Directing a play about a pair of high school students seems like a natural fit for Lincolnshire resident Scott Shallenbarger. After all, he was the Director of Theatre Arts at Highland Park High School for 33 years before retiring in 2023.
Shallenbarger is directing the two-person play, “I and You” by Lauren Gunderson, which runs from Feb. 21-March 23, with previews Feb. 19-20, at Citadel Theatre in Lake Forest.
The play is about two American teenagers. Caroline is homebound because of a chronic illness. Her classmate Anthony unexpectedly arrives at her home so that they can complete an urgent school assignment about Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”
The director offered high praise for the playwright’s skill in creating teenage characters. “She finds their depth, she finds their intelligence,” Shallenbarger said. “And I love this about teenagers — even in the darkest times, they’re able to find humor in things and they find each other as peers to walk through the darkness with.”
“I and You” concludes with one of the reasons that Shallenbarger wanted to direct this show. “I can’t give away any spoilers,” he said. “The ending is an incredible, surprising, beautiful event.”
Shallenbarger cast Jay Westbrook, a 2023 graduate of ChiArts High School, as Anthony and recent college graduate Amia Korman as Caroline.
“It was glorious every minute,” Shallenbarger said of his years at Highland Park High School. “Highland Park is a very arts-supporting community. I was very fortunate, at the young age 23 when they hired me, that I was able to not only direct three mainstage productions a year in the afterschool, extra-curriculum program, but I actually had a curriculum during daytime classes that students could take that was a collegiate model of acting, directing, and playwriting training.”
Shallenbarger indicated that he loved working with high school students at the school. “They are so deeply passionate,” he explained. “Their emotions are on their sleeve. They’re incredibly honest most of the time. They’re so open to everything.”
Shallenbarger was so loved and admired at Highland Park High School that at his retirement celebration in May of 2023, the Scott “Shall” Shallenbarger Award was announced in honor of his years at the school. The award is presented annually to a graduating senior to support their future education and/or endeavors.
“It was really exciting. It was meaningful,” Shallenbarger said of the surprise announcement of the award at the retirement event. “I was so happy a scholarship was created for kids that could go on and pursue their arts training post-high school.”
In his early years at Highland Park High School, Shallenbarger would teach during the day, direct the after-school productions, and then head to the city to direct off-Loop theater productions.
“I felt so lucky to get professional experience in those environments,” Shallenbarger said. “Then I got older and had children and I was no longer able to do the evening work in the city. That’s why when I retired, I was so excited to jump back into other work.”
Shallenbarger was also active in theater when he was in high school. “It actually saved my life in the sense that I came from a dysfunctional home,” he declared. “I grew up in a rural northern Illinois town. It was a little provincial. We never went to the theater — we didn’t have the money. When I started in the after-school program, it was the first place I felt I belonged — that my identity was honored. It became a very nurturing place. I fell in love with theater because I could be me there.”
Shallenbarger praised his very supportive mother’s role. “She’s been my cheerleader my whole life,” he said.
He continued his love of theater by earning an undergraduate degree in theater education and performance from Illinois State University and a graduate degree from Northwestern University.
And then, of course, he worked at Highland Park High School for 33 years, which Shallenbarger is convinced helps him to direct “I and You.”
“I feel like, in my directing choices and in my actor coaching, I am able to intuitively guide these two characters without questioning their motives,” he said. “I’m not suspicious of the characters. I believe in them.”
For reservations and more information about “I and You,” visit citadeltheatre.org.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.