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Attending GBN prom all in the right prep
Jordy Shulman (right), a Glenbrook North High School junior, just popped the "Will you go to prom with me?" question to a stunned Megan Orticelli, a GBN senior at the Spring Choral Concert May 17.| Karie Angell Luc~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: July 1, 2012 12:59PM
A prom date, as it must, begins with “The Question” — “Will you go to prom?”
The May 17 Glenbrook North High School Spring Choral Concert at the school was the scene for a rather public display of this time-honored ritual .
“I knew about it, yeah” said Andrew Wallace, GBN director of choirs. “It’s about who can do the craziest, most wildest, most creative thing.”
What Wallace knew, that GBN senior Megan Orticelli, 18, didn’t, was Jordy Shulman, her prom date, also fellow choir member, was very publicly about to ask her to prom.
In front of a packed GBN Sheely Center for the Performing Arts audience, no less, after seniors received congratulatory send-off yellow roses.
Shulman, a junior, stepped boldly with his Jewel food store bouquet, handing Megan, who recently graced the same stage as the musical GBN lead of Christine in “Phantom of the Opera,” dramatically put hands to her face and agreed to go. A thunderclap of applause followed, with many in a standing ovation.
“I just wanted to ask her in a fun way,” said Jordy. Said Megan: “Oh, it was so much fun, I wasn’t expecting that at all.”
While the two knew they were going to prom, “You need to be asked in a cool way,” said Megan’s mom, Kris Orticelli.
Two days later, at 2:30 p.m. on prom Saturday, Megan found herself in her buddy Cody Biebrach’s house in the Northbrook Charlemagne subdivision. Cody, 17, a senior and fellow performer, wants to own a hair salon after college.
“Cody is very good at hair,” she said.
Make-up was done by the good friend in Bryn Rose, 18, a GBN senior who wasn’t attending prom, opting instead for an “anti-prom” sleepover/backyard tent campout with supervised bonfire.
Jodi Snyder, 18, also a senior, had her cascading ringlet curls coiffed. Erin Helgeland, 17, looked beautiful too.
Megan was pleased an Internet Nordstrom purchase yielded an amethyst Monique Lhuillier gown.
“I really like it,” said Megan, noting the pleats. “I didn’t have much time to search for a prom dress because I was in the musical.”
Later, walking downhill to the Anetsberger Pond off Techny Road for group prom photos, Megan bested a red gravel walkway, with Jordy’s boutonnière, a white rose ordered from Northbrook Edward’s Florist.
Parental paparazzi converged, the pond’s circular peninsula groaning with prom attendees.
The “Christine” in Megan brought ped-style socks for a chorus night of music. “I don’t really know,” said Megan, of who she was at this milestone prom moment. “I guess I’m someone who’s really just having fun at prom.”
