Before he was pope and a saint, Karol “Lolek” Wojtyła staged clandestine plays that offered solace to souls suffering under an oppressive regime. 

Decades later and half a world away from Nazi-occupied Krakow, Poland, a lay-led Catholic youth theater in Kansas claims St. John Paul II as a patron as they train young actors in humility, courage, and the art of changing culture one performance at a time.

Lolek Theatre, a ministry of Christ the King Parish in Wichita, Kansas, staged its first show during spring 2024 and completed its eighth show in early December. More than 200 students from dozens of parishes across the Diocese of Wichita — 19 different parishes this season alone — have already taken part in Lolek’s shows and summer camps. 

Most of the students who are involved consider Lolek their primary after-school activity and social outlet, said Corinne Mayans, co-founder and artistic director at Lolek and a parishioner at Wichita’s St. Catherine of Siena parish. 

“These kids love each other, and they love this group. And it shines on stage,” Mayans said, speaking to the Register. 

“When people come and see our shows, they recognize that there’s a special joy that comes from these kids, and it’s because of their community and their relationships and their honest joy and excitement of putting this on and getting to share it.”

St. John Paul II loved theater. As a young man, Karol Wojtyła would perform classics of Polish literature with his friends at the Rhapsodic Theater in Krakow as a form of cultural resistance. Later, even as a priest and bishop, he continued writing plays that explored marriage, the lives of the saints and biblical figures. 

For the Kansas theater company that bears the saint’s nickname, finding kids to act in the plays has been the easy part — families from all over Wichita have flocked to Lolek, “way more kids than we could possibly even accommodate,” Mayans said. (Lolek’s success is one of many indicators of the flourishing of the Catholic faith within the Diocese of Wichita, which was recently featured in the Register’s ongoing series on “The New Catholic Hubs” — specifically Wichita’s College Hill neighborhood.)

Lolek’s student performers range in age from 5 to 18. In addition to performing, the oldest students have myriad opportunities to develop their leadership skills as members of the technical crew — running aspects of the shows such as microphones or lights — or by serving as dance captains, choreography assistants and student assistant directors. Students also get the opportunity to lead warm-ups, devotions and community-building activities.

Every gathering — which is 100% cellphone-free — begins and ends with prayer, and the company attends Mass together before entering the week prior to opening night. It’s not uncommon to hear the cast singing the Salve Regina backstage or praying the Rosary before a performance starts, and Mayans said student leaders have developed new traditions of prayer and fellowship with their peers.

The company rehearses in the school gym at Christ the King and schedules its performances around dates according to performance location — renting venues in the past and, for this most recent season, forging a  partnership with Wichita’s Bishop Carroll Catholic High School to use the school’s auditorium. The goal, someday, is for Lolek to have a performance venue of its own, Mayans said. 

Before Corinne and her husband Michael founded Lolek, theater had become a big part of their family’s life as their children got involved in local productions. At the same time, the Mayansesfound that some aspects of the secular theater world didn’t align with their Catholic values. They ran into plenty of fellow Catholics along the way who felt similarly, Mayans said. 

Lolek emerged out of the Mayanses’ conviction — along with that of fellow parents — that theater can be a powerful force for cultural formation. There’s a strong focus on excellence, as students are challenged to create productions that audiences will genuinely enjoy, while learning to see creativity as a gift to be developed and shared. The group emphasizes humility over self-promotion, teaching that talents — both onstage and backstage — are to be used in service to others.

“We really focus on creativity — how we all have our own unique creative talents, because we’re made in the image and likeness of our Creator. Each person has their own unique creative talents, and we help them realize those talents and cultivate those talents and see them as the gifts that they have that they have an obligation to share. … They each must choose to share their talents as a member of the body of Christ,” Mayans said. 

In founding Lolek, Mayans was deeply inspired by St. John Paul II’s 1999 “Letter to Artists,” in which the saint wrote that it is “in living and acting that man establishes his relationship with being, with the truth and with the good.”

“[John Paul] always recognized that there is something really special about being able to use storytelling and the arts, whether it’s theater or other performing arts, using subtle messages in those to change hearts and minds. And sometimes it works a lot better than preaching at someone directly, leaving them with something to ponder,” Mayans said. 

It’s been surprisingly difficult, she added, to find explicitly “Catholic” plays that suit a large company of young players, but the plays they have chosen so far all contain positive themes that the students get a chance to study and reflect on in detail — for example, the pro-life implications of the insightful line “A person’s a person no matter how small” from Dr. Suess’ works, or Maria’s vocational discernment in The Sound of Music.

While Mayans said she believes that not every play the company performs needs to be explicitly about Jesus or the saints, she said she is currently working with a writer who is creating a play specifically for Lolek that consists of a series of vignettes about Catholic saints. 

“We really hold tight to our Catholic identity,” Mayans said. 

“We go to Mass together. We start and conclude every rehearsal with prayer. We study the saints and the connections between virtues [in] stories that we’re telling. And it’s just very tightly interwoven with all that we’re doing. I think that’s so critical in building this as a ministry.”

As a lay-led initiative, Mayans said she has been encouraged and gratified by the support that the Diocese of Wichita has offered to the nascent theater company. Bishop Carl Kemme has even attended a couple of performances. 

“Most of the time, people stick to doing activities with their own parish, and many of these kids would never know each other or meet each other outside of this — and now, they’re all best friends, and they’re spending so much time together,” Mayans said. 

“Programs like this really create unity among the diocese. These kids, many of them, they’re going to grow up in the next few years. Some of them are considering vocations to the priesthood. They’re going to go out there and become the future leaders of our Church and of our community. So it’s just really beautiful how [Lolek] interconnects with the work that the diocese is doing and how we’re able to create opportunities for these kids to grow in the skills that will help them in their future leadership.”

Besides being a fun creative and social outlet for students in the diocese, the theater is also a boon for parents — many of whom volunteer — as it gives them peace of mind to be able to send their students to an activity that is enjoyable, challenging and Christ-centered. 

Ashley and Patrick Steen, a home-schooling family from Wichita, got plugged into Lolek while looking for new after-school activities for their children. They had tried sports but wanted something more spiritually enriching. Their son Malcolm, a high-school junior and a member of Lolek’s student leadership team, recently played the part of the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz.

 

“Having a Catholic community where you can kind of put your guard down and dive deep into your faith with your castmates, student leaders and the adults who are volunteering their time … that’s really unmatched,” Ashley told the Register. 

The shows take a lot of hard work to pull together, but fun is at the forefront for the kids. Malcolm said his experience at Lolek has taught him a lot about poise under pressure and the importance of recognizing that doing your best is more important than achieving perfection. 

“No show is perfect, and it’s the ways that you work around things and recover that really matters,” Malcom said. 

Patrick, Malcom’s father, described Lolek as “really special, in a way I wouldn’t have expected it to be.” 

“The amount of leadership that the older kids have to have a beautiful production at the end of it ... I love the fact that they’re devoting their work, energy and labor to something so beautiful,” Patrick said.

Jill Papsdorf and her husband Josh also home school in Wichita and have two children, Clare and Silas, who participate in Lolek. Jill told the Register she appreciates that her children have met a group of friends who all take their faith seriously and view it as an important part of their lives — it’s not unusual for the kids to get together informally to attend Mass or Eucharistic adoration, she said.

Theater is also a great environment in which to develop lifelong skills. Silas said the experience of being a part of Lolek has helped him develop confidence and ease in social situations, while Clare described how leading warm-ups and devotions has strengthened her comfort with public speaking and leadership.

Clare started as a freshman with no prior stage experience and quickly flourished, having now acted in several productions. Silas started out as a member of the crew, handling the microphones, and later auditioned for onstage roles. Both siblings told the Register that the most rewarding part, by far, is the friendships they’ve made throughout the experience.

Clare said: “There are just so many amazing people, and it’s so much fun to spend time with them. It’s great to have a Catholic community where ... we all understand the faith, and we can talk about it and make that connection.”