When you think of musical theatre productions, classics such as “Oklahoma!” or my “My Fair Lady” often come to mind. You may also think of more modern classics, but the authors of these works are usually well-known. Wichita State’s new Musical Theatre Incubator Program is aiming to bring undiscovered musicals and authors to WSU to bring more attention to these productions.

The first production under the program, “The Fox Sisters,” was recently performed on campus at the beginning of October. It’s written by composer Anthony De Angelis, lyricist Christyn Budzyna and book by Jessica Penzias

The idea to bring the program to Wichita State came about when Cheyla Clawson, Director of the School of Performing Arts, began conversations with Amy Baker Schwiethale, professor and Program Director of musical theatre, and the WSU Foundation, in fall 2021 about creating a space or program to develop new musicals,

“It’s typical in theater for us to pay for rights for plays that already exist,” said Clawson. “But in our school, we were really trying to focus on process, creativity and collaboration, and we were wondering if there was any way for the musical theatre program to bring in brand new works.”

At the time of their discussions, WSU’s theatre program had a 48-year-old national student playwriting competition, but it did not have a similar program for musical theatre. Having a similar program for musical theatre enables musical theatre to bring in new musicals by new authors.

Unbeknownst to Clawson and Baker- (no hypen) Schwiethale, Richard Biever, a new WSU musical theatre professor, was developing relationships with the artists who had written the “The Fox Sisters” during the spring of 2022 while he was working at Penn State. When he received a job offer at WSU, Biever asked if it was a possibility to bring new musicals to WSU.

“Working on new musicals for the students is crucial because when they leave here, certainly they’ll work on established shows, but the whole idea is that they’ll get to be involved with the creation of something new,” said Biever. “To not have that experience is to neglect one part of what the whole educational experience should be.”

At the same time, the WSU Foundation identified a foundation with an interest in musical theatre and bringing in new musicals, the Jo Zakas Legacy Foundation — this made their goal to bring in new musicals a reality. It also provided other unique experiences for the students.

“The funding not only enabled us to work on a new musical with our students, it also brought in the actual writers of the show,” said Clawson. “This means the students are not only getting to work on the show — they are also getting to work with the people that are creating the new work.”

Clawson said having the authors here to prepare the students really helped their work as actors.

“With this program, it really allows us to go through a creative process, because the material hasn’t really been performed before,” Clawson said. “The students are getting to build this interpretation of these characters because they have not been established before and there aren’t other performers for them to look to. It gives them more agency to make choices about the characters they are playing.”

Biever also said this challenge was beneficial to the directors.

“Even though using recordings is a good tool, they subtly imply that that is the performance we are looking for; that’s not an issue for the actors here because they have to start from square one,” said Biever. “We have to find it out together. It really is the full theatre experience.”

Clawson said these newer works are often more reflective of the current students’ experience.

In addition to benefiting students, part of that funding for the program is the by invitation-only community performance that they sent out to all Shocker Neighborhood schools and community youth organizations in the area, including USD 259, further expanding the programs reach.

By the conclusion of the performances of “The Fox Sisters,” Biever said, he was positive about the program’s future at WSU based on the audience’s reaction, even those who weren’t fans of the material.

“You didn’t necessarily need to love the play to appreciate that the students succeeded in tackling this very difficult material, and that they were able to create roles out of nowhere,” Biever said.

Biever hopes that they continue the program at WSU by bringing in a new show each year.