Pius XI plays the Pabst

Local High School Actors Go Pro for a Weekend

all photos by Terry Clark Bauman

Pius XI High School’s basketball season may be over, but over at its gym on Milwaukee’s west side there is a bustle of activity. In one corner, an orchestra stretches its musical muscles while a dance ensemble takes to the main court, showing off some slick moves that would make any point guard jealous.

This particular basketball court has been transformed into a staging area for the school’s upcoming production of Disney’s Broadway rendition of Beauty and the Beast. But the ‘big game’ won’t be on this same home court. You might say that this staging will be at the Madison Square Garden of local high school theater. That’s because the kids are taking the show downtown to Milwaukee’s historic Pabst Theater.

“It’s such an amazing feeling to be on that stage,” gushes 18-year-old Marissa Waraska, who will be taking the stage as Belle when the show opens this Friday night, May 8th.

The high school’s performing arts office first rented out the Pabst stage a few years ago for a production of Cats. Beauty and the Beast director Kevin Schwartz was also at the helm on that show, and is looking forward to another success. He says it’s all about making the kids look good.

“I felt it was really important for our students to have at least one shot a year at going to a beautiful theater like the Pabst, which has great acoustics, great sight lines, and comfortable theater seating instead of sitting on the old bleachers,” Schwartz explains.

It’s also a chance for the Pabst to reach out to the greater Milwaukee community. Public Relations Manager Ryan Matteson adds, “Being a good community partner is absolutely essential in moving Milwaukee forward. We’re thrilled that Pius High School has continually found our venue to be a worthy home of their productions.”

The only problem now: A race against the clock. Since the Pabst is now booked a majority of the time, students don’t get a chance to rehearse on the stage until a couple days before opening night. Schwartz says that it’s a time-consuming process moving an entire show across town.

“We have to build our set [at the high school], which is a large piece this year. Build the entire set so we can rehearse on it, then break the set down small enough so it can go in a large moving truck, then move that down (to the Pabst) on Tuesday, and reassemble the whole stage in one frantic 8 to 10 hour day on Tuesday.”

But everyone with the cast and crew agrees the end result is worth it. Waraska first appeared on the Pabst stage with a couple years ago with Pius’s version of High School Musical. She says the change in venue takes the show to a level that a high school gym can’t compete with, and the audience notices the difference.

“It’s so much easier to portray it to everyone else when it’s like in an actual auditorium, and the actual feeling of professionalism. It’s more real, and so much easier to display that to the audience,” she says.

Playgoers won’t only see a big difference, they’ll hear it. As Musical Director Bonnie Scholz notes, high school gyms aren’t exactly known for being sound-friendly: “It’s just a big barn. It doesn’t go anywhere!”

The Children’s Chorus will provide the depth necessary to make the show sound big on the massive stage. This year, the chorus is made up of 16 kids from schools across the area. The youngsters are part of Pius’s Performing Arts Academy-a community outreach program that exposes kids to the Arts at an early age.12-year-old Emily Pogorelc is not only in the chorus-she gets to play the coveted role of a spoon. She revealed one of the tricks is to making her character as realistic as possible.

“Inanimate objects are kind of fun to play because you can have a back story to them that nobody knows,” Pogorelc says.

Many of the kids like Pogorelc aren’t taking this opportunity for granted. She knows many kids her age in Milwaukee have never even had a chance to step inside the Pabst, let alone perform on the historic stage.

“It’s really amazing, because I love history, it’s like my favorite subject in school,” she says. “It’s really kind of fun to make history with going into the Pabst and saying I’ve performed there.”

Beauty and the Beast’s director admits it’s not cheap to rent out the Pabst, and it’s a commitment the school doesn’t take lightly. However, Schwartz also thinks this partnership with the theater has been an invaluable asset to Pius’s Performing Arts program.

“It seems like a great venue for a high school, unless you have a beautiful auditorium, and then you don’t really need to go down and do that. But I think it’s always good for schools to get outside of themselves and invite people from a lot of different parts of the community to come and see the show,” Schwartz elucidates.

So you might ask, why go see a high school play on a stage that’s usually reserved for the pros? Waraska counters matter-of-factly, why not?  She says that much like the show’s message, outside appearances can often be deceiving. Just because they’re a bunch of kids doesn’t mean they are amateurs.

“[Pius] doesn’t halfway do anything, and it’s really nice when people care that much about something you care that much about, and give you that energy to feed off of as a student.”

You can be their guest! Call the Pius Bookstore at 414-290-8151 for ticket information. The show only runs this weekend May 8-10, 2009 at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee.