In Texas, a Real-Life 'Glee' Unfolds -- With a Twist
April 15, 2010 — -- You've no doubt heard of "Glee," the Golden Globe Award-winner this year for best TV comedy. The show follows a high school teacher who tries to turn a talented group of misfits into stars.
Well, this is a story about a real-life "Glee" -- with a twist.
For decades, Lynn Zednick Shaw -- or Zed, as most students called her -- ran one of the most successful high-school theater programs in the country at J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas.
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"We are the opposite world of the show 'Glee,'" said Heather Biddle, a 1995 graduate of J.J. Pearce. "We're the kids who are student council president, captain of the football team, the beauty queen, the prom queen -- and they're all in theater."
Alumni include Jessica Simpson, who starred as Cassie in a 1997 production of "A Chorus Line."
To commemorate the theater program's long success, Shaw hatched a plan: She would put on the biggest show of her life, with everyone she taught over 25 years.
What Shaw didn't know when she began to plan the event was that she didn't have much time.
Shaw made a practice of reaching out to students who otherwise might not have thought about performing in the theater.
"She came up to me and said 'Can you sing?'" recalled Will Hughes, whom Shaw recruited from the baseball team. "And she kept after me and said, 'You need to come audition.' I didn't know I could act, but she told me I could do it and gave me a lead in 'Beauty and the Beast.'"
Elizabeth Judd was on the cheerleading squad when she landed her first lead role. Her performance in "Miss Saigon" was a sellout for three solid weeks.
"She changed my life in the sense that I think now I can do this, this career," said Judd, who is studying musical theater in New York City. "She pushed me to believe in myself."
