Willowbrook hosts State send-off celebration for 2024 Illinois High School Association Contest Play, ‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’

UPDATE: Congratulations to Willowbrook Theatre for earning 2nd place overall and 2nd place in tech in the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Drama State Final Competition on March 23! The cast members also earned All-State Cast honors, and the students were welcomed home with an escort from the Villa Park Police Department.

To view photo captions, click on the images below.

On March 21, Willowbrook hosted a State send-off celebration for the cast and crew of the school’s 2024 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Contest Play, “The Cripple of Inishmaan” by Martin Faranan McDonagh. To watch the presentation, click on the video above. To view a photo gallery, see the images below.

The performance qualified for the IHSA Drama State Competition after making school history by winning the IHSA Sectional competition on March 16 at Harold L. Richards High School. State will take place on March 22 and 23 at Sterling High School.

Below are the results from Sectionals:

  • All-Sectional Cast: Senior Sean O’Brochta, junior Gillian Falco, senior Fran Cico, junior Jason Nelson, senior Lauren Maher, senior Theresa Goodman

  • All-Sectional Student Lighting Directors: Sophomore Megan Hasler, sophomore Molly Hield, junior Aleck Matthews, senior Ethan Ronda

  • All-Sectional Student Sound Directors: Senior Lucia DiTerlizzi, junior Jacob Frank, freshman Sawyer Wathier, senior Connor Welker

The play is directed by Regina Wathier, and the traveling team is comprised of 61 Willowbrook students. 

Below is a synopsis of “The Cripple of Inishmaan” from https://americanrepertorytheater.org/shows-events/the-cripple-of-inishmaan.

“Written by one of the world’s most celebrated young playwrights, this ingeniously funny, suspenseful and moving play centers on Billy, a disabled boy living on a barren island off the Irish coast during the 1930s. Billy’s parents died at sea when he was a baby, and he has been raised by two soft-hearted foster-aunts. Relentlessly ridiculed by the other islanders, ‘Cripple Billy’ seizes a chance to escape his confined life on Inishmaan when an American film crew arrives to make a documentary.”