In the spring of her junior year, ETHS student Carmiya Bady was supposed to play Velma Kelly in “Chicago” — but the pandemic closed schools before the show could begin. Countless performances, both at ETHS and Evanston’s several community theatres, were subsequently postponed, canceled, or went virtual. As summer came, with no end to COVID in sight, Tim Rhoze, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre’s artistic director, approached Andrew Biliter, the artistic director of Mudlark Theater, with an idea. Rhoze proposed a partnership between Fleetwood-Jourdain, Mudlark and Piven Theatre Workshop that would provide Evanston high school students the space and funding to devise their own show, with Biliter acting as the devising facilitator.