It’s Showtime Theatre of Huntley has its first breathe of life as a concept pitched to the Huntley Park District in 2017.

In 2018 we staged our first production – a musical revue entitled Ticket to Broadway. Directed by Aaron Gomez, with vocal direction by James Gritschke, Ticket to Broadway offered a fun and entertaining peak at songs from Broadway’s biggest hits presented by an ensemble of the area’s best voices.

In 2019, Aaron Gomez returned to It’s Showtime to stage another musical revue: Magical Musicals & Pixie Dust – Celebrating the Music of the Mouse. Joining Aaron on the artistic staff were vocal director Charlie Sommers and choreographer Shannon Lee Day. It was a spectacularly well received entertainment event that had people dancing in their seats.

Later in 2019 we premiered our first ‘Night at the Movies’ with White Christmas Sing-a-Long, where we in the audience enjoyed blending our voices with those of Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen as they entertained us on the silver screen.

2020 was supposed to be a big year for It’s Showtime Theatre of Huntley.

We started off with a new free improv training incubator for students age teen -20. Under the tutelage of Advisory Committee member Chris Griffin, the troupe explored different facets of improv comedy and other theatrical areas of study.

The best of the improv student actors were then brought together to take the stage in a command performance. On March 6, 2020 It’s Showtime Improv premiered to an enthusiastic crowd. It was the first of what we hope will be an ongoing series of ‘Night at the Improv’ type events in our beautiful Cosman Theater performing space in the Huntley Park District.

We had planned to offer three mainstage productions in 2020: School House Rock Live Jr. from director/choreographer Shannon Lee Day and musical director James Gritschke, William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing directed by Roger Zawacki, and the hysterical comedy I Hate Hamlet directed by Gina Belt-Daniels.

In February, as we all know, our world changed with the first U.S. case of COVID-19. Government mandated quarantining and social distancing in turn greatly affected It’s Showtime Theatre of Huntley.

However, we must also be cognizant of medical safety protocols meant to protect the citizens of our community.

As such, we are focusing all of our efforts to still bring School House Rock Live Jr. to the stage this year, hopefully in November. Much Ado About Nothing and I Hate Hamlet will be performed in 2021.

On behalf of the Advisory Committee, I thank each and everyone of our past and future patrons and performers. Together we will get through this pandemic and in time we will once again delight the community with more fresh live theatrical entertainment.