Season listing
UWL Theatre Program Named Best in Wisconsin!
Click the link above to read about OnStage Blog choosing UWL as
one of the best theatre programs in the United States. The listing of
all 50 programs can be found here.
2020-2021 SEASON
**All production offerings, dates and times are subject to change dependent on COVID-19 restrictions.
War of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast
Based on the book by H.G. Wells
Adapted by Joe Landry
Inspired by and including The Mercury Theatre On the Air's infamous 1938 radio play
Directed by Greg Parmeter
Performance Dates:
Streaming dates: October 23-25 & October 29-November 1, 2020
**This is a streaming only performance. (No live audience.)
Ticketing and streaming will be made available through Broadway on Demand/Show Share.
An alien invasion throws humanity into chaos in the classic sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds—but all it took to cause real-life panic in the streets was Orson Welles’s 1938 radio adaptation, which listeners took for news. This production recreates the colorful events surrounding the infamous evening, complete with vintage commercials and live sound effects. This radio-play-within-a-radio-play is a thrilling homage to the form’s golden age and timely reminder of what fear can do to a society.
Tickets are $6 for UWL students; $16 for seniors/non UWL students; and $18 for adults.
War of the Worlds Program
It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
By Joe Landry
Directed by Karen Dabney
Performance Dates:
Streaming dates: December 4-6 & 10-13, 2020
**This is a streaming only performance. (No live audience.)
Ticketing and streaming will be made available through Broadway on Demand/Show Share.
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play is based on the classic holiday movie with a clever twist thrown in: the story is staged as a live radio broadcast. Actors portray numerous characters with unique sound effects to accompany the storytelling. It’s a Wonderful Life tells the story of George Bailey, a generous and well-meaning man who has become too downcast and tired to continue living. It will take help from a lovable angel named Clarence to show George what life would be like if he wasn’t born for George to have a change of heart and understand the true spirit of the holidays.
Tickets are $6 for UWL students; $16 for seniors/non UWL students; and $18 for adults.
Influence
based on Moliere's The Misanthrope
Written and directed by Greg Parmeter
Moliere on Zoom! Moliere's classic comedy of manners, The Misanthrope, is updated for the COVID Era. The production will happen live on Zoom and incorporate Tik-Tok, Snapchat, Tinder, and other modern social media to tell the story of Alceste, a twenty-something disgusted by the phoniness of modern society and his friends, who is nevertheless in love with the fickle, flirtatious, and fallacious internet influencer, Celimene. The cast and crew will collaborate with Greg on updating the language and the plot, relying on Zoom as the medium for performance making it a vital and integrated part of the storytelling.
Performance/Live Stream Dates:
March 10-13, 2021 at 7:30 p.m.
March 14, 2021 at 2:00 p.m.
Squiggles
Directed by Karen Dabney
Devised children's show written and performed by UWL Theatre students
An original play created by UWL Theatre students geared towards youth, grades pre-K to 3rd, about the struggles to fit in, to stand out, and to find inspiration within themselves. In a collaborative process, the ensemble will work together to explore these challenges we've all faced through original collages, monologues, scenes and songs. We use the metaphor of the nonsensical squiggle to guide our search for and celebration of the imperfectly perfect in us all.
This will be a free online performance available to area schools and the public and will be available beginning March 29, 2021.
Songs for a New World
Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
Directed by Mary Leonard
Songs for a New World is, according to composer Jason Robert Brown, “about one moment. It’s about hitting the wall and having to make a choice, or take a stand, or turn around and go back.” With a rousing score that blends elements of pop, gospel and jazz, featuring tight harmonies and darling vocals, Songs for a New World transports its audience from the deck of a Spanish sailing ship bound for a new land, to the ledge of a New York penthouse. Characters range from a young man in the Bronx who dreams of becoming a famous basketball player, to a forlorn and neglected Mrs. Claus lamenting as Christmas approaches.
Recorded Performance/Stream Dates:
May 1-7, 2021
**Due to COVID, all Theatre production offerings, dates, and times are subject to change.**