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U-46 Teacher Named Executive Director
of the 2024 Illinois High School Theatre Festival

March 25, 2022

Hector Hernandez, director of the Sabre Ensemble Theatre at Streamwood High School, has been named Executive Director of the 2024 Illinois High School Theatre Festival at Illinois State University in Normal.hector hernandez headshot

“This is something I have been working toward and have wanted for years,” Hernandez said of the Executive Director appointment, during a telephone interview. “I am looking forward to leaving my mark on the 38th Annual Illinois High School Theatre Festival.”

Thousands of students, teachers, directors and theater sponsors from across the state attend the non-competitive festival.

Hernandez has already chosen a theme for the 2024 fest - “We shine brighter together.”

“That theme is the model that I run my (Streamwood High School) theater by,” Hernandez said. “I tell the students, ‘I am not looking for stars. I am looking for constellations. Because we shine brighter together.’”

As Executive Director, Hernandez will be in charge of putting together the committee that runs the theater festival. He will work on the event’s opening ceremonies, and will select the director of the all-state production. Students from across Illinois will take part in the show that is the “highlight of the fest,” Hernandez said. He estimates that more than 4,000 students will watch the all-state production in 2024.

While he is starting to prepare for 2024, Hernandez is currently serving as the 2023 Illinois High School Theatre Festival’s secretary. 

And of course, he continues to serve as director of theater productions at Streamwood High School. Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town’ is the school’s spring show that will run from April 27-30.

Calling “Our Town” one of the most beautiful plays he has ever read, Hernandez said the focus of the work is “the beauty in the everyday.”

“The perfect moments in life are not the big events,” Hernandez said. “It’s the little things that will impact us the most.”

For more information on the Illinois High School Theatre Festival, visit www.illinoistheatrefest.org. For information on “Our Town” at Streamwood High School, visit www.streamwoodtheatre.com.