Senior Follies — a St. Louis U. High senior tradition — graced the stage of the Schulte Theater last Sunday night to signal the last week for the Class of 2026. Performed by a group of 24 seniors, Senior Follies was directed by Director of Campus Ministry Brian Gilmore and mathematics teacher Daniel Becvar; choreographed by Fine Arts Department Chair Simonie Anzalone; assisted musically by Principal Fr. Matt Stewart, SJ; and supported technically by Director of Theater Operations Eddie Teshara and AP Psychology teacher Sam Herbig.

Senior Follies — meaning senior foolishness — is an annual assortment of skits put together by Becvar and Gilmore, though seniors contribute heavily to the writing of each of the sketches. Follies is unique in that it brings in many seniors who haven’t engaged with SLUH’s theater department before. 

“I think watching kids who would have never done theater before kind of flourish and get into the role that they had picked was really cool,” said senior Titus Ziegler. “It was really awesome to see them somewhat uncomfortable at first, but then they kind of grow into the acting and grow into the persona of those who they were acting out.”

Apart from the sketches themselves, the students had to learn new choreography and music for the opening and closing scenes. The night began with the traditional “It’s Senior Follies” number. Composed and written by retired Choir Director Joe Koestner and supported by Anzalone and Stewart, the group of students performed through dance and song, all while dressed in white dress shirts, pants, and a blue cumberbund. 

 

Inside SLUH

For the first skit, the seniors poked fun at the seventh grade visits to SLUH. Senior Max Marnatti played Admissions Coordinator Kara Mauzy and led prospective “students,” including a 6-foot-4 seventh grader played by senior Jake Fitzpatrick, and their parents on a tour through the school. Along the way, they encountered “C” students in physics along with English teacher and football coach Adam Cruz, played by McCoy Amann, who ferociously inspected Fitzpatrick to scout for the future of the SLUH football team.

 

Gmail Poetry

Next, a new group of seniors took to the stage to perform a skit mocking all-school emails, in the form of a Poetry Out Loud competition led by English teacher Chuck Hussung, played by Colton Eikermann. One of the most prominent jokes was about Brock Kesterson’s all school emails that are only one sentence long and end with ‘sent from my iPhone’. The skit prompted Kesterson to end his all school email the next day with ‘NOT sent from my iPhone.’

“It was an honor to play the legendary Mr. Hussung,” said Eikermann. “I drew a lot of my inspiration from an old Senior Follies YouTube video I watched … It was a very fun experience, getting to go out there with my friends, acting out these different characters.”

 

Faculty Feud

Following the poetry, James “Bubba” Barry as Bob O’Connell hobbled onto the stage to introduce the Science Department and the Math Department, who were competing in Faculty Feud, a Family Feud spinoff. After some introductions mimicking the teacher's habits, the competition started. One of the questions was about the many jobs AP US History teacher Sean Ferguson has had, including a bar bouncer. Another included what groups at SLUH are allotted the highest budget: Rob Chura’s Global Ed budget took the number one spot followed closely behind by Cruz’s phone bill.

 

Madame Lulu’s Tent

Another skit performed was structured around Madame Lulu, a fortune teller that was at the final centennial celebration. Lulu gazed 100 years into the future and saw that SLUH football will have many players drafted into the NFL, but will not beat CBC. Amongst other visions, she also saw that the Theology Department of the future would only consist of the Wehner lineage.

 

Audition Season

One of the last skits was structured as auditions for the annual Nation Honor Society (NHS) faculty karaoke, which is held at the end of the first semester. Head judge Stewart was played by senior Wilson Scher and two other students were the judges. They judged several teachers though the winner in the end was the man himself,  Stewart. Scher put on Stewart’s sparkly suit and sang Frank Sinatra to end the skit.

 

Follies Ballet

After the audition sketch, the stage curtains came to a close in order for the seniors to get dressed in their tights and tutus. As the stage was unveiled, lines of seniors began parading onto the stage to Tchaikovsky's “Sleeping Beauty Waltz.” When the fast moving combination of ballet moves ended, the group of 24 posed in a triangle-shaped composition, leading us to the last moments of the show.

 

Voicemail Fail

In the next sketch, Gilmore arranged a series of recordings to mock the recent all-school PA where after the announcement a dragged-out automated voicemail voice rang through the halls. The skit began with a short announcement from Dan Schulte, which was followed by Schulte’s voicemail box. Amongst other messages, there was a message from SLUH counselor Chris Burke that a student came to Burke complaining about how Schulte’s announcements at lunch were too loud and negatively affected his mental health.

 

To end the night off the seniors sang another Follie’s classic, a song called “Hold Us Together” by Matt Maher. In the background, a slideshow ran with pictures of all the seniors that had participated in this year’s Follies and their past four years at SLUH.

“It’s always great to see some guys on stage for the first time and think, ‘Wow, where have you guys been? We wish you could have been involved in SLUH theater all four years,’” said Becvar. “They are really some incredibly talented guys.”