The road to Internationals: Lemon Bay High School Theatre ready for journey

COURTESY PHOTO The Lemon Bay High School theater group's "The Wedding Singer" has been named one of the top student productions in the world. When Jennifer Kelly took over as director of theater at Lemon Bay High School in 2000, she arrived with a vision. Looking around at her eager thespians on the first day of school, she created a 10-year plan and went to work inspiring her students to reach for greatness.

Her formula for success must be working because recently her theater program was deemed one of the top seven high school theater programs in the world. The cast of the Englewood high school performed their production of "The Wedding Singer" in November 2008 for a panel of state judges, and were selected in early January as one of the top eight to perform main stage at the state festival. This is their fourth time winning this honor. While performing at the state festival in late April, International judges picked "The Wedding Singer" as one of seven shows out of hundreds reviewed to perform at the International Thespian Festival held at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. "The Wedding Singer" will be the closing event of the festival on June 27.

Florida hasn't been represented at the International Thespian Festival in more than 10 years.

The festival provides $4,000 to assist with mounting the production at the Lied Center for the Performing Arts, but Lemon Bay High School Theatre must raise the rest of the $80,000 to cover registration fees, lodging, and transportation of the cast, crew and all the production elements to Nebraska. As of June 1, the 50 teenagers have raised $50,000 in just one month and have paid their registration fees to attend, but must still raise the remaining $30,000 to cover the additional production and travel costs.

To raise funds, the cast is holding a drive: "The Road To Internationals — 1,500 At $50 Campaign." The concept is to find 1,500 people who believe in these kids and their cause and help this small, underdog school go global by pledging just $50.

In addition, the teens will hold two benefit performances of "The Wedding Singer" at the Charlotte Performing Arts Center, 701 Carmalita St, Punta Gorda, on June 18 and 19 at 7 p.m. Ticket prices are $50 for preferred orchestra and $25 for reserved seating. Tickets can be purchased online at www.lbhstheatre.com or by calling (941) 626-0688.

To help the Lemon Bay High School thespians get to Internationals, donations can be sent to: LBHS Theatre Wedding Singer International Fund, 2201 Placida Rd, Englewood, FL 34224.