Sophomore Abri Berg felt like it was her first day at a new school. She had applied her makeup in painstaking detail. She had curled her jet black hair. She had elegantly draped herself in black from head to toe.

She gingerly ascended the pebble-grey cement stairs in her black fringe boots making loud contact. Then, she found herself staring at a silent hallway filling with people.  Complete strangers. Complete silence.

As she proceeded forward and felt the met with stares, her ears met an angelic voice that gradually became more audible. She could sense a cordial atmosphere, from which she felt isolated, permeating the hallway. They were dressed in sweatpants and sweatshirts. She was dressed in black pants and heeled boots.

Quietly, the strangers conversed. Berg, however, just looked down at the paper in front of her. Then she waited. And waited. And heard a voice. “Abri Berg!” While a woman led her to the room across the thin wall, Berg contemplated the judgment coming from the strangers on the other side.

The voluminous room into which she walked was surrounded almost completely by mirrors. Most intimidating of all, a bright red “x” lay on the wooden floor indicating where she should stand, while a Macintosh computer lay open to Photo Booth facing her. Her hands shook, her heart pounded rapidly as Photo Booth began to count down. 3…2…1

“Mama who bore me, mama who gave me…” she began with nearly professional voice modulation. As she proceeded, her voice never quivered and, in the process of belting out the final chorus, the pianist stopped playing. The director told her to stop. Berg was mortified. Three days later, she received the leading role.

Berg, a singer almost since birth, will play the lead role, Veronica Sawyer, in the high school version of “Heathers: The Musical,” which opens on March 17 at the Devonshire Playhouse, in Skokie. In addition, sophomore Isabel Olesinski will also perform in the musical, portraying “Young Republicanette”—a role demanding vocal versatility.

Berg first approached Olesinski to see if she was interested in auditioning. “We both love the show. I got the email, and I told her I was auditioning for it,” Berg said. “She was like, ‘Oh! I want to audition for it too.’”

Olesinski has enjoyed the show for a long time.“It’s dark, it’s sinister, but it’s also really fun,” Olesinski said. “The music is great, and there’s just a lot of different types of characters, and it just relates to high school so much.”

Olesinski and Berg’s love for the show persists, despite the immense time commitment it takes to produce. They rehearse for the show three nights a week—Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, school nights. On Monday and Tuesday nights, they rehearse from 6:30 to 9:30 in Skokie, approximately forty minutes away from Berg’s house.

Olesinski went to New York’s theater district for the first time last summer, and she considers the experience transformative. “It was amazing,” Olesinski said. “I loved it so much, and I saw a few Broadway shows then.” After seeing “Dear Evan Hansen,” “The Book of Mormon,” and “Kinky Boots,” and many of the actors in those shows, Olesinski could tell that Broadway was her calling.

Berg is also attached to Broadway. “For a while, I just wanted to do something involved with Broadway,” Berg said, “And I didn’t know if I wanted to be onstage or offstage.” She attended French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts, a nationally known theater camp in upstate New York. A number of her fellow campers had been on Broadway before.

Berg’s career in acting has been assisted by Parker’s arts program. “Theater at Parker has helped me meet a bunch of other people who are also interested in what I’m interested in, and do a lot of activities,” Berg said, “such as performing around the city with Grape Jam, which I enjoy.”

Grape Jam has also allowed Berg to connect with music teacher Sunnie Hikawa, who assisted both Berg and Olesinski on their respective audition songs. “Both of them asked me if I would help them prepare for the audition, which I’m happy to do,” Hikawa said, “because I’ve done many auditions on both sides of the table. I’ve auditioned and I’ve also been on the other side, judging.”

Hikawa believes that she provided them with meaningful feedback. “If they’ve been in my program, like Abri has, then I understand what strengths and challenges they face,” Hikawa said. “I think that’s really helpful to them. I feel really proud of Abri, and I’m not going to take credit for her success, but I have been working with her because she’s been in my class, and I actually know a lot about her abilities. So I could tailor my coaching exactly to what I thought would help her impress the judges the most. And she got the lead—which I’m just thrilled about—and I think partly it’s because I was able to tell what her strengths were.”

After applying Hikawa’s advice, Berg and Olesinski received roles that please them. “For some kids, doing performing arts here at Parker inspires them,” Hikawa said. “It’s something new they haven’t experienced before, and they’re really excited about it. The program at Parker complements the work they do outside of Parker in performing arts and, I think, trains them well for doing performing arts outside of Parker.”

The Parker program, according to Hikawa, is also about self-discovery. “The process that they go through here really helps them learn about who they are, learn how to take responsibility, how to take risks, how to rise to challenges, how to step outside your comfort zone, how to be reliable,” Hikawa said. “Skills that will help you no matter what you do.”