Rachel Skillet said, “I sat out there in my grade school class watching the traveling theatre and thought, yeah, I want to do that some day.” Now, ten years later, Ms. Skillet and her fellow cast members in the Lincoln Land Traveling Theatre class will be hitting the road to perform for thousands of “little Rachels.” Ken Bradbury, theatre instructor at the Jacksonville LLCC campus, has announced this year’s lineup of schools. “Some schools we visit every year but there are so many requests that we put them on a rotating basis,” said Bradbury.
This year’s show is called “Operation Superhero,” and tells the story of a young girl who wants super powers. Many well-known heroes including Batman, The Flash and Spiderman will be featured in the performance. “The biggest challenge in this year’s script might be simply getting all the costumes from one place to another,” said Bradbury.
This year’s schedule of performances for December 3 includes: North Jacksonville Elementary, Franklin, Ill., Beardstown Gard and Trinity Lutheran. December 4: North Greene Elementary in Roodhouse, Murrayville Elementary, Lincoln School in Jacksonville and Salem Lutheran. December 10 finds the group traveling to Jacksonville’s Washington School, Central Office Kindergarten, South Jacksonville Elementary and Triopia. A final day of performances on December 11 will visit: Winchester, Meredosia Elementary, Jacksonville’s Eisenhower School and Our Saviors Grade School.
Bradbury has been touring with children’s theatre for 35 years and eight years ago Lincoln Land made the class a part of their curriculum. The students receive dual high school and college credit for the class. Members of this year’s traveling theatre include Marcus Blair, Ally Bunfill, Emily Burns, Elly Crawford, Katia Janes, Abby Link, Bailey Littleton, Kyler Miller, Brenan Pool, Kamryn Portwood, Courtney Privia, Kira Sayre, Rachel Skillet, Ben Stanberry, Mathew Thurman and Hannah Werries.
