Kevin Holly

Long after the curtain falls and the auditorium clears, Mr. Kevin Holly is still there—adjusting lights, straightening props and making sure every detail is just right. For over 29 years, he’s seen many kids take the stage at LHS, some bold, some timid, all of them leaving a little more confident than they arrived.

His love for theater began, like many others, within his own high school program. With his own theater director out on maternity leave for the majority of his junior year, Mr. Holly felt like something was missing from his experience.

“I felt like my high school was lacking,” he said. “So, I wanted to make it better.”

With that promise to himself, Mr. Holly graduated from Rockford University and began his career in theater education. With 38 years in education overall, he feels lucky to have confidently found his calling early on.

“I felt like what I wanted to do with my life was to be a high school teacher and teach,” Mr. Holly said. “I knew what I wanted to do, and I went and did that.”

To him, theater, especially at LHS, is more than what happens under the lights; it’s what happens within the students who stand beneath them. From the depths of the Green Room to high up in the Sound Booth, he’s seen students come together and grow into a community, truly accepting of all.

“My goal isn’t to create Broadway actors,” he said. “It’s to create confident young adults.”

Though creating Broadway stars isn’t his goal, some students have gone on to do just that. In his first year directing the winter play, he noticed future Tony-nominated Phillipa Soo as an expressive, talented freshman, and casted her as Miss Marple in the 2006 production of “A Murder Is Announced.”

After nearly three decades at LHS, Mr. Holly isn’t just close to retiring from a job; he’s leaving behind a program built on collaboration, belonging and the belief that students can create something extraordinary. The lights will still rise, the curtains will continue to fall, but Mr. Holly’s influence will linger in every confident voice that steps into the spotlight.

Mr. Blair

Before he was teaching students how to handle power tools backstage at LHS, Mr. Jeremy Blair was sitting in a theater in Munich, Germany, falling in love with the magic of theater.

“The show was West Side Story,” he said. “I was hooked ever since.”

Born in Hawaii and raised in a military family that moved from place to place, Mr. Blair found himself in the halls of Libertyville High School his freshman year.

“It’s surreal sometimes,” Mr. Blair said. “I remember being the kid backstage, trying to figure everything out. I sat in these same seats, watching the lights come up.”

With the support of his directors and their program, it was at LHS where Mr. Blair realized his love for the arts could be more than a hobby. In pursuit of his interests, he attended Augustana College, where he met Mr. Christopher Thomas, the current Theater Director for the fall, spring and the freshman-sophomore productions.

Years later, that connection has come full circle.

Today, Mr. Blair teaches art at Greenbrier Elementary School in Northbrook, Illinois. But each winter, he returns to the Studio Theater where his own passion first took shape, to help with the production of the freshman/sophomore play.

“It’s a different experience,” Mr. Blair said. “I can actually speak to them as young adults, and they take to [using the tools] really easily.”

Beyond sawdust and stage lights, he sees technical theater as a lesson in problem-solving and independence. He believes that these skills are highly transferable, even if students don’t continue theater in the future.

“Wouldn’t it be cool to work on shows together as adults?” Mr. Blair said. “And here [Mr. Thomas and I] are doing shows together as adults.”