Junior Jill Zmolek has been involved with theater productions for a majority of her life. She is most known for her presence on AHS SHOUT and primary leads in the winter musical. Zmolek also participated in the spring play last year.

The Ames High Theatre/speech department has many opportunities for students to get involved in different activities, but some students, like Zmolek, are finding their niche outside the walls.

Even though Zmolek has been busy with Les Miserable rehersals, she says that she still enjoys filming SHOUT, a monthly video news blog by Junior Ben Sulzberger.

“I love being apart of AHS Shout. We couldn’t find Kub [Stevens] over break so I just did the filming without him,” Zmolek laughed

Zmolek is now part of ISU’s production of Les Miserables. Zmolek said the role is a different challenge than she’s had before.

““I’m a miserable. It’s fun to play broken characters. Even if you don’t have tons of lines you can still see so much of people, without them having to say anything,” she said.

Zmolek is smitten with the musical along with the message behind it. “Les Miserables is one of the greatest musicals, ever. It has a plot that means something deeper, and it matters to people because it’s both uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time.”

Les Miserables is the first spring musical production that Iowa State has put on since VEISHEA was cancelled in 2014. The production team and cast of “Into the Woods” was hit hard by the cancellation. Zmolek admits that it was hard for all of the people who developed the show to have their work not be seen.

“This show isn’t ‘technically’ associated with VEISHEA anymore, even though it used to be,” said Zmolek. “Hopefully there won’t be similar problems this year. We’ve put in a lot of work.”

The troupe of actors, choreographers, orchestra, and other helpers meet almost every week night in preparation for April’s show.

“Every week night there is rehearsal, or at least in April that is. But it’s so worth it, I love going to rehearsal every night. I don’t dread it at all.”

The show will be at Fisher Theater from April 10-17th.  Zmolek looks forward to the opening night as  she believes that “Les Miserables is one of the greatest musicals, ever,” said Zmolek.

“It has a plot that means something deeper, and it matters to people because it’s both uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time.”