Wauwatosa West’s entire cast and crew of Dear Evan Hansen will reunite this summer to perform at the International Thespian Festival (ITF). Last year, West became the first high school in the nation to produce the Tony-winning musical, which tackles deep emotional topics like social anxiety, depression, and suicide.
Tickets for a reprise performance to be held on June 18, 19 at 7 pm and June 20 at 2 pm will be on sale on May 15th. All tickets are $25
Being the first in the country to stage the production brought significant recognition to the cast, crew, and the entire Tosa West theater program. Though the show had its final local performance last November, the curtain is set to rise once again.
ITF is an annual event in Indiana that celebrates high school theater. Only 12 schools nationwide are selected to participate and perform in front of thousands of students. This is a monumental moment for the Tosa West theater program, offering the players a chance not only to showcase their talent on a national stage but to prove why they are among the best in the country.
Tosa West previously attended ITF in the summer of 2024, presenting Wisconsin’s first-ever high school performance of Disney’s Frozen. That was only two years ago, and several cast members from Frozen are also part of the Dear Evan Hansen production. Theater Director Adam Steffan and lead actor Evan Hryniewicki are both thrilled to return.
“It’s an honor. We’re very excited. This is our second time going to ITF, and we’re looking forward to it!” Steffan said.
“I’m very excited. I’m extremely grateful,” Hryniewicki added. “Every day I just think about what we put on the stage back in November, and it’s truly just insane to think that one show that the entire cast worked so hard to put on is finally being recognized.”
Bringing the production back to the stage requires a significant amount of work. After the final November show, the crew dismantled the set, and the cast shifted their focus to the spring musical, Hello, Dolly!. However, according to Steffan, the remounting process should be relatively smooth.
“We remount the entire production here. So starting after spring break, we’ll begin rehearsals and getting it all back together,” Steffan said. “The good thing is that we already know the show, so we’re not starting from square one. We’ll get it back on its feet and revisit the show.”
While stepping back into the director’s chair might be straightforward for Steffan, the transition is a bit trickier for Hryniewicki, who has to adjust to a vastly different performance space.
“There’s a lot of things to be nervous about,” Hryniewicki said. “At Tosa West, our theater sits around 830 people, give or take. And we sold out pretty much every single night, so I’m definitely used to doing that show in front of such a large crowd. But in Indiana, we perform on college theater stages which hold up to 2,000 to 3,000 people at a time. So it’s a lot of people, a much bigger audience, and there’s going to be much bigger reactions…”
Additionally, shifting from his current role in Hello, Dolly! back to the socially anxious Evan Hansen presents another mental hurdle.
“I’m playing a whole new lead right now; his name is Cornelius and he’s very different from Evan Hansen. Evan Hansen is a very nervous kid with a lot of social anxiety, and Cornelius is a thirty-three-year-old guy with lots of confidence,” Hryniewicki explained. “What I’m going to have to do is definitely watch our show again. I like to just go through my performance and take notes on myself because sometimes you are the best critique you can ever have. … Fingers crossed it’s just going to be muscle memory once I get back into it.”
Being the first high school in the country to perform this musical has brought profound recognition to Wauwatosa West. The impact on everyone involved—and what it means for the theater program’s legacy—is undeniable.
“It’s a huge honor,” Steffan said. “What we do here at West is not unique. Across the nation, high schools are producing musicals and doing shows, and they have a theater department. We just do it better than everybody else, and I believe that. It’s the facts, it’s the truth. And that’s not to be boastful, but I think when you are doing good work and you are always kind and grateful and so forth, it always has a way of coming back around.”
For Hryniewicki, stepping back into the shoes of Evan Hansen to represent Tosa West on a national level carries immense personal weight.
“In the means of representing Wauwatosa West, it means everything to me. I started preparing to be Evan Hansen before I even had the role,” Hryniewicki said. “I’m not trying to sound cocky, but we’re going to Indiana for a reason. And that’s because we earned it. We’re awesome. And I am looking forward to it so much.”
Dear Evan Hansen will return to the Wauwatosa West stage for a brief local run before the cast departs for Indiana. Tickets for these send-off performances will be available for purchase in advance of its return.
Special Remount Performance 
June 18 & 19 at 7pm June 20 at 2pm
Tosa West Theatre
$25
Tickets on sale May 15
