Although we may not be a private high school or a boarding school in the league of Exeter or Phillips Academy, New Trier has plenty of qualities that put us far ahead of the generic public high school. Lagniappe-Potpourri, a student written and directed performance which lampoons the culture of New Trier, has been a tradition for over 70 years.
Now I’m not exactly the biggest fan of musicals since it makes me a little uncomfortable when people spontaneously burst into song over someone eating a sandwich, however I can say that as an avid Lagniappe goer through all my four years of high school, there hasn’t been a single year that I found the musical below par.
One of my favorite Lagniappe performances was of course the 2009 show, and not just because I was a freshman and thought that New Trier was the pinnacle of all that is important in my life and that Lagniappe was a gift from God.
What made the play so good was that it landed right in-between the area that didn’t lean too far in to the “inside joke” area so that someone outside of New Trier could understand it, which might as well have been me since I was wandering the hallways of Northfield like a lost child and trying not to curl into a ball and break into tears.
The 2009 performance still kept it’s authenticity while touching on the quirks of New Triers society. But really, to know that the students I go to school with put together an entire performance, lines, costumes and all, in the time frame of three months and to have it not only come out as coherent but hilarious, is pretty awesome.
And to know that you won’t find a performance like this anywhere else because it focus’s solely on the wonderful world of New Trier High School is again, pretty awesome.
Schools like Lake Forest High School do have traditional plays and performances like their spring play which is different every year, but none of them are created by students and center around the culture of the school, which is what makes New Trier’s Lagniappe a play of it’s own.
New Trier never fails to go above and beyond in anything we do, and Lagniappe is a perfect example that students look forward to every year.