Shows Category: 2018-19

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.