Shows Category: 2010s

It’s the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie — a jumble of disparate, fading memories — has a handsome new companion who’s programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? In this richly spare, wondrous new play, Jordan Harrison explores the mysteries of human identity and the limits — if any — of what technology can replace.

The Wisconsin Wrights New Play Festival is supported by the Marcia Légère Binns Distinguished Playwright Residency. As a UW-Madison student in the early 1940s, Marcia Légère won the inaugural Wisconsin Playwrights Contest with a piece that her professor submitted secretly. Légère graduated from the university with a degree in Comparative Literature, going on to a successful career as a writer for documentary films and television.

Légère decided that she wanted to give back to the university that had provided her with one of her first great accomplishments as a writer. Saddened to hear that the Wisconsin Playwrights Contest was no longer in existence, she worked with the University of Wisconsin Foundation to bring the competition back to life, to support local playwrights, and to strengthen the relationship between the two. Today, Légère’s generous contributions continue to give students and local professional playwrights an opportunity to produce original theatre.

In March 2018, the Wisconsin Union Theater and Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee will host the 27th annual Marcia Légère Student Play Festival.

At the start of the Great Recession, one of the last auto stamping plants in Detroit is on shaky ground. Faye, Dez, and Shanita are a tight-knit family of workers navigating the likelihood of losing their jobs, while their foreman Reggie is torn between his team and his career. As power dynamics shift, they are all pushed to the limits of forgiveness. When the line between blue-collar and white- collar gets blurred, how much are they willing to risk for each other?

Graphic novelist Alison Bechdel’s father was a volatile and brilliant man whose secrets defined her family and her life. Bruce taught high school English, ran the family’s funeral home business, and was obsessed with restoring their old house. When he dies unexpectedly, Alison digs deeply into her childhood memories to try and understand how his choices may have influenced her own.

This unique, funny and heart-shattering new musical zig-zags across Alison’s past and present as she tries to make sense of her parents’ lives, her own sexuality, and how she maps the terrain of her adult world.

A chance encounter between Georgie (flirtatious, mysterious) and Alex (a much older man) starts with a kiss that changes both of their lives. What does Georgie want? And can she be trusted?

These two strangers, set adrift by life and loss, embark upon a fascinating game of cat and mouse that changes course with each new revelation. There are many possible lives we can live – but each choice we make alters the journey.

In this bold and funny reworking of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, a group of old friends, ex-lovers, estranged in-laws, and lifelong enemies lurches between love and lust, laughter and longing, and the many ways in which life does, and doesn’t … suck.

Both brash and warm-hearted, Madison native Aaron Posner’s romp of a play reminds its seven hapless characters—and us—that to feel deeply is the price of a life well-lived.

Forward Theater’s biennial monologue festival is back! Featuring a dozen original pieces written just for us by playwrights from across our community and around the nation, this festival celebrates the many different ways creative authors can approach a common subject. Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Wisconsin’s ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, our Two Steps Forward festival will encompass a wide variety of perspectives on and interpretations of our state’s long progressive tradition.

Mary Jane is a single mother and tireless force. Armed with prescriptions, feeding tubes, and medical equipment, she fully embraces the daily grind of caring for her young, sick child. Mary Jane finds laughter and camaraderie within her community, and her grace and optimism fend off the persistently looming undertow.

Unexpected humor and exuberant warmth illuminate this beautifully detailed and moving story of one woman’s commitment to finding the light in a very dark world.

Ann and her four siblings gather at their childhood home to crack jokes, argue politics, and share stories. For Ann, each reminiscence brings her back to a favorite childhood memory: her star turn as Peter Pan on their hometown stage.

Soon, these brothers and sisters hear the call of Neverland, a magical place where the refusal to grow up does battle with the inevitability of growing old. A loving mixture of deathbed vigils, marching bands, the aches and pains of aging and the miracle of flight, For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday celebrates all the magic that theater – and life – have to offer.

You’re seven years old. Mum’s in hospital. Dad says she’s ‘done something stupid’. She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything that’s worth living for.

#1. Ice cream.
#2. Water fights.
#3. Staying up past your bedtime and being allowed to watch TV.

You leave it on her pillow, hoping. And you add to the list throughout your life.

An immersive storytelling experience blends comedy, improv, and audience interaction to tell the story of a boy growing up in the shadow of mental illness, and learning to grapple with his own adult experiences with love, loss and depression. Every Brilliant Thing provides a life-affirming jolt of humanism, reminding us that hope comes from the miracles of life’s minutiae.