Emerson Steinhaus, the theater director and fine arts teacher here at Morton West, knew a few things about Morton West before signing on to work here. After all, the hallways and stage weren’t exactly unfamiliar.
Steinhaus, whose pronouns are they/them, was born & raised in Berwyn Illinois, while living here most of their life they attended J Sterling Morton West, only moving away to study in college.
“I always find my way back here. I don’t know, I love Berwyn,” said Steinhaus.
Steinhaus grew up with a rather small family although they do take a big part in figuring out what they grow up to be. Steinhaus’ parents showed support by accepting what they wanted to pursue as their career or coming to shows Steinhaus participated in high school. Steinhaus’ father was a teacher at Morton East for 33 years & their Mother worked at Morton College. Seeing their parents already working in education, it made sense to Steinhaus to work around that field already taking inspiration for any career ideas. Additionally, Steinhaus’ brother was also a theater teacher, although he’s moved away. To Steinhaus, there was never pressure, simply just role models while growing up. When Steinhaus was in high school here at Morton, they had joined an after-school theater program where they first developed their passion for theater.
“I just fell in love with it. I really liked the whole energy of theater and then that love just kept growing and growing,” said Steinhaus. “I’ve just had this dream for a really long time, since I was like 14, to be here at this specific school teaching theater, running the after-school program, and now I have it..”
Steinhaus graduated high school in 2017. In many ways, though, the school was completely different compared to today’s Morton West. Despite life’s teenage challenges, for Steinhaus, theater was the best thing throughout. Steinhaus states how the student body has made major changes. Currently, it is more accepting of queer identities rather than before.
“It’s so nice to be able to see people accept each other, be themselves, and also be open to just like figuring it out. You know.. and not so scared or worried what other people think.” said Steinhaus.
After graduation, Steinhaus attended Illinois State University, majoring in theater teacher education, furthering their passion. Steinhaus explained that throughout their hardships they personally think every challenge was worth it. Although there was self-doubting, most of the time you have to do what’s best for you.
“I kept just pushing through and kept hoping for this dream: and I guess like most of my life, once I figured out I wanted this position. I just decided [that] every choice I made or I’m given, I will make the choice to — or I’ll choose the option that would get me closer to my end goal. So, I just kept choosing that with the hopes that’ll [help me end] up here. And it worked!” said Steinhaus.
Steinhaus is in their third year teaching, and between those years, they taught stagecraft and some art classes. For the past couple of years, they had been working with the previous teacher Mrs. Delmonico, who retired last year and Steinhaus has assumed that position. Currently, Steinhaus is now doing full-time theater, stagecraft, and Intermediate/Studio theater. This is the first year Steinhaus is directing a musical by themselves named The Lightning Thief, which will be upcoming on November 14-16 at 7:00 pm and on November 17 at 2:00 pm. As for the future, Steinhaus feels like they are where they want to be & in the happiest spot in their life. There aren’t any plans on leaving theater or anything else out of it. Any upcoming goals would have to do with theater and Steinhaus looks forward to growing in this chapter of their life.
