At only 15 years old, Winona resident Seamus Schwaba started a community theater after writing a play he wanted to bring to the stage. While there was some caution from the community about a teenager directing a play, Seamus and the theater he created saw success right from the start: Sugarloaf Theatre sold out all three of its "Deep in the City" shows. “Theater has always kind of been a part of my life," said Seamus, who is now 17.
He has participated in productions since preschool. While both of his parents have experience in theater, Seamus never had to be pushed into their footsteps. He's always wanted to move in that direction, except for maybe one year of his life where he lost interest.
He was drawn back to the arts, though, and now he wants to be involved as much as he can. Seamus Schwaba helps his mother, Jamie Schwaba, hang her art at the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts on Aug. 19.
Seamus has a supportive role model to learn from when it comes to the stage. His mother, Jamie Schwaba, has been a lover of the arts since she was a child. After graduating high school, Jamie joined the international traveling performance arts group Up With People.
Afterward, she studied theater in college and eventually took on a variety of professional roles in the arts, including as the education director at the Milwaukee Youth Theatre, the children's theater director at UW-Marinette and eventually the managing director at the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts. While in her role at the latter, she was able to moderate and take visual art classes, which sparked her love for the art form. Jamie Schwaba shares about her new exhibit at the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts.
While she now works outside of the arts at the Dyslexia Institute of Minnesota, she still takes time to participate in the arts, including by serving on Sugarloaf Theatre's board and by creating her own art. Jamie said she enjoys being able to bond with her son, along with other people, over the arts. Seamus described 70% of the duo's conversations as being about the arts, especially theater.
Together, they are able to travel in the region to different productions and then analyze them together on the car rides home. Jamie is proud of her son's accomplishments in the arts, including the creation of Sugarloaf Theatre. “It's been really cool to watch.
I think the biggest compliment with Sugarloaf is how many people come back, both adults and youth," Jamie said. Seamus Schwaba directs his father, Tim Schwaba, in the musical "Deep in the City." The musical, written by Seamus, was Sugarloaf Theatre's first show.
The theater helps fill a need, Seamus said. “I think he's done a really good job setting a precedent of this is a community and this is just a good social environment," Jamie said. Seamus said many people have helped develop a positive environment at the theater.
Seamus loves community theater in particular because of the family aspect, he said. “It's such a collaborative art form," he said. Community theater, he said, requires interdependence between everyone involved.
“I don't have a specific passion for theater. I have a passion for what theater can do for people. I love how uniting it is," Seamus said.
"I love the team aspect of it, and, above all else, with Sugarloaf, I love the family that it creates. I think it's so important that people stay connected in their communities. I think we live in a time where things are very isolated, but I think things like theater have a way of uniting people and bringing them together and bringing joy to people.
” He said community theater has a way of bringing people of all ages together. Sugarloaf Theatre in particular, he said, brings people that are 12 years old and up together. Seamus noted he also enjoys the education aspect of the performing arts.
"I love working with other teens and teaching them life skills through theater, because I know I've learned life skills through theater," Seamus said. Jamie said she has watched Seamus learn skills he'll be able to take with him later in life, like being able to write a press release, run a board, create show budgets, have hard conversations with people and to be a leader. Jamie Schwaba works to hang her art at the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts on Aug.
19. Seamus doesn't always see himself as playing such a large role in Sugarloaf Theatre, though. Seamus is entering his senior year and is looking ahead to college, likely away from Winona.
He plans to major in theater. “I have been working on trying to plan for Sugarloaf to be able to live beyond me. And it will," Seamus said.
"I want this to be Winona’s community theater. It's not my community theater.” He has started to mentor regular contributors at Sugarloaf Theatre.
He's even started to hand off the director role to others. Seamus isn't ready to completely say goodbye when he finishes high school, though. He hopes to participate in Sugarloaf productions during the summers and potentially still be a member of the board.
Jamie Schwaba and her son Seamus Schwaba stand in front of Jamie's art exhibit at the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts on Aug. 19. Jamie's art exhibit "Driftless Past & Present" is now on display at the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts until Sept.
27. As part of the exhibit, free art workshops will be held Sept. 7.
For more information about Jamie and her art, visit linktr.ee/jamieschwaba. Sugarloaf Theatre, in partnership with the Winona Public Library, is set to hold auditions for its next production "Murder by the Book" from 11 a.
m. to 1 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 14, at the library. The play will be performed Oct.
25 through Oct. 27. For more information about the play and Sugarloaf Theatre, visit the theater's Facebook page or linktr.
ee/sugarloaftheatre. Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! News Reporter {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items..
