If I were to crack open a dictionary, flip through the worn pages and slide my finger across the page to the word productive, the picture below would be Kaitlyn Urbanowitzc. Aside from being an active member of the Student Council Executive Board, a part of Glenbard South High School’s Principal’s Advisory Board, math team, NHS and an editor for the Independent, Urbanowitzc can now add South’s first ever student producer and playwright to their long resume of accomplishments. This year, South’s theatre department will be performing a live stage adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are as their fall play. The show is produced and adapted by Glenbard South Senior Urbanowitzc and directed by Glenbard South Junior Olivia Abbott.

I was intrigued by the idea of a student produced show and so when I sat down with the student behind it all, Senior Kaitlyn Urbanowitzc, I was determined to get the details behind the show and find out what the process of adapting a children’s book to a stage was like. Urbanowitz reported that they felt tremendously overwhelmed at first and had no idea what the show would look like in the beginning. They continued on to say, “After I wrote the script, it all kind of started coming together, and I was a lot less nervous. Once I had a physically edited script that people were collaborating on, I was like, Oh, I can do this. I’ve done this before with my own theater productions. So now it’s just honestly, more resources”. The process began with an independent study focused on playwriting and producing with South’s theatre teacher Ms. Keuth-Rahtjen While Urbanowitzc has  been the student director for previous shows at south, production and adaptation was a completely new perspective. Keuth-Rahtjen and Urbanowitzc began collaborating on the script, taking into account the fact that they were adapting a children’s story into a show for a smilarly-aged audience. . They set out hoping to convey the true love they had felt for the story both as children and in the present time.

However, that was only the beginning of the challenge of creating their own script. As Urbanowitzc began to annotate and note key moments in the book, the question of how to keep the story authentic to the source material while still making it unique rose about. When asked about this, Urbanowitzc explained that they were very clear and careful while adding in specific moments and lines of dialogue, working to make this new version feel like the original book. One key difference from the original book is that the monsters in the stage version are given specific personalities to portray the “worst” aspects of the main character’s personality, such as Whiny (played by Amelia Guetzow) or Rude (portrayed by Alaina Burke). Once the script was written,  the work of taking the show from a mere children’s story to a full stage production began and the torch was passed to director Liv Abbott, who started the casting process. This was a very important part of the process for the producer as well the director, Urbanowictz informing me of how this would help them build a career in theater, saying, “I think just learning to, you know, step back, especially when other people are working on, like, art that you’ve previously created, it’s a tough lesson, definitely, but one that’s super important in the world of theater and an arts career”.

The student-led production team began to collaborate through weekly meetings overseen by Abbott and Urbanowitzc. From the beautiful book-cover-inspired backdrop suggested by scenic designer Breanne Crawford to the upbeat Wild Rumpus accompaniment created by sound designer Erin Egan, this student led production has really shined in all aspects of a show,  leading to the  wild (pun intended) success of South’s first ever student-produced show. Kaitlin Urbanowitzc, the producer behind it all, has shown us what young people can accomplish not only at Glenbard South, but in the world of theater as a whole. They have demonstrated amazing respect for their peers and responsibility in being the first student to write and produce a play in the department as well as an incredible image of what it means to be a Raider. And of course, how to be a master in productivity.