Every Fall, the Skylight Music Theatre hosts a musical residency with MHSA's Theatre Department Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. Through this residency, students learn musical numbers from a current show in Skylight's season and perform an abridged version. We also take a field trip to the Skylight to see the production we are studying. The vocal and dance training students learn in this residency expands their performing repertoire and ignites an appreciation for musical theatre. Our Freshmen also benefit from the Skylight's Teen Writes program, in which students write and create their own performance, with an emphasis on an important issue of their choice.

The Rep's Reading Residency program is built around a production from their current season. A Teaching Artist explores reading comprehension skills such as summarizing, predicting, text analysis, character development, plot structure, visualization, and making connections to historical and literary themes. Students then experience a Rep Immersion Day which includes a matinee performance, lunch and demonstrations on how to bring a piece of literature to life on stage. An actor from Milwaukee Rep’s company will also visits our classroom for a workshop.

Milwaukee's Next Act Theatre partners with MHSA's Theatre Department to offer students in depth workshops and performances which center around social issues and team building. The Community Youth Program features a custom-designed, participatory student project inspired by one of the season’s main stage productions. The overall goal is to provide a select group of students the opportunity and the means to create an artistic response to the Next Act production. Students will see the play and work with artist-educators over the course of two to four weeks developing their project.

New to MHSA's partnership group, Renaissance Theatreworks is launching their The Fran Bauer Young Critics Project (FBYCP). FBYCP seeks to encourage young women of high school age to enthusiastically explore and use their voice in creative and powerful ways through theater critique and professional writing. Participants will have a chance to attend a Renaissance Theaterworks’ performance and monthly workshops taught by local arts educators, journalists and theater critics. We look forward to this new partnership!

MHSA participates in Milwaukee Film's "Reel Talks" program. Students get the opportunity to meet with industry professionals and take part in a Q&A about their experiences in film making. Then, we take a trip to the Oriental Theatre and watch an entry in the festival. This has inspired MHSA's Theatre and Visual Art department to begin their own annual Student Film Festival.

UW-Milwaukee's Peck School of the Arts offers year round field trip opportunities as well as the annual High School Theatre Workshop. UWM Theatre professors offer a variety of workshops for students to chose from. This annual field trip includes college level workshop opportunities and lunch on the campus, providing them a glimpse into what it means to study Theatre in a higher education setting.

Each year, MHSA Theatre students are offered a chance to participate in the Marcus Center's ArtsConnect program. During the school year, students will have opportunities throughout the season to participate in workshops both at their school and at the Center with select cast members from touring Broadway shows, as well as artists from the Center’s Off-Broadway series. They are also eligible to take part in the summer intensive workshop, a week long program that offers audition training, costume and make-up tutorials, Q&As with local and touring artists and more!