For the first time since 1979, U-High’s theater group will perform at the Illinois High School Theater Festival, getting the opportunity to present their production of “Coal Country” one last time.

According to Matt Boresi, director, the students’ excellent production of the documentary play about the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster thoroughly impressed the three judges evaluating the show.

“They said that the acting was honest and grounded, which is one of the hardest things for young actors,” Mr. Boresi said about the feedback. “The complete look and feel of the show was unified, and the way the energy of the piece flowed back and forth from the stage to the audience was appealing to them.” 

In addition to performing, Mr. Boresi thinks the students will benefit from just attending the festival.

“The great thing about the festival is that you can get a look at work from all across the state and understand what’s being done out there,” Mr. Boresi said.

U-High is the first high school in the nation to perform “Coal Country.” Mr. Boresi hopes to promote the play’s goal of increasing the audience’s empathy for a different kind of marginalized person. He also hopes that this experience will help mark a new era for U-High Theater.

“The piece itself, I think, is one that we are doing good work in being on the cutting edge of educational theater and expanding the repertoire,” he said. “Which I think is something that U-High Theater should do as part of a research institution that lives on the cutting edge of all the subjects that it studies.”