It’s a small, elite club: Shorewood alumni turned Shorewood teachers. Adam Sheaffer, SHS ’96, is thrilled to be the newest member.
Hired at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year to take over the coveted Shorewood High School theater director position vacated by Joe King, Sheaffer is still pinching himself that he’s back over 24 years later.
“I still have to remind myself that I went to school here,” he says. “It’s been long enough and it’s different enough that it also feels kind of new and exciting in a way that I didn’t expect.”
Sheaffer says he was dragged into theater by his older brother, Ben, a frequent lead in the SHS productions alongside classmate Kate Baldwin, who is now a Broadway star. After doing his first musical, Evita, Sheaffer was hooked.
“I participated in every single high school show from there on out," Sheaffer says. “I had a certain aptitude for theater and it really allowed me to explore and find my voice. It gave me a sense of self-esteem and sense of community and family that I really hadn’t had before at school.”
After graduating SHS Sheaffer pursued philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, not convinced that theater would be his life’s path. However, after moving to New York City post-college, he found himself falling in love with theater and dramatic literature all over again. He went on to earn a master’s in acting from UNC-Chapel Hill, a master’s in theater arts from Eastern Michigan University, and a Ph.D. in theater and performance studies from University of Maryland-College Park.
Life and family brought Sheaffer and his wife back to Milwaukee in summer 2019, where Sheaffer accepted teaching positions at University of Wisconsin-Washington County, Marquette University and Cardinal Stritch University.
This past summer, he learned about the open SHS director position through multiple acquaintances, and decided he owed it to himself to apply.
“I always had ambitions of being an artistic director because I feel like I have good vision and good leadership skills,” he says. “I also love being challenged in new and different ways, and the Shorewood High School drama program is a great place to do that.”
Photo (by Patrick Manning): Sheaffer sits in the balcony of the SHS Gensler Theatre.
Sheaffer says that while there are many things he’s excited to do with the program, he is most looking forward to bringing the theater programming in line with the priorities of the District, especially regarding social justice aspects of the curriculum.
“For me as a teacher, historian, actor, director and playwright, I’m interested in what the theater can do, how it can be an instrument of — if not change — at least empathy and illumination,” he says. “One of the things that I got from (former SHS theater director) Barb Gensler as a mentor is that by taking the art really seriously, you can find a whole ‘nother level of fun, engagement and purpose. I found that purpose as a Shorewood student and I want my students to find that purpose, too.”