The Brightest High School Theatres in the Country - Anderson High School

Chris Peterson

Every actor, director, designer, stage manager started somewhere. For many of us, it was in high school. Every year we see thousands upon thousands of future theatre professionals start their journeys on various high schools stage across the country. 

So here at OnStage, we want to honor high school theatre programs all over the country that are making the performing arts, a priority within their curriculum, not to mention putting on some fantastic productions. 

If you know a high school in your area that is doing an incredible job of laying the foundation for future theatre professionals, let us know by emailing, cpeterson@onstageblog.com

----------------------------

Anderson High School - Cincinnati, OH

It's not everyday you mistake a high school theatre program with a professional theatre company, but that's exactly how the faculty and students at Anderson High School are treating their theatre program. 

Anderson is known for producing some of the better high school theatre productions in the state. And they're not just tackling cliche high school shows either. Over the past several years they've taken on some incredibly challenging material such as Titanic, A Few Good Men, Blood Brothers, The Trojan Women and The Cherry Orchard. 

Their faculty might be one of the best collection of experience we've seen so far. The program is led by Chad Weddle. When Mr. Weddle isn't teaching at Anderson, he's also the resident fight director for Dennison University. As music director, Kristen Hollowood has special ties to Anderson High School, seeing how she graduated there in 2008. She brings a ton of experience learned at  Lee University in Vocal Performance. AHS's resident choreographer, Amy Burgess, is also a performer with the Cincinnati Reds. 

Anderson High School has also proven to be a wonderful foundation of future success with where their alumni go to college. Students have gone onto schools with incredible theatre programs such as University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, Otterbein University, Northwestern University and Kent State University. 

From all of us here at OnStage, our congrats to all the faculty and staff at Anderson High School and best wishes on your upcoming performances of Gypsy!

Photo: Anderson Theatre