Willowbrook hosts State send-off celebration for 2026 Illinois High School Association Contest Play, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’

On March 26, Willowbrook hosted a State send-off celebration for the cast and crew of the school’s 2026 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Contest Play, “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde.

To watch the presentation, click on the video above. To view a photo gallery, see the images below.

The performance qualified for the IHSA Drama State Competition after winning the IHSA Sectional Competition on March 21 at West Chicago Community High School with a perfect score. State takes place on March 27 and 28 at Reavis High School in Burbank.

“The Importance of Being Earnest” is a farcical comedy that tells the story of two bachelors who invent false identities to escape responsibilities, leading to romantic complications, mistaken identities and parody of Victorian society. According to www.wikipedia.org, the play depicts “the tangled affairs of two young men … who lead double lives to evade unwanted social obligations, both assuming the name Ernest while wooing the two young women of their affections.”

The following Willowbrook students earned All-Sectional Cast honors:

• Junior Kasey Barnett (Algernon Moncrieff)
  
  
• Junior Konstantine Gzamouranis (Jack Worthing)
  
  
• Senior Malachy Heneghan (Lady Bracknell)
  
  
• Sophomore Niamh Lashmet (Gwendolen Fairfax)
  
  
• Senior Sadie Perez (Miss Prism)
  
  
• Sophomore Shem Rodrigues (Lane and Merriman)
  
  
• Freshman Ashlyn Ruane (Cecily Cardew)

The play is directed by Regina Wathier, and the traveling team is composed of 69 students, along with several staff members.