Twenty-two years ago, J.R. Willard-Rose was in his first year of teaching theater at Homewood-Flossmoor High School.
His first production as a director was “Medea” and on the day of tryouts, then-sophomore Anne Litchfield showed up.
Litchfield said she had been performing since she was 3 and her first role was as an octopus in a summer production of “Little Mermaid,” but said she performed in other plays and musicals because it was fun.
She also had cheerleading tryouts the same day as the “Medea” auditions
“I auditioned for ‘Medea’ in my cheerleading uniform,” she said. “And at that moment in time, I decided that performing was the direction I wanted to go.”
Flash forward to 2024. Litchfield, whose married name is Calderon, is now a colleague with Willard-Rose as a teacher and director at H-F. They both have helped mold the careers of many students including recent graduate Jazmin Rhodes.
The trio of Willard-Rose, Calderon and Rhodes all earned big awards this year.
Calderon was the director of this year’s production of “Urinetown,” and it was named Best Production by the Broadway in Chicago Illinois High School Musical Theatre Awards in May.
Homewood-Flossmoor High School
Homewood-Flossmoor High School graduate Jazmin Rhodes was one of the top high school actresses in the country. (Homewood-Flossmoor High School)
Rhodes, who starred in the production, was an Illinois High School Theatre Award winner, which allowed her to compete for Jimmy Awards in New York in June, allowing her to perform on a Broadway stage.
The honors didn’t take a summer break as Willard-Rose won the Illinois Theatre Association’s Award of Excellence in Secondary School Theater in July and was honored in early August in Aurora.
Also winning state recognition from the school were student performers Stella Hoyt, Bryce Stewart and Gabriel McKinney.
As the 2024-25 school year begins, it will be tough to repeat the success of 2023-24, but winning awards is not the endgame for what the theater group is trying to accomplish, Calderon said.
“Theater should be fun and a way to create art and allow audiences to escape their realities for a while,” she said. “If we are doing that, we have done our job.
“If we win an award along the way, that’s just the cherry on top.”
Willard-Rose will direct the spring musical and has a tough act to follow with the “Urinetown” production.
Homewood-Flossmoor High School
Homewood-Flossmoor teacher J.R. Willard-Rose won a state award of excellence this year. (Homewood-Flossmoor High School)
He should be up for the task. He has some impressive directorial chops and directed professional productions in Chicago, Hastings, England and Edinburgh, Scotland.
He has a laundry list of accomplishments, but he is proud of watching his Homewood-Flossmoor students succeed.
“We’ve had a lot of great successes with students,” Willard-Rose said. “I think I’ve had 10 kids make it to Broadway and there are a couple on Broadway right now. That’s always exciting going to New York and seeing your kids on Broadway. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I keep in touch with them and I like to see them live their dreams.”
He said there are students who may not have graced a Broadway stage but have appeared on television, in films and on commercials while others have made an impression behind the scenes with technical work and management.
Willard-Rose and Calderon are proud of Rhodes and enjoyed cheering her on in New York.
Calderon said 100 students participated in the Jimmy Award competition and estimated Rhodes finished in the top 20 in the country.
Rhodes, who also attended workshops with Broadway veterans and the Tony Awards during the trip, said having mentors such as Willard-Rose and Calderon helped her career.
Rhodes said she is happy the two were a part of winning high-level honors this year.
“They are just so deserving,” Rhodes said. “I loved working with them for all four years. You can just tell that they care so much about the work that they are doing. It’s not just a day job for them. They really care about theater and education and crafting the next generation of stars.”
Meanwhile, Calderon stopped performing as she is busy raising a family. She hopes to return because performing has given her some wonderful memories, including a two-weekend run in 2012 with a group on the stage at Governors State University. She played the starring role of Ellie Woods in a production of “Legally Blonde.”
“It was my favorite role,” Calderon said. “It was actually a challenging, but it was also a delight.”
And during the curtain call of the final performance, another cast member, Fidel Calderon, had a question for her.
“That’s when he proposed to me,” she said. “So, for a lot of reasons, it was my favorite production.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
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