Danielle Walker

Dressed in colonial attire, Seth Loudeslager and Evan Schmitt pose for their senior theater photo. These two have been friends since middle school, and found a shared love of theater, history and comedy. Schmitt will be heading to The State University of New York to pursue a degree in performing arts, while Loudenslager will be going to ACC before transferring to a four year college to pursue Pre-Med. Photo Courtesy of Danielle Walker

Dressed in pajamas, drag or hundred dollar colonial outfits, this duo has been seen wandering around the halls of the theater department throughout their entire high school career. Seniors Seth Loudenslager and Evan Schmitt have been in a plethora of productions, performances and recitals, and have been together in doing so since middle school.

Loudenslager and Schmitt met in the eighth grade during their middle school production of “Matilda”, and bonded backstage over their shared love for history and the game “Battlefield.” Schmitt’s character, Mrs. Trunchbull, required him to wear a large fat-suit, including a large butt attachment. This large, but small, feature of his costume brought them even closer.

“We had a little establishment going on, a little function,” Schmitt said. “We called the [group the] Dump Trucks. That was the start of the freaky-ness.”

One moment the two fondly look back upon was performing a musical theater number for the schools annual variety show, Cedar Park Tonight.

“Oh my God, I think that was probably my favorite thing I’ve done,” Loudenslager said. “[It was] absolutely euphoric.”

The song the two performed was called “Better With A Man,” from the Broadway musical “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.” They performed this number at the Texas Thespians Convention in 2023, and advanced to nationals with it. This encouraged theater director, Alisa Mirabella, to push them to perform it once again.

“M came up to us and was like ‘Hey, broadcast wants a theater act, y’all qualified and I like you guys, so wanna do it?’ and we said ‘Yeah’,” Schmitt said. “We want to be gay. We made special additions to the blocking, [and] we rechoreographed [the dance] it all.”

Schmitt and Loudenslager have both been a part of the school’s improv troupe, Penguin National Guard, or PNG, for a majority of their time in theater, with Loudenslager joining his freshman year and Schmitt his sophomore year. 

“It’s always a fun experience in a show when we find out that we’re in a scene together,” Loudenslager said. “It makes it much more fun, you know? I guess it’s hard to pull off our inside jokes with an audience, but we try. I think we have great chemistry together.”

While not on stage, the duo can often be found in the roller rink. Over time, they slowly picked up the art of roller skating and frequent the local skate center.

“After Big Fish, we went together once,” Schmitt said. “Then we just started doing it every year. We really hated the show we were in after ‘Big Fish,’ [Xanadu]. We both skated for years prior to this. So we were demons at the rink.”

This year, both Schmitt and Loudenslager co-led the one-act UIL play, “Leading Ladies.” 

“You get pretty tight with everyone,” Loudenslager said. “You’re in the show with some people that [you don’t] really talk to as much that are in the show. I would start actively talking [to them].”

The duo will be branching out into different career paths however, as Schmitt will be heading to The State University of New York to pursue a degree in performing arts, while Loudenslager will be going to ACC before transferring to a four year college to pursue Pre-Med.