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EDUCATION: SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON IOWA STUDENTS
34_EDUCATION
SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON IOWA STUDENTS
Musical theater awards program celebrates 10 years of uplifting Iowa high school casts and crew.
Students perform in a high school musical. One of the hundreds adjudicated as part of the Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards over the past 10 years.
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When Des Moines Performing Arts launched the Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards, the premise was simple: Build an education-based program that would celebrate and elevate the work being produced by Iowa schools.
The results have been simply amazing.
The first year of IHSMTA featured nine Central Iowa-area high schools. Ten years later, annual participation has grown to more than 80 schools — of all sizes and in all parts of the state. Overall, tens of thousands of Iowa students and educators have been inspired to new levels of performance, on stage and off.
“The goal was to build a program that would be sustainable and have a lasting impact on schools,” said Karoline Myers, Director of Education for DMPA. “What it has become far exceeds what we even had the capacity to imagine in those first years.”
One of the early steps in building the program was to reach out to Iowa drama directors to gather their input. A clear message emerged: Students have enough competition and pressures in their lives. The educators wanted a way to inspire and uplift their young talents.
That answer was exactly what the DMPA team was hoping to hear.
“It was this beautiful synergy,” said Myers. “The models we were most attracted to were right in line with what we were hearing from our educators.”
Keeping the focus on education rather than competition would allow every high school to feel successful, regardless of their school size, their geographic location, or the budget of their arts program. It also provided support and inspiration for every level of the production, from director to stage manager, lighting team to sound crew, lead performer to ensemble.
“While celebrating, at every turn, what these schools were accomplishing, we could also give them the tools they needed to find that next level of possibilities,” said Myers.
To reach those goals, IHSMTA was built on three pillars: 1) master classes and educational workshops for students and directors, 2) experienced adjudicators who attend the shows and provide written feedback, and 3) a showcase performance at the end of the school year on the largest stage in the state, the Des Moines Civic Center.
THE POWER OF POSSIBILITIES
Stevie LeWarne was a freshman at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines when the IHSMTA program began. The memories of that first showcase are still with him.
“I was just so inspired,” said LeWarne. “It really sparked the drive in me, to see musical theater as a serious pathway in my life. The Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards showed you that there was a future here. You could go to school for this.”
And he did, studying performance at New York
The IHSMTA culminate with a showcase where students are invited to perform in front of their families, peers and the public on the Civic Center stage.
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University. The pathway LeWarne first discovered in high school has led him to the cast of the current national tour of Hairspray, which will perform on 58 stages in 28 states.
Still, the stage he loves best is in Des Moines. “I remember being on the Civic Center stage singing with my peers and looking out on those green, red, and blue seats,” said LeWarne. “I can still feel it to this day.”
Students who met during IHSMTA formed social media groups so they could continue sharing information and encouragement. “Without that group of peers I could relate to, it would have been really hard and really lonely,” said LeWarne. “DMPA creates an important community for kids. It’s life-changing.”
Of course, not all students who have participated in IHSMTA over the past 10 years are on the road with a Broadway show. But all have been impacted in important ways by the experience.
LESSONS FOR LIFE
Tim Mitchell witnessed the impact on his students at Union High School in LaPorte City, population 2,284. He retired recently after 34 years of teaching vocal music at small schools in northeast Iowa. Under his direction, Union students participated in IHSMTA for seven years.
He shared the story of a senior who was an accomplished athlete, but a newcomer to musical theater. “We performed Into the Woods that year, and she had the role of narrator,” he said. “She took such ownership of that part. And the feedback she received from a panel of judges in attendance. It changed her world. She’s studying communications in college now and loving it.”
Mitchell was learning, too. He especially enjoyed the two-day directors’ seminar each August in Des Moines, with topics ranging from taking great stage photos, to new ideas for marketing a show, to ticket sales strategies.
One session of the directors’ forum — built around the theme of telling the story — especially resonated with Mitchell. It changed the way he worked with his students that year and every year after that.
“We would start our rehearsal process talking about the story. How are all of us connected to this story?” he said. “It’s just a little change in mindset, but what a difference it made.”
It also provides students with opportunities to make suggestions, to find solutions. That’s a skill that not only impacts their musical theater production, but also radiates into other classrooms and into the community.
Mitchell noted the impact on the ensemble cast. “You are always going to see the leads,” he said. “But if the ensemble is amazing, then the show is amazing. By asking how their part tells the story, the ensemble takes more ownership of the show. That came from IHSMTA.”
EXPERT ADJUDICATORS
Each high school musical participating in the IHSMTA program receives feedback from a panel of
Karoline Myers Director of Education, Des Moines Performing Arts
judges in attendance. Currently about 65 current or retired performing arts educators, artists, directors, and technicians answer the call.
“Musical theater is such a collaborative art form, not every adjudicator is going to be an expert in every area,” said Myers, leader of the DMPA education team. “But they have a sense of the whole performance as an audience member and then they can lean into the areas where they have that depth of knowledge.”
The judges’ comments serve as motivation for improvement year after year. Engagement grows on all levels. Students who participate in one of the educational opportunities through IHSMTA are bringing that information and energy back to their schools. Older students are developing training for younger students, so the bar continues to rise.
“Knowing that the judges are coming to see the show sharpens me as an educator,” said Mitchell. “It sharpens the students. It’s not just happy parents or supportive administrators in the audience, but professionals who know their stuff. It drives us.”
SHOWCASE ON THE BIG STAGE
After the educational workshops, after the musicals are performed, and after the judges’ feedback is delivered, the stage is set for the Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards Showcase at the Des Moines Civic Center at the end of the school year.
Outstanding ensembles and individual performers share favorite highlights from their productions. Others are invited to participate in blockbuster medleys that open and close the showcase. More than 500 students from all around Iowa come together under the direction of a team of Broadway professionals.
The end result is a 2½-hour, high-quality, highenergy, musical celebration of Iowa high school talent, presented to an enthusiastic audience of family, friends and supporters. The show reaches an even bigger audience when the recording is played on Iowa PBS.
The showcase caps a week of rehearsals where life-long connections are created and students learn even more about the world of theater and themselves.
“I love seeing the behind-the-scenes connections that happen during that week,” Myers said. “The students are just in awe of what their peers are capable of. There’s something so special in watching students come off the stage after a huge ovation with ear-to-ear grins, pumping their fists in the air and saying, ‘I didn’t know I could feel this way.’”
