If you’ve gone to a Muscatine High School theatre production these past few years, you may have noticed a new face among the regulars. MHS senior Liam Sheppeard-Housley joined the theatre department during the play season in the fall of 2024 as a junior, and returned for all following shows; he has expanded his involvement to choir throughout the 2025-2026 school year.
His journey started by a stroke of luck. “I actually wasn’t planning on joining [fine arts],” Sheppeard-Housley said. “I ended up at the audition for Radium Girls [the fall 2024 play] as a favor for a friend. Since being in that show, I always came back because I loved the thrill I get from acting and the joy I have working with everyone in the cast.”
Despite initial hesitations, Sheppeard-Housley has found a place not only in the department itself, but among other people, many of whom he has grown close to.
“I remember that, before joining theatre, I had always struggled trying to find a consistent group that I could connect to. Now, having been involved, things have gotten better,” he noted. “There are some people in the program that were just faces I had passed in the hallways for the first two years of high school,” he recalled. “Since then, they have become some of my favorite people in the world.”
A friendship sparked his interest in theatre, and many more have been created that have endured through the years. These relationships have personally affected him through not only providing motivation to act, but also to improve himself.
“When I joined theatre, I loved the things I did and the people I worked with, so I started to put in more effort to be a better person to make sure I didn’t lose that.”
Since joining, many memories have been made – so many, in fact, that it was difficult to pick a favorite when prompted. However, his first show ever with the department, Radium Girls, has remained a delight.
“I always think back to performing in Radium Girls,” he said. “In particular, a point where my character got into an argument with another character, who was portrayed by [MHS junior] Ethan Viner. It was always a fun scene to perform, and I not only consider it to be one of my favorite scenes ever done, but also consider it a personal, career-defining moment in theatre.”
His performances haven’t always come easy, though; cast as Mal Beineke in The Addams Family during the 2025 spring musical season, Sheppeard-Housley was thrust into a leading role with no prior singing experience, which eventually led him to choir, broadening his horizons.
After graduating, Sheppeard-Housley plans to complete his associate’s degree through Muscatine Community College [MCC] before transferring to a university, and looks forward to opportunities for theatrical involvement following high school.
“I love performing, so I’m hoping to get involved in some MCC shows, as well as some shows around Iowa. If I’m lucky, I might perform at Circa ‘21 [a dinner playhouse in Rock Island, IL]. I want to do anything I can to continue to be in theatre.”
His experience at Muscatine High School has been eye-opening, and leaving is bittersweet; while he will miss the connections he has made through the school, he remains satisfied with his time here.
“I am very proud of the legacy I have left at MHS. I hope, if anything, that I have made as positive an effect on others as they had on me.”
