The North Shore Weekend East, Issue 325

FIND US ONLINE: DailyNorthShore.com

SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

Higher, Stronger ... Flaster. Stacey Flaster, co-founder of The Performer’s School, helping students perform at Olympian level. P14

SOCIAL SCENE

SPORTS

Conversation with Crate and Barrel co-founders highlights JCC Chicago event. P11

We rank the top 18 sports stories in ’18. P13

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NO. 325 | A JWC MEDIA PUBLICATION

NEWS

Can-do cast up for Xanadu Glencoe Junior High Project to stage musical comedy

BY LIBBY ELLIOTT THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

If just hearing the word Xanadu conjures up images of feathered hair, legwarmers and roller skates, you might be one of the old-timers who suffered through this musical fantasy film — widely considered among the worst movies ever made — in theaters way back in 1980.

Starring Olivia Newton-John and Michael Beck, Xanadu would become a cult classic.

In 2007 — 27 years after Xanadu bombed at the box office — a musical comedy, tongue-in-cheek version of the flick debuted on Broadway to rave reviews.

Written by Douglas Carter Beane, with music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, Xanadu enjoyed a run of more than 500 performances, earning Tony Award nominations for Best Book and Best Musical.

This January, Glencoe middle school members of the Glencoe Junior High Project (GJHP) — wearing their own

In Step(penwolf) with Jeff Perry Highland Park native son makes a January homecoming

BY GREGG SHAPIRO THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

In its 150 years, the city of Highland Park has become well-known for many things.

From its glorious lakefront to its distinguished architecture, from the ravines to its accessibility to Chicago, Highland Park is a marvelous place to live, as well as to visit. Throughout the month of January, the HP150 Exhibition on The Ruth Fell Wander Community Art Wall will highlight the year-long 150th Anniversary Celebration, providing a historical retrospective of the city via photos, assorted facts and trivia, as well as artifacts.

For many people, it’s probably Highland Park’s love of and respect for the arts that has made it such a cherished destination. Highland Park native and Drama Desk Awardwinner Jeff Perry, one of the co-founders of the world-renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company and a long-time star on television and in movies, knows that firsthand. Perry, along with Highland Park High School classmates, benefited from that kind of creative nurturing environment, leading to the seeds for Steppenwolf being planted in the school cafeteria and later taking root in the basement of a church at 770 Deerfield Road in Highland Park. The 63-year-old Perry, who is coming to town for a private, invitation-only event in January, made time in his busy schedule to answer some questions for The North Shore Continued on PG 10

Jeff Perry, on growing up in Highland Park: “A lot of beautiful memories flood back ... the beauty of the ravines, spending whole summers at Rosewood Beach.”.

Continued on PG 11

“ I teach at LFCDS because authenticity and academic rigor are honored and encouraged in the teachers, in the curriculum we develop, and in our students. This combination of individualism and high expectations provides the foundation for an incredible education.”

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| SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018

THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

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THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

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SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018 |

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| SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018

THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

End-of-the-Year Sale THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018 |

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INDEX

LIFESTYLE & ARTS 9 social scene

JCC Chicago fundraiser features three C’s — cocktails, conversation and community.

10 north shore foodie

Diners continue to pledge allegiance to Abigail’s American Bistro.

REAL ESTATE 12 go west, readers

We spotlight luxury properties in Colorado winter resort towns.

SPORTS 13 page packed with praiseworthy performances

Check out our list of the year’s top 18 sports stories.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST 14 sunday breakfast

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| SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018

Actress/singer/dancer/teacher Stacey Flaster sits/eats/converses at Country Kitchen in Highland Park.

THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

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Daily North Shore .com THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

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NEWS JEFF PERRY Cont. from PG 1 Weekend.

Gregg Shapiro: A Wedding and Remember My Name, your first two feature-length movies, both released in 1978, were directed by Robert Altman and Altman’s protégé Alan Rudolph, respectively. As an actor, what did those kinds of opportunities mean to you?

Jeff Perry: For the people who ended up starting Steppenwolf, Robert Altman was an artistic hero.

I’m paraphrasing a quote, but I remember him saying, “You can tell from my movies, I’m more interested in the fabric of human behavior than I am in plot.” That’s a sentiment that is very actorloving. Our craft is largely about the fabric, behavior and relationships. Most of us would rather be engaged in that than carrying plot along. For him to come to the Midwest, in our backyard, and for me and John Malkovich and Terry Kinney getting to meet him and his producing partner Scott Bushnell; John and Terry ended up taking dialogueless parts as extras, and I was lucky enough to get a part in the 30- to 40- person ensemble that is A Wedding. I was young to not be appalled at my good fortune, but I remember being really happy about it. When I was offered Remember My Name, I knew it was directly from Robert Altman’s desk, me being allowed to work on that. I got to work with Jeff Goldblum. Those were transformative moments of gratitude for a young actor.

GS: You and Denis O’Hare, another actor with strong Chicago theater roots, co-starred in the 2018 movie Lizzie. When you meet up with another actor from the Chicago theater scene on the set of a movie or TV show, do you feel like you have an automatic connection or that you speak each other’s language?

JP: We do, to a palpable and lovely extent. There are a lot of characteristics of growing up in theater in Chicago and the nature of Chicago as a theater town and the Chicago audience as an audience.

There is a real love of the work. There comes to be a rather precious and helpful limit in Chicago to any fame and fortune that one can attain in theater, even in the broader sense of the profession of acting.

It’s a rather beautiful gift because from the storytellers there — the actors, the directors, the designers and the audience — are in it because they love it. The actors are not looking for a television series out of it, and they’re not looking to be on the cover of a magazine. Everybody’s allowed by the culture to be in it for simpler reasons. The love of storytelling.

GS: As an actor who has starred in two Shonda Rimes series — Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy — to what do you attribute the popularity and success of her shows?

JP: I think Shonda has a remarkable combination of attributes as a writer. She’s tremendously skilled at creating summer-beach-novel, pageturning suspense-meets-romance. She is downright Shakespearean — in a contemporary way — in a way that is prose, not verse. As a wordsmith, she has beautiful abilities. I find that she’s able to balance positive attributes of melodrama with deep and grounding authenticity and depth in her characters.

GS: As of right now, your daughter Zoe Perry, your ex-wife, Laurie Metcalf (Zoe’s mother), and you are all starring on popular TV series. Can you please say something about that?

JP: It fills me with a lot of gratitude and glee.

And a little bit of wonder. I was a big TV fan. I loved The Dick Van Dyke Show. I believe my ex-wife probably memorized every episode of I Love Lucy.

As a bunch of 20-somethings, just out of the [Illinois State University] theater department in the

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Jeff Perry on the set of Grey’s Anatomy with Chyler Leigh and Ellen Pompeo. PHOTO CREDIT: ABC/SCOTT GARFIELD.

cornfields of Normal, we would often gather and watch the first couple of generations of Saturday Night Live and SCTV. We got a big kick out of TV; it was probably one of our favorite forms. To be able to work in that field, from The Sopranos on, in this growing mountain of accomplishment that not only feels like a second Golden Age, but probably the greatest accomplishment the medium has had.

GS: Were you the kind of actor/father who encouraged or discouraged your daughter from pursuing a career in acting?

JP: As a kind of summer amusement and lark, Zoe, at around 13 or 14, went along with her mom and was in a play in Steppenwolf ’s upstairs space on the current campus. It was called Pot Mom, as in cannabis. It was by Justin Tanner, an L.A.-based playwright. Zoe grew up in the audience and backstage. I remember her, maybe not even in middle school, quietly soaking up many viewings of Frank Galati’s [Tony Award-winning] adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath. That’s adult territory, and she was young then, but she was really interested. It gets to where she’s picking what she wants to do for college, and she flirts a little bit with, “Should I try some acting like my folks?” She ended at Northwestern University as a Film Theory major — the intellectual and literary criticism side of film.

Maybe junior year she was cast in a school play, and we lost her to the family business. Laurie and I held our breath. By that time, my wife Linda Lowy — who’s a casting director — we were all parents to Zoe, and I think we all held our breath a bit because everybody knows the vagaries of life in the circus. But she really showed a love for it.

To me, it was like, Thank God she’s pretty good. I never had to have that conversation of, “Not only is it a hard life; I don’t think you’re very good.”

GS: It’s good that you didn’t have to do that.

JP: I didn’t have to do that, and that was a relief.

We were mostly happy for her. We were defi-

nitely not in the camp of pushing her towards it, because I think we were all of the opinion that you can only put up with the vagaries of it if your passion is really high. It also helps if you are almost unable to do anything else. In my case, I have friends who are capable of doing other things, but their personalities won’t let them. I’m pretty much incapable of doing anything else, so it helped me.

GS: As someone who was born and raised in Highland Park, do you remember when it was that you realized that it was a special place?

JP: Probably like most people’s memories of childhood, you don’t have any comparison. You’re just kind of living your childhood. In hindsight, from my late teens and twenties, starting to feel a little bit of the world or a big city, Chicago or New York, this and that, you get a big hit of appreciation of riding your bike to grade school the whole time.

My grade froze a giant playing field for ice skating and playing hockey all winter. [In the summer] I sat in my backyard, probably an eighth of a mile from the Clavey Road entrance to Ravinia Festival, and the speakers were so good that I could listen to everything from Blood, Sweat and Tears to the symphony to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, and on and on. A lot of beautiful memories flood back … the beauty of the ravines, spending whole summers at Rosewood Beach.

GS: Your father [ Joe Perry] was a teacher at Highland Park High School. As the son of a teacher, did you feel extra pressure to behave a certain way while in school?

JP: A little bit. We never really compared notes, but my two older sisters, Janice and Jo, probably had to suffer a little bit because he was still either in the English department or head of the English department or on campus when they went through school. By the time I got into high school, he had moved over to become the curriculum director under superintendent Karl Plath at the [District 113] administration building next to Wolters Field.

| SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018

The tiny bit of pressure I felt was when a wonderful physics teacher named “Speed” Hampton — I can’t remember his real first name — a veteran of Highland Park High School, said, “I can’t remember that Joe Perry’s son would behave in this manner” [laughs] when I was failing to pay attention in physics class. Otherwise, it was either benign or all benefits. Once in a while, he would take my sisters and me into the school on weekends, and we would get to swim in the pool.

GS: You mentioned Steppenwolf Theatre Company, of which you are one of the co-founders. Steppenwolf had its genesis at Highland Park High School. What was it about that school that made it a suitable place to launch such a venture?

JP: I’m not sure when Focus On the Arts was instituted, but it was so clear that if a public high school was going to turn over an entire week or more to a complete focus on the arts, and everyone — from gym teachers to biology teachers — had to put up with the artists running the asylum, you knew you were in a conducive, loving arts environment. The other giant factor was a woman named Barbara Greener Patterson, who was a gigantic, formative influence to me and Gary (Sinise), Jeff Melvoin, Kathy Borowitz and so many others. I hope most people are lucky enough to have one or more teachers with this kind of power. She had such love for her subject, such skill and training in it, such charisma and magical force of personality. She changed my and Gary’s lives by taking two academically confused guys wandering the hallway and throwing us into West Side Story.

GS: She gave you something on which to focus your energy.

JP: Exactly! We were so completely lost in this land of make-believe that we found our life’s course.

She lives in Nashville now and remains a gigantic presence to us. We still correspond. Gary got to see her during this last year. She’s an amazing person.

THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

NEWS XANADU Cont. from PG 1 version of 1970s skater chic — will stage Broadway’s reinterpretation of Xanadu with a four-performance run from January 31-February 3 in Misner Auditorium at Central School in Glencoe. GJHP’s production will feature a rotating student cast and crew of 40, a live band and, yes, junior high students on roller skates.

Xanadu director Adam Busch says GJHP has a long-standing reputation for staging offbeat productions, including last year’s musical Thoroughly Modern Millie and 2017’s All Shook Up. “We want our audience to experience something it’s not going to see anywhere else,” Busch says. “We don’t like to regurgitate. Most people have already seen a production of Annie.”

And even though the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders performing in Xanadu don’t always understand the play’s satirical, 1980s pop-culture references, they’re not too young to “get the joke.”

“These kids love comedy, and everyone needs to laugh,” Busch says. “They connect with the silliness and absurdity of the storyline.”

Xanadu follows the journey of a magical and beautiful Greek muse, Kira, who descends from the heavens of Mount Olympus to Venice Beach, California, in 1980 on a quest to inspire a struggling artist, Sonny, to achieve the greatest artistic creation of all time — the first roller disco.

Thirteen-year-old cast members Mia Von Varga, Mia Spilotro and Charlie Baron offer

up their interpretations of Xanadu’s comically cheesy storyline and strange-but-enduring appeal.

“It’s very sparkly,” says Spilotro, who plays villain Calioppi. “Kind of like a dumpster fire with glitter.”

Von Varga, cast in the original Olivia Newtown-John role of Kira, will be one of eight actors to bravely perform on roller-skates.

“I’m still rocky, but that’s part of the fun,” Von Varga says.

Each has a song preference from the movie’s circa-1980 chart-topping soundtrack, which included hits by Electric Light Orchestra and Newton-John herself, still at the pinnacle of her fame.

“I like ‘Suspended in Time’,” says Von Varga, who listens to recordings of the song at home for practice.

“My favorite is ‘Magic’,” says Baron, who plays Danny McGuire, As members of the GJHP, Baron, Von Varga and Spilotro also lend their talents to the organization’s civic engagement, fund raising and social activities. When not on stage, GJHP performers regularly volunteer at local food pantries, book banks and soup kitchens.

After Xanadu closes on February 3, they cast will perform a shortened version of the show at a local senior home.

All proceeds from Xanadu underwrite these programs, as well as GJHP’s 8th Grade Theatre Workshop and annual Variety Show. GJHP also funds Central School’s in-school drop-in center, The Oasis.

With just one month until opening night,

GJHP ’s Xanadu cast members are still busy learning their lines and perfecting their best 80s pop voices. And while most students involved in the production have now watched the terrible movie that started it all, they’ll be putting their own middleschool spin on the wacky, weird, disco-fabulous story that is Xanadu. “ We want our cast members to be their own version of those characters,” Busch says. “ We want them to have the f reedom and process to create.”

For more information or to purchase tickets for GJHP’s production of Xanadu, visit www.gjhp.org.

LIFESTYLE & ARTS

Socials Cocktails. Conversation.

Community.

JCC Chicago Photography by Lynn Renee Photography

JCC Chicago hosted its annual fundraiser in late October at Lake Shore Country Club in Glencoe. The event featured an exclusive conversation with Gordon and Carole Segal, founders of Crate and Barrel and Foodstuffs. The evening was moderated by JCC Chicago Development Committee Chair and Executive Committee member Marisa Mandrea. Proceeds from the evening will be used to ensure access to the organization’s award-winning programs and experiences. Don’t miss the 2019 JCC Chicago Jewish Film Festival held at select locations throughout Chicago and neighboring suburbs between March 1-17. jccchicago.org

THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

MARISA MANDREA, SHELDON & DIANE HELFGOT, DR. EDWARD ATKINS

CAROLE & GORDON SEGAL

SUSIE & LORY SPECTOR

DIANE & STEVE MILLER

JANE BEST, ADDIE GOODMAN, AMY SCHIFFMAN

SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018 |

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LIFESTYLE & ARTS

NORTH SHORE FOODIE

A BISTRO FOR ALL SEASONS As it approaches its 10th anniversary, Abigail’s in Highland Park still knows how to draw a crowd

Laft: Pan-seared salmon Above: Roasted Cauliflower PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN SUBAR

BY PETER MICHAEL THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

There’s always been something charming about the small wooden alcoves that chef Michael Paulsen has carved into the dining room at Abigail’s American Bistro in Highland Park.

They’re still lifes in three dimensions. Tangled branches and the occasional flower representing the passing of time and hyper-seasonal ingredients.

A bottle of wine to symbolize good times and friendly service. And then little bursts of color — a nod to Paulsen’s creative plating style — all nestled into small but cozy wooden niches in the wall.

That’s Abigail’s for you. Direct. Sophisticated.

Unpretentious. Good things crammed into a tight space.

Come this spring, Abigail’s will turn 10 years old, a meaningful achievement in the restaurant world. It’s an event worth noting because Abigail’s, which was named after one of Paulsen’s twin daughters, is one of the last of an increasingly dying breed of restaurants on the North Shore:

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an intimate chef-driven neighborhood spot that manages to deliver creative fare at a good value.

Maybe it’s the fact that Paulsen has retained a number of his servers over the years, so they know what to recommend and how to make diners feel at home. Maybe it’s the fact that the menu is as creative in the middle of January as it is on the first day of fall. Or the fact that many of Paulsen’s offerings have a kind of lyricism to them.

Given the restaurant’s proximity to Ravinia Festival, it’s difficult not view the best of the menu as edible symphonies. It’s not that you haven’t experienced most of these offerings before, but darn if they don’t have a catchy harmony to them.

Clean crisp vegetable notes beneath deep baritones of seafood and rich proteins. Plumes of bright color above undercurrents of stark austerity. Sophistication keeping time with a feeling of comfort and dependability.

After all these nights and countless performances, Paulsen still has the ability to make the occasional dish absolutely sing. Here are three flavor combinations that manage to make beautiful music. Although Abigail’s changes its menu weekly, these dishes give you a glimpse inside the

melody.

AHI TUNA CRUDO Behold: the rebel crudo. Forget silky, slinky and gentile. Here’s a prime example of Paulsen’s desire to create “a little theater” for diners’ taste buds. This crudo looks like a deconstructed maki roll sans the rice, but the flavors absolutely pop off the plate.

They’re familiar standards played in a different key.

Jalapeno soaking in soy instead of wasabi. A creamy aioli dappled with crunchy bits of tempura instead of a thin ceviche jus. The colors — sunset orange meets vibrant green — capture the transition of a verdant Midwestern summer into fiery autumn, but it’s the luxuriousness of the flavors combinations that lingers most deeply of all.

It doesn’t just stick; it coats everything in a crunchy outer shell that’s just potent enough to work against the acidic pickled onions, green scallions and leafy cilantro that surround it. In a world overrun with forgettable veggie bowls, here’s a keeper.

PAN-SEARED SALMON Now, here’s a dish that has dimensionality.

When your server slides it onto your table, you can’t help but feel like you’re staring down at some kind of an edible topographical map. The panseared salmon, stained with the juices from a classic eggplant caponata, make the dish look like it was inspired by the red rock formations of Sedona, Arizona. But it’s the briny smokiness from the caponata, paired with the char on the fall squash, that will make you think of a high-end backyard barbecue. A citrusy mount of cold Israeli couscous cools things off in the right way, creating a dish that offers both balance and finesse.

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER Have we all officially reached cauliflower overload yet? Perhaps, but there’ s always room for a preparation like this one, which bravely attempts to coat bronzed cauliflower in a rich peanut sauce.

Sound a bit odd? Well, it certainly doesn’t taste it, Abigail’s American Bistro is located at 493 Rogers in large part because this creative little veggiefriendly small plate binds together the sweet miso, Williams Avenue, Highland Park, (847) 780-4862. creamy tahini and peanut bits into a savory caramel. Please visit abigails493.com for more information.

| SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018

THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

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SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018 |

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R E A L E S TAT E

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This property is exclusively presented by Teri Lester of Engel and Volkers in Vail, 970-376-0779, teri.lester@engelvoelkers.com or teri.lester@evusa.com.

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This property is exclusively presented by Michael O’Glee through Real Estate of the Summit, Breckenridge, 970-453-1450, mopmanagement@gmail.com, realestateofthesummit.com.

ADDRESS: 103 Pine Street, Breckenridge, CO DETAILS: Mountain vista from in-town location PRICE: $2,650,000

For those who crave the mountain air but still want to be within walking distance of town, this exceptional modern mountain contemporary home is the best of both worlds. Stroll the trail outside your door to Main Street or head east to hiking and biking. Superior craftsmanship can be found throughout this residence. The interior design, fit and finish is nothing short of outstanding — sure to be applauded by the most discerning buyer. You’ll also be able to soak up panoramic views, huge garage, and a smart floorplan. With a location bordering the Lincoln Street Trail on its south boundary, walking into town will be a breeze.

This property is exclusively presented by Carol Gutter, Real Estate of the Summit, Breckenridge, 970-453-1450, carol@realestateofthesummit.com.

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| SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018

THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

SPORTS

FIND MORE SPORTS AT DAILYNORTHSHORE.COM

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @tnswsports

The Top 18 in ’18

BY BILL MCLEAN THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

The year 2018 is at the end of the fourth quarter, in the third-set tiebreaker of a tennis match, on the 18th hole, in the 12th event at a swimming and diving meet, in the homestretch of a cross country race.

Now is a good time to look back at the year’s top 18 sports stories generated by outstanding teams and individuals from The North Shore Weekend coverage area.

Only accomplishments at high school varsity events were considered.

er Jake Novak drives in a pair of runs.

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New Trier’s boys basketball team reaches a Class 4A sectional final after stunning Niles North 77-72 in two overtimes in a sectional semifinal.

Serious one-liner: Trevians points guard Andrew Kirkpatrick scores seven points in the final 1:03 of regulation to force OT.

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1

Loyola Academy’s football team defeats Brother Rice 13-3 in the Class 8A title game in Champaign for the program’s third state championship.

Serious one-liner: Ramblers junior point guard and St. Louis University recruit Julia Martinez — a Class 3A/4A first team all-stater and an integral player for LA’s Class 4A volleyball supersectional qualifier — finishes with averages of 9.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists.

Serious one-liner: The Ramblers finish with an 11-3 record after a 3-3 start, thanks largely to a stout defense (combined 33 points allowed in five playoff games) featuring senior all-state defensive back Jake Gonzalez.

2

New Trier High School senior swimmer Charlie Scheinfeld captures four gold medals, paces Trevians to their first state swimming and diving title since 2013.

Serious one-liner: Scheinfeld clocks a staterecord 53.6 in a 100-yard breaststroke preliminary heat, motors to his third state title in the event the next day, tops the field in the 200 IM and swims on two victorious relays.

3

Loyola Gold boys hockey team defeats Stevenson 4-2 at United Center for its first Amateur Hockey Association Illinois (AHAI) state title in 22 years.

Serious one-liner: LA Gold senior captain Danny Stevens notches a team-high 60 points (23 goals, 37 assists), and senior goaltender Hugh Brady (40-6, 17 shutouts) finishes with a .945 save percentage and a 1.1 goals-against average.

4

Loyola Academy’s boys lacrosse team (22-3) takes home the inaugural Illinois High School Association (IHSA) state championship trophy in the sport after downing New Trier 7-2 in Hinsdale.

Serious one-liner: Rambles middie Timmy Hackett strikes for the first of his two goals 35 seconds after the game-opening face-off.

5

Highland Park High School junior and first-year prep competitor Kevin Connors collects six medals at the boys gymnastics state meet, including one for tying for first place in the all-around (55.6 points).

Serious one-liner: Connors also earns gold medals on the still rings (9.6) and parallel bars THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

Loyola Academy’s girls basketball team (25-6) advances to a Class 4A sectional final.

WAIT FOR IT … : Loyola Academy head football coach John Holecek (center, gray coat) and his Ramblers prepare to celebrate the team’s 13-3 defeat of Brother Rice at the Class 8A state championship game in Champaign. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER

(9.55) at the state meet.

6

Lake Forest High School sophomore Kiley Rabjohns nets the Class 2A girls tennis state singles title.

Serious one-liner: Rabjohns, the first Scout in program history to win a state singles title, goes 32-0 in 2018.

7

New Trier’s field hockey team (17-1) defeats two-time reigning state champion Lake Forest High School 3-0 in the Illinois High School Field Hockey Association state championship game.

Serious one-liner: With Trevians senior Emmaliese Lauber (9-1) in goal, junior midfielder Grace Harris whacks a pair of goals and delivers an assist at the other end of the field in the title contest.

8

New Trier’s girls ice hockey team (125-1) routs reigning AHAI state champion Glenbrook South 5-1 in the state title game at United Center.

Serious one-liner: NT sophomore Kate McLaughlin scores two goals, junior goaltender Abby Wieczorek protects the nets, and sophomore winger Mae Olshansky ends up leading the team in goals (34) and points (48).

9

Serious one-liner: Raiders sophomore Claudia Miller earns runner-up honors in singles, two spots ahead of freshman sister Vivian Miller.

10

New Trier’s girls soccer team (241-2) bows 2-1 in penalty kicks to Barrington High School in the Class 3A state title match — a rematch of the 2017 Class 3A title match, won by BHS, also via PKs. Serious one-liner: Trevians junior goalkeeper Meghan Dwyer makes three PK saves a day after sophomore teammate Emma Weaver’s three-assist match in 4-0 state semifinal defeat of Andrew High School.

11

New Trier freshman Kaelyn Gridley touches first in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:02.68) and races for a pair of top-eight relays at the girls swimming and diving state meet.

Serious one-liner: The Trevians’ third-place effort in the team standings is the program’s 10th top-three showing at state in the past 14 years.

12

Loyola Academy’s baseball team tops Evanston Township High School 9-3 to reach a Class 4A supersectional.

North Shore Country Day School’s girls tennis team wins its second Serious one-liner: Ramblers senior pitcher Ben straight Class 1A state championship. Wagner goes the distance, and junior outfield-

15

Highland Park junior Taylor Gilling zips to runner-up honors in the 200-meter dash (schoolrecord 24.37) and takes fourth in the 100 (school-record 11.89) at the Class 3A girls track and field state meet in Charleston.

Serious one-liner: Gilling sets a program record for points earned (14 — 8 for second place, 6 for fourth) by an individual at a state meet.

16

North Shore Country Day School sophomore midfielder/forward Edith Edwards-Mizel burns IC Catholic Prep with a four-goal performance in a 7-1 girls soccer victory at the Class 1A River Forest Supersectional at Concordia College. The Raiders would place a program-best second at the state tournament.

Serious one-liner: Edwards-Mizel needs only five minutes — the first five minutes of the supersectional — to achieve a hat trick.

17

New Trier seniors Patrick Ryan (145 pounds) and Jack Tangen (152) place third in their respective weight classes at the Class 3A wrestling state tournament in Champaign.

Serious one-liner: Ryan finishes with a 48-1 season mark, Tangen 45-3

18

Lake Forest High School junior Nathan Schmitt hustles to runnerup honors (14:47.96) at the Class 2A boys cross country state meet in Peoria.

Serious one-liner: Schmitt becomes only the fourth Scout in program history to finish in the top five at state.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018 |

13

S U N D AY B R E A K FA S T

Triple threat a first-rate teacher

BY BILL MCLEAN ILLUSTRATION BY BARRY BLITT

A chorus member named Stacey first meets a chorus member named Liz in the dressing room at Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. It’s 1997. Each gets ready to perform in Kismet, a musical set in a fictional Baghdad.

It’s 2018, late fall. Former Kismet chorus member Stacey Flaster chats about former Kismet chorus member Liz Fauntleroy from a booth seat at Country Kitchen in Highland Park. Five years ago Flaster, a private acting coach, approached Fauntleroy, a private voice coach, with a business proposal.

“I said, ‘Let’s start a school,’ ” the 47-year-old Flaster recalls. “We’d been friends for so many years. She loves the performing arts, and so do I. She always knows what I’m thinking; I always know what she’s thinking.

Liz is warm and kind and fun and funny.

“She makes me laugh.”

Both got serious and launched The Performer’s School (TPS) in 2013. Students (ages 8-18) continue to grow as performers in a room at the Don Skrinar Recreation Center in Highwood. The TPS mission is to become the North Shore’s premier performance studio for young people, specializing in improving their self-confidence, self-awareness, skills and creativity as they embark on their performing journeys.

The school produces at least two shows and offers 12 workshops each year. Yossi Chaikin, co-dance captain and swing in the Chicago company of the Broadway play Hamilton: An American Musical, taught a TPS Hamilton Dance Workshop in November.

More than 100 budding and established performers receive invaluable instruction from award-winning teachers, directors and choreographers.

That Flaster-Fauntleroy meeting, 20-plus years ago, during the Kismet run at Marriott Theatre?

Must have been … kismet.

Flaster lives in Highland Park; Fauntleroy resides in Lincolnshire.

“I love kids, immensely. I love working with kids,” says Flaster, the mother of Jackson, 12, and Melanie, 9. “It’s incredibly rewarding, what I get to see from our students at the school.

The school allows me opportunities to create emotional and intellectual connections with my students. I encourage our performers to take risks, to trust their instincts. I’m big on constructive criticism, but I also believe in the importance of showing love, support and kindness. You’d be amazed at what performing well in front of an audience does for a young person’s self-esteem.

“One of my strengths is bringing out the strengths in people.”

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Stacey Flaster

Flaster, who grew up in Glencoe, said hello to acting with her portrayal of the sad girl in Bye Bye Birdie in a Central School (grade 5-8) production. She later attended the musical 42nd Street in Chicago, and that did it — hooked her. On musicals. For good. Flaster earned the lead role of Miss Adelaide in the musical Guys and Dolls in her senior year at New Trier High School.

Darrelyn Marx, an NTHS choral and theater teacher at the time, brought out the best in Flaster.

The date of Flaster’s Graduation Day at NTHS was June 7, 1989. But she prefers to verbalize the date differently.

“I graduated on 6/7/89,” Flaster says, her excitement level reaching that of a youngster who had just seen the “100” at the top of her very first math test.

“You can’t forget a date like that.”

Flaster stuck with the arts at the University of Illinois, whirling her way to a BFA in dance. She played Anita in West Side Story at Station Theatre in Urbana.

“After college,” she says, “I played Jet and Shark girls in the musical. I’ve played every female role there is in West Side Story … but not at the same time.”

Flaster evolved into a veritable triple threat (actress, singer, dancer) in the professional arenas of performing arts. The busy, highly successful daughter of proud parents Sandy and Nancy also stood out as a director of musicals (30 and counting) and choreographer, including her Jeff Awardwinning production of A Class Act for Porchlight Music Theatre in Chicago. She served as choreography consultant for the Ron Howard-directed film The Dilemma (2011), starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, and completed a similar stint for a Lunchables television commercial.

Flaster has directed and choreographed for shows presented at Marriott Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Theatre at the Center, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Music Theater Works (formerly Light Opera Works) and Noble Fool Theatricals, among other venues.

A student who takes private lessons from Flaster auditioned for a role in the Broadway musical

| SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 2018

I encourage our performers to take risks, to trust their instincts. I’m big on constructive criticism, but I also believe in the importance of showing love, support and kindness.

Frozen. Another student, applying to college theater programs, needed Flaster’s counsel and encouragement while preparing to audition for the coveted spots; each theater program accepted her. The winner of the 2017 Illinois High School Music Theater award for Best Actress is a polished TPS product. Other TPS students landed roles in Trix cereal and Belk department store TV commercials.

“This career of mine, the wonderful experiences I continue to have through the arts, would not have been possible without the support of my amazing, never-judgmental parents,” says Flaster, who had ordered coffee with cream, grilled pita triangles, wheat toast (“Burn it,” she insisted) and an omelet packed with mozzarella broccoli, green peppers, mushrooms, spinach and onions.

“Perfect,” she adds. “My parents are perfect.”

Her workout regimen the previous week, a mix of CrossFit sessions and Shri Yoga Center classes in Highland Park?

Not perfect.

“I missed a workout, and it’s still bothering me,” Flaster, scowling and smiling at the same time, says.

Flaster then loses the scowl. Dwelling on the past is counterproductive in her energetic world.

She has kids at home to raise, students on stages to teach and inspire, kettleballs to swing, thoughts of returning to her roles as a professional choreographer and director of musicals to ponder. Busy.

Stacey Flaster is still busy.

And loving every manic minute.

“Don’t look back,” Flaster says. “You’re not going that way.”

Please visit theperformersschool.com and staceyflaster.com for more information.

THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

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