The Musical Illinoise, Based on Illinois - Felix

What Are the Best Live Theatrical Performances You’ve Ever Seen? - Felix Mason 

Illinoise, a Broadway musical based on Sufjan Stephen’s album Illinois, revolves around Henry and his various reflections on his life (specifically the dynamic with his two closest friends) and other characters sharing their stories around a campfire with musical numbers for each story. Considered critically acclaimed, the production received several nominations and won Best Choreography at the Tony Awards, a fairly prestigious award show for Broadway musicals (“Illinoise”). Christian Lewis, a writer from Variety, describes Stephen’s album Illinois as “whimsical, earnest, and sorrowful; it weaves together events and figures from Illinois history (including UFO sightings, Pullman cars, the World’s Fair of 1893, and the Lincoln/Douglas debates) with biblical allusions and feelings of shame and loss.” These themes of his album are translated into the musical with key songs like “Chicago” and “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!*” to represent Henry’s experiences.

*Note: The spelling of “Illinois” in this song is then used in the name of the musical as a play on words (emphasizing noise); it is not an error for any that are confused.

When I first heard of the musical, my parents were telling me about our upcoming trip to New York City. I was fairly excited but wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the musical we were planning to see. My dad was looking forward to it the most, and I knew that his enjoyment would make me feel happy so I tried to keep an open mind. I think in the moment, I simply didn’t know what to expect from it because the musical certainly wasn’t one of the more popular productions like Wicked or Chicago. Additionally, I had never heard of Sufjan Stevens or recognized any of his music so I expected my parents to enjoy the musical substantially more than me. However, as I left the theater that night, I was speechless. Little did I know, I had just seen one of the best theatrical productions of my life. 

In my overall short lifetime, I have seen quite a few musicals, of all sorts of different styles and contexts. Yet, Illinoise was the first production to capture my attention entirely and make me interpret every scene’s meaning on my own. I believe this was the first musical I’ve seen that had no dialogue in it, simply songs and choreography. I think it would be of substance to add that the main cast never sang or spoke, there was a band including vocalists that performed all of the songs. This key distinction between Illinoise and other productions increases my appreciation for the musical overall, making it my favorite.

 

While my favorite live theatrical performance is certainly subject to change in the near coming future, at the moment

 I believe that Illinoise is so set apart from others in its genre that it will remain my favorite for a while. Lewis comments, “Storytelling becomes the central device of 

the piece: the stories we tell others, the stories we tell ourselves, the way we recite our own memories, and the power that storytelling can have as a form of emotional release (for those on stage and for us in the audience).” I think that the stated quotation perfectly encapsulates the overall message of Illinoise, a musical that blends the past and the present of shared experiences through choreography.

Works Cited  

Illinoise Playbill. Playbill, https://playbill.com/production/illinoise-broadway-st-james-theatre-2024. Accessed 11 Dec 2025.

"Illinoise." Tony Awards, Tony Award Productions, 2025. https://www.tonyawards.com/shows/illinoise/. 

Lauren, Liz. Dancers in the musical Illinoise. Chicago Sun Times, chicago.suntimes.com/2024/2/4/24061463/illinoise-review-chicago-shakespeare-theater-sufjan-stevens-justin-peck. Accessed 11 Dec 2025.

Lewis, Christian. "'Illinoise' Review: A Thrilling, Genre-Defying Broadway Musical Brings the Sufjan  Stevens Album to Lyrical Life." Penske Media Corporation, Apr 26, 2024. https://variety.com/2024/legit/reviews/illinoise-review-broadway-sufjan-stevens-1235983600/. Accessed 11 Dec 2025.

Murphy, Matthew. Dancers and musicians in the musical Illinoise. Illinoise' Review: A Thrilling, Genre-Defying Broadway Musical Brings the Sufjan Stevens Album to Lyrical Life. https://variety.com/2024/legit/reviews/illinoise-review-broadway-sufjan-stevens-1235983600/. Accessed 11 Dec 2025.

Sports Equipment: Technological Marvels or Unfair Advantages?

Sports equipment can make a big difference in how well an athlete performs, especially in a racing event such as running, swimming, or biking. The drive to create better equipment can lead to technological innovation and get rid of stagnation in world records. However, better shoes, swimsuits, or bikes can give one competitor an edge, leading to an unfair competition in the case that some athletes have better equipment than others. This could also lead to past legends’ legacies getting diminished, because they didn’t have access to the newest equipment. All these pros and cons lead to the main question of whether cutting-edge sports equipment should be allowed in major athletic competitions. I believe there should be restrictions on sports equipment, such as size or weight, so that technology keeps growing but no one piece of equipment completely dominates the others.

There are potential upsides of not setting limits on sports equipment. It would allow researchers to push humans to their theoretical best, and companies would be incentivized to keep innovating in order to have the world record athlete using their product. This would mean technology would not only become better, but the same quality equipment would be able to be bought for cheaper. Another advantage of letting sports equipment develop constantly would be the much more frequent records broken. As technology got better, people would achieve faster and faster times, making sports like running, swimming, and biking more interesting. Personally, I would be much more likely to watch a sport if I had a higher chance of witnessing the fastest time ever, and it would feel amazing if I saw it happen live.

On the other hand, constant improvement could cause the records of previous legends to feel less significant, and it would be hard to tell how good someone was, because they would have just had worse equipment. If Usain Bolt’s record was broken easily by many people with better shoes, people wouldn’t realize how legendary Usain Bolt was, and he might’ve felt like he worked so hard for nothing. It could cause some people to be less motivated, because why train so much and dedicate your life to running if someone with better shoes is going to come along and beat your record anyways? Another downside of cutting-edge sports equipment would be the cost. Buying the most high-tech equipment would give athletes an advantage, but it would also cost a lot of money. And in sports, which many people see as a gateway to escape poverty, gatekeeping the equipment and not allowing people with less money to become elite would shut out a huge population of athletes.

I think the best decision for sporting organizations would be to set limitations on sports equipment that still allow for innovation. For example, World Athletics, the governing body for track and field, set limitations of 20-40 mm as the maximum shoe heel height, depending on the running event (Iskandar). While this creates a restriction, it still allows for innovation by making the goal to make the existing soles more springy, rather than just adding onto the soles. However, it could get harder to set and enforce these limitations in the future. A technology being developed called tDCS could manipulate an athlete’s brain into feeling less fatigued (Witts). In this case, I think this technology should just be banned, as it seems to me like it defeats the purpose of even training endurance and willpower. In general, I think if a technology is on the edge of what seems allowable, it shouldn’t be allowed for major competitions, in order to preserve the nature and accessibility of the sport.

Works Cited

Iskandar, Bree. "Is Technology in the Olympics a Form of Doping or a Reality of

     Modern Sport?" Scientific American, 25 July 2024,

     www.scientificamerican.com/article/

     is-technology-in-the-olympics-a-form-of-doping-or-a-reality-of-modern-sport/.

     Accessed 11 Dec. 2025.

Witts, James. "Technological Doping: The Science of Why Nike Alphaflys Were

     Banned from the Tokyo Olympics." BBC Science Focus, 4 Sept. 2021,

     www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/nike-alphafly-banned-technological-doping.

     Accessed 11 Dec. 2025.

Rissah K - Are you addicted to texting?

     Texting these days is such a common thing that many of us don't even stop to think about how easily it can turn into a real habit. I believe that the way humans tend to use texting leads to addiction and messes with our focus, relationships, and lifestyles, even though it isn't necessarily a bad thing. I know many people who get electrified and immediately need to check their phone when it buzzes. Studies have shown this as irregular teen behavior and it's taking its toll on our brains and emotions.

    A big reason texting can be addictive is because it's how our brains are wired to act when receiving notifications. People who text a lot tend to miss social cues in in-person interactions, according to an NPR article. I see this daily, as many of my friends are constantly glued to their screens. Many people even text each other when they're in the same room, which seems pretty ridiculous! The more we use texting as an escape from talking in real life, the more awkward real conversations are going to get.

    Lastly, late-night texting is another terrible habit. Most teens sleep with their phones next to them in bed so they can reply to messages as soon as possible at unreasonable times. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, unregulated texting makes it harder for younger individuals to remain asleep. Me personally, I sleep with my phone in my parent's bedroom. Not by choice, but I do get better sleep than many of my screenager peers.

    Texting can be a consuming addiction for groups like teenagers who feel their social lives depend on it. The real addiction isn't texting itself, it's the way it can easily take over in-person communication and interaction. Instead of let texting rule our lives, we can set healthy boundaries like silencing notifications and getting off of our phones to go enjoy other things. By recognizing this habit, we have made a step towards progress.

Work cited: 

American Psychological Association. Stress in America: Coping With Change. American Psychological Association, 2017, www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2017/coping-with-change.pdf. 

“Is Your Phone Making You Dumb?” NPR, National Public Radio, 4 Aug. 2014, www.npr.org/2014/08/04/337468846/is-your-phone-making-you-dumb. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sleep and Sleep Disorders. CDC, 2023, www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/index.html.

What Makes Great Leaders - Max Rosochinsky

 What Makes Great Leaders - Max Rosochinsky

    According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, the definition of a leader is “a person in control of a group, country, or situation”. So what would make an exceptional leader? Before we can answer that, the definition of a leader first needs to be made less vague. For example, is a terrorist holding a group of civilians hostage a leader? You can argue that indeed they are, as they do exercise direct control over their hostages. However, this typically goes against our perception of a leader. To prevent this blog from becoming centered around what makes a great terrorist, I will introduce a set of rules. The first one is that the person in question must be a government or military official of some sort. The second one is that they must be generally liked by those they control (excluding Stockholm syndrome). The third one is that they must have some historical or significant event they overcame while they were a leader. It is worth noting that I am only discussing the strategies and the traits that these leaders showed, and don’t necessarily agree with their actions or implications in the world we know today. 

Abraham Lincoln is most often known as the savior of the Union. He led the nation in times of great strife and managed to maintain war support and the stability of his government, organized the shabby Union Army, and all the while fighting an opposing one  of one million men. Due to all of this, historians often rank Abraham Lincoln when comparing him to other U.S. presidents quite highly on the scale for most influential person in office (Villeneuve). However, his achievements were only half the story. Abraham Lincoln is often considered to be an honest man. One popular story reflecting this is that he once traveled miles to return change to a customer. His honesty also most likely helped him win the trust of the people in the dire circumstances. But benign honesty in itself didn’t make Abraham Lincoln. Think about it. In the opening battles of the civil war, the Union experienced loss after loss. Some people started questioning whether to fight the war at all. One less determined and with less integrity than Abe might have folded, but he didn’t. His choice led the Union to victory. Additionally, Abe wasn’t one to sit and watch the fighting going on outside his doorstep. He went out to soldiers under fire, expressing deep empathy for the wounded and boosting the morale of the troops. He was also known to have a relatively calm demeanor, and controlled his emotions. Abe didn’t simply act as Commander in Chief, but also as the therapist, visionary, and inspirationalist. What made Abraham Lincoln a great leader was the honesty he had towards his own people, the empathy he showed to his soldiers and men, his steadfast and unwavering determination to end the war in a Union victory and his coolheaded demeanor.

All these factors might make Abraham Lincoln arguably one of the greatest leaders in history, but there is another question I want to talk about: what makes a great leader in general? There is almost no doubt in my mind that there are people who were or are much greater leaders than Abraham Lincoln, even if put in his very same position simply based on the billions of people who have lived and died on this planet. In my opinion, a great leader is someone who listens to the people, makes unbiased decisions based on their actions and decisions, and is able to represent them. However, nobody can ever be perfectly represented, nor a leader perfectly loved, so a less high line needs to be reached. With that information, a great leader should still strive to make fair and unbiased choices based on his people's opinions. They should be able to be persuasive and honest. Additionally, they need to be empathetic yet also firm in their stances, rarely second guessing themselves and (almost always) putting the facts over the emotions which might result in them.

To summarize this blog, it is relatively hard to become a great leader. You need to be beloved by your people, which rarely is the case in democratic systems by the vast majority, you need to be empathetic, which might often get impeded by politics, and you need to be honest, which also has a chance to fall victim to the nature of politics. Abraham Lincoln was an exception, and managed to fulfill most of these rules to a pretty satisfactory degree. He was a great speaker, organizer, and leader, but yet he still got assassinated by one of the very people he was chosen to represent. There have not been nearly enough people have been given the opportunity to lead a country as necessary to achieve one that is perfect. Which leads us to the question, is any one person truly great? That is for you to decide, but in this blog I will say no. We know “great” leaders mostly for their influence on history and what they did, but rarely so by what they were actually like.

- Max Rosochinsky

Works Cited:

Villeneuve, Andrew. "NPI's founder ranks the presidents, 2025 edition." The

     Cascadia Advocate, 17 Feb. 2025, www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2025/02/

     npis-founder-ranks-the-presidents-2025-edition.html. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.