One of the buzziest shows in Milwaukee theater last fall came from a high school. Wauwatosa West’s November production of Dear Evan Hansen: High School Version – about a socially anxious teenager caught up in a lie – was the first of its kind in the country. Audiences packed seats. “CBS Mornings” interviewed the students.
“To see those themes [suicide, loneliness] presented by high school students, it’s really powerful stuff,” says Tosa West Theatre director Adam Steffan.
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The show marked a new high point for the program. Just a few years prior, Tosa West won a contest to stage Frozen: The Broadway Musical and performed for the International Thespian Festival in Indiana. But this new opportunity came just as August’s floods filled the school’s auditorium. “We were rehearsing in the cafeteria, in the wrestling room, in the broom closet” before the stage was ready again in October, Steffan says. “I’ll do anything for a show.”
When Steffan took charge in 2012, the theater program had only one class and drew little attention. Over time, he built a curriculum and what he calls a culture of excellence. “It’s what happens when everyone understands what’s going on.”
Tosa West’s next show is Hello, Dolly! (March 6-14), which he says gives students a joyful break from heavier material and a well-rounded musical theater diet. “Most high school programs across the nation are doing exactly what we’re doing,”
he says. “I think we just do it better.”
