Performing arts rebound at Leelanau County schools

Photo: Leland students performed The Little Mermaid this past spring.

By Minnie Bardenhagen

Sun contributor

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic brought confusion and uncertainty to public school extracurricular programs across the U.S. In Leelanau County schools, sports seasons were cancelled or postponed, various academic and creative clubs were brought to a halt—and student actors and musicians were left wondering when they would get to perform again.

In the 2019-2020 school year, Suttons Bay Public Schools was preparing to present The Sound of Music. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and a performing arts program already teetering became desolate as students were transitioned into online learning.

However, Suttons Bay Schools Superintendent Casey Petz said they took the time away during the pandemic as an opportunity to come back stronger.

“It did give us a chance to take a step back and rethink… what we were going to be when we emerged from the whole pandemic experience.”

Since students returned to in-person learning, Suttons Bay has gradually revived its theater, band, and choir opportunities.

In 2025, Suttons Bay hired Jacob Westerhoff as its K-12 music teacher and theater program director. Fresh out of Western Michigan University at 25 years old, he became another piece of the puzzle.

Using the advice of predecessors in the Suttons Bay theater program, Westerhoff contemplated musicals that would fit the small cast of students interested in the program. This eventually led them to putting on Little Shop of Horrors in March.

“Every person that was in the show absolutely brought the characters to life and truly exemplified the themes and feelings of the show in a way that I could have only dreamed about having come in as a first-year director,” he said.

On top of putting on the spring musical, Suttons Bay High School began offering a theater class in the fall of 2025 that took place before the school day started. Six students signed up for the “zero hour” 7 a.m. class.

While Westerhoff said that it was difficult to engage the students that early in the morning towards the beginning of the first semester, over time, he found that “the students were coming in early instead of right at 7 a.m.

“And they were like, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed… and excited to get going with whatever we had in store for them that day.”

Westerhoff expressed optimism about the performing arts program moving forward. Next year, a theater class will be offered during the school day for high schoolers. They will also offer a semester-long theater class for middle schoolers. Westerhoff emphasized the importance of allowing students choice and opportunities to try multiple avenues in the performing arts.

“If you try and push something down a student’s throat, they’re not gonna like it because they’re forced to be there,” he said, “I believe our goal to build the program is to give them the opportunities to explore multiple venues—and hope that ours is what sticks.”

Petz is also optimistic and believes the revival of performing arts at Suttons Bay is one of the most “meaningful and impactful shifts” they have made since he came to the district. He cited Friends of Fine Arts as a crucial supporter of the rebuilding effort.

“We were in survival mode, and we went to thrive mode,” he said.

Other school theater programs in the county are seeing a positive projection as well. Mary Newman, who has been the theater director at Leland Public School since 2023, was previously a theater director at a public school in Kansas, where she experienced the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic had on that theater program.

“It was rehearsing in masks, which was weird and awkward and horrible.” Newman also described an experience where a large portion of the cast came down with COVID.

“It was just, it was rough.”

Since Newman arrived in Leland, the school has put on shows like Mitchell’s Up, Oliver, The Sound of Music, and—just this past spring—The Little Mermaid.

Newman believes that word-of-mouth and exposure help build the program. Friends recruiting their friends and showcasing to elementary students are two examples.

“I figure if I can grab them when they’re young, and spark that light bulb inside of them and inside of their hearts for theater, then they’re going to come and audition and they’re going to get bit by that bug,” she said.

Newman hopes that the positive trajectory of the program will continue, both in terms of student interest and financial support.

“My personal goal is when you step into our theater, I want you to completely forget that you are seeing children on this stage,” she said, “I want you to think that you are at a professional show, and then be like: ‘Wait, what? Those were kids?”

When performing arts instructors Rob Stow and Jeremy Evans started heading musicals at Glen Lake Public School, they put on The Lightning Thief with a cast of about 13. This past spring, when they put on Seussical, their cast was approximately double that.

Stow experienced how COVID affected preforming arts programs in schools during his time at Elk Rapids Public School, where he watched the numbers go down in programs like theater and choir.

To Stow, reviving a program after COVID involves a focus on helping the students you retained to thrive.

“Success kind of breeds more success. If kids see that something is working and going well, then they’ll want to be part of that.”

According to Stow, recruitment means making performing arts education as fun as possible.

“I was making sure [my students] were singing all the time and doing rhythm things all the time and making sure they were getting a solid education,” he said. “But I was also masking it with games that made them really fun to be part of and that they didn’t necessarily know were working towards goals.”

Stow also cited the mandatory performing arts classes as a way to reach students who hadn’t seen themselves participating in arts, or students with other commitments like athletics.

“They didn’t necessarily see that they could also do arts at the same time,” Stow said, “So, this kind of helped them see themselves in the arts. And once they started it, a lot of them wanted to continue.”