The Ottawa Township High School Fine Arts Festival is organized and run by a select few students, and they’re pretty easy to recognize. They are the outgoing type, unafraid to talk to anyone and confident in their ability to improvise on stage. Whether it’s the one who hopped across the stage in a sleeping bag or the one who booty-danced wearing an oversized bear head, they all go by one name — The Fine Arts Club (or FAC for short).

The 34 students on this year’s FAC were responsible for manning the curtains, lights and sound in the OTHS auditorium, greeting the professional acts, setting up and tearing down sets and keeping the audience entertained during transitions.

The first hour of Wednesday’s performance is the most popular part of the festival. That’s when FAC members take the stage for a humorous look at their lives as students and teenagers, called “Fine Arts Presents.” The club is responsible for providing the props and creating the skits.

“When I first saw the Fine Arts Festival first as a freshman, I loved it,” junior FAC member Kyle DaVault said. “It was so funny, and I knew at that moment that I wanted to do it when I got older. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s so much fun … I was so nervous right before we went on, but once you hear the laughter, it’s just amazing.”

Out of the 85 to 100 students who apply for the club each year, 35 are chosen. Co-directors of the festival, Sally Hocking and Paula Carroll, said only sophomores, junior and seniors are allowed to apply.

The club was chosen at the end of October, and the students met every Wednesday morning since December to plan their opening number. This year’s senior leaders, who have both been in the club for all three years, were Rebecca Wilkinson and Jose Ochoa.

"It’s crazy,” Ochoa said of trying to control 30 high school students. “But it’s great, because it allowed us to meet a whole bunch of people we might not have met.”

Kera Simon can be reached at 815-313-5500, ext. 108.