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When "Fosse" hits the Honeywell Center stage in Wabash Friday, one member of the production will have a Winona Lake connection.
Trevor Illingworth is a cast member of "Fosse." His parents and an aunt and uncle live in Winona Lake now, and his grandparents have had a cottage in town for many years.
Though he grew up in southern California, Trevor said, he and his family would visit his grandparents in their Winona Lake home every summer. It also was during his early years that Trevor said he caught the musical theater bug, listening to such musicals as "Les Miserables."
"I was pretty young, I guess," he said during a phone interview from Florida. He was raised with the movie musicals of the 1940s and '50s and that kept his interest going.
He eventually graduated from California State University, Fullerton, with a bachelor's degree in fine arts.
"My schooling was pretty intensive as far as getting us ready for the business," he said.
Right out of school, Trevor landed a job as a lead singer and dancer on a world cruise ship for eight months. He was able to save up some money and headed to New York.
For a year, nothing happened. He finally was hired on the national tour of Barry Manilow's "Copacabana." After that brief stint, he landed a part in "Fosse."
The nature of the show, Trevor said, is more of an ensemble piece, where everyone is featured. The part he most is proud of is when he is the spirit of legendary choreographer Bob Fosse at the start of the show.
"I'm just demonstrating some of his trademark moves," said Trevor.
And those are some of the hardest parts of the musical and dance revue. He said he's been with the show for more than a year, starting out very intensely. The style is very specific. He had trouble picking up some of the sequences.
"He basically developed a whole new style with his dancing," said Trevor. It's opposite of what one learns in dance classes. Fosse's moves are so minute at times, that just a gesture of the dancer's fingers can draw in audiences.
But learning Fosse, Trevor said, "is such an honor."
"Fosse" ends Dec. 12 in Dallas. When it's all over, Trevor said he'll head back to New York and begin auditioning again. He doesn't have any work lined up, but with "Fosse" on his resume, he thinks people will notice.
