson, Katie Rainsburg, Gabby
Green, Ashley Larabee, Phil Claudnic, Robert Calhan, Eris Chamblis, Emily
Lainier, Mike Lewis, Bryce Wallace, Meridith Donahue, Jeff Kalina, Steve Kwiatek,
Cheriz Kunkel, and Amanda Sedlock.
The original “Schoolhouse Rock” cartoon series was created by
George Newall and Tom Yohe and aired every Saturday morning from 1973 until
1985.