This year’s Huntley High School thespian play, “Aesop’s Fable-ous Christmas Tree,” is kicking off the holiday season with a Christmas-themed show that is fun for all ages. The show takes well-know fables such as the “Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Lion and the Mouse” and puts a Christmas spin on them. This performance is unlike many of the previous shows that Huntley High School has put on.
Unfortunately, this year’s show has not been entered into the annual theater festival due to conflicts with other activities. That did not stop director, Tom George, and his cast members from going above and beyond in the theater department.  The thespian show will be supporting McHenry County’s Project Angel Tree, giving all the money the show makes to the charity.
Project Angel Tree supports children with parents that have been incarcerated.  George got the idea of fundraising after watching last year’s Miss America Pageant where Huntley High School Alumnae Hannah Smith competed. Miss Wisconsin,  Laura Kaeppeler, had been supporting Project Angel Tree, and George was then inspired to put all the funds from his this year’s thespian play toward this charity.
“It was our chance to give to people,” said George.
The show was a one-act performance spanning about an hour. The cast and crew had very little time to prepare, making it difficult to put on a full length show.
“The lack of time is always challenging,” said George, “But in this case we overcame that. We are working with a more experienced group of actors, which helped a lot.”
This elite group of actors was challenged with memorizing and blocking an entire script, and getting their own costumes and props together with only about 15 days of rehearsal.
For many actors, this is their first thespian show and their last. Senior Brian Goldfarb, who is a captain on the speech team and co-president of Huntley High’s Thespian troupe 6147, is performing his first and last thespian show along with fellow captain and co-president, Abby Gleason. Both actors are highly involved in Huntley High School’s theater program.
“It’s been a good last thespian show,” said Gleason. “It was  hard with the amount of time we had, but it made my senior year worthwhile.”
This was one of the first shows where the cast was responsible for getting the stage set for the show. Senior and secretary of Huntley High’s thespian troupe, Alex Morton, and a few other cast members took on the task of designing the stage sets. Morton is also active in the theater department, but has been more involved backstage rather than performing.
“It’s great being able to be in the show and design the set,” said Morton. “I haven’t performed since I did ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ so it’s nice to back on stage, instead of only doing tech.”
It was also the first year that two cast members of Huntley High School’s annual Thespian play were not thespians themselves. Freshmen Alexa LaFaire and Alexis Mete, although not part of the thespian troupe, have been able to keep up with the tedious schedule, and have learned a lot from their fellow actors.
“I’m really honored to be in the show,” said Mete, who played Glinda in the freshman-sophomore musical alongside LaFaire who played Dorothy.  Both are the only freshmen in the show, playing a number of different roles.
“It’s fun working with everyone,” said LaFaire. “It makes me feel like I’m this amazing actor.”
The actors showed enthusiasm on stage, as well as toward one another, as they worked off each other’s creativity and energy. All of them were also working hard to put on a great show for the holidays and give back to the community, which made this show  unique and memorable.