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WPW Backstage

World Premiere Wisconsin premiere of I CARRY YOUR HEART WITH ME at Third Avenue PlayWorks.

An insider's look into our inaugural festival by veteran Wisconsin theater critic and superfan Mike Fischer!

Meet Mike

Mike Fischer wrote theater and book reviews for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel for fifteen years, serving as chief theater critic from 2009-18. A member of the Advisory Company of Artists for Forward Theater Company in Madison, he also co-hosts Theater Forward, a bimonthly podcast. You can reach him directly at mjfischer1985@gmail.com.

Mike’s work as WPW’s Festival Reporter was made possible through the sponsorship of the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF). Learn more: https://upaf.org/

Garding The Wisconsin Idea: The Legacy of World Premiere Wisconsin

30 June 2023
Garding The Wisconsin Idea: The Legacy of World Premiere Wisconsin Image Theatermakers assembled for WPW’s Closing Celebration hosted by Northern Sky Theater. Photo by Len Villano.

In no other way can Americans so well express the core and blood of their democracy; for in the communities lies the final test of the acceptance of the arts as a necessity of everyday life . . . AContinue reading

Through the Looking Glass: WPW Heroines Find Their Superpower

7 June 2023
Through the Looking Glass: WPW Heroines Find Their Superpower Image

“Who’s the person in the mirror? I don’t know her name. – Lourds Lane, “Fragmented” I. The best moment in Lourds Lane’s SuperYou, receiving its world premiere developmental production with Skylight Music Theatre as part of World Premiere Wisconsin, comesContinue reading

Into the Woods: Retracing First Steps in Wisconsin’s World Premiere Journey

31 March 2023
Into the Woods: Retracing First Steps in Wisconsin’s World Premiere Journey Image Reading of Gov. Ever’s World Premiere Wisconsin Day Proclamation, featuring artistic leaders from across Wisconsin. Photo: Paul Ruffolo.

“Into the woods, and who can tell what’s waiting on the journey?” The characters at the beginning of Into the Woods don’t know, as they sing these words from Sondheim and Lapine’s beloved musical. Similarly, I’m quite sure that incrediblyContinue reading

Rainbows Forever: Reflections on StageQ’s CapitalQ Theatre Festival

27 June 2023

In March, the Waukesha School District banned Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton’s “Rainbowland” – an innocently utopian yearning for a world free from intolerance and hate – from being performed at a first-grade spring concert because it “could be perceivedContinue reading

Blame Mom

26 June 2023
Blame Mom Image

There were years she did not let me touch her . . . [and] my wisdom came too late . . . She is a child of her age, of depression, of war, of fear . . . Only helpContinue reading

Hope Dies Last: Reflections on WPW Plays at Waukesha Civic, Peninsula Players, and Northern Sky

23 June 2023
Hope Dies Last: Reflections on WPW Plays at Waukesha Civic, Peninsula Players, and Northern Sky Image

So all my books, certainly this one, tries to create a memory of what was, and what is, and what can be. Basically, that’s what it’s all about. Studs Terkel, Dec. 2003 Interview   I. In Lost & Found –Continue reading

What if the Bard’s Characters Really Were Real? New Play Places Them on the World’s Stage, Living in the Here and Now

21 June 2023
What if the Bard’s Characters Really Were Real? New Play Places Them on the World’s Stage, Living in the Here and Now Image

Like every fan of Ontario’s Stratford Festival, playwright Rick Bingen has experienced the magic of walking around a smallish town and regularly bumping into the actors who ply their trade each night on the four stages comprising the best summerContinue reading

From South Korea to Green Bay: Musical OUT OF THE BLUE Sings Universal Story to Bridge the Divide

19 June 2023
From South Korea to Green Bay: Musical OUT OF THE BLUE Sings Universal Story to Bridge the Divide Image

Wisconsin native Erin Hunsader (book and lyrics) was a second-year graduate student at NYU-Tisch when she and fellow grad student Haesun Suh (music) began working on their musical Out of the Blue as their MFA thesis project. It’s come aContinue reading

String Theory: Prism Youth Theater Company Imagines a New Way to Play

15 June 2023
String Theory: Prism Youth Theater Company Imagines a New Way to Play Image

When I spoke with Leo Madson one day before the opening of The Hidden Strings – the devised Prism Youth Theater Company piece that he is directing as Prism’s World Premiere Wisconsin entry – he was sailing on Lake MichiganContinue reading

The Dream of a Common Language

14 June 2023
The Dream of a Common Language Image

If from time to time I envy the pure annunciations to the eye . . . what in fact I keep choosing are these words, these whispers, conversations from which time after time the truth breaks moist and green –Continue reading

The (Al)lure of a New Musical: Northern Sky Hopes to Hook Audience with THE FISH WHISPERER

12 June 2023
The (Al)lure of a New Musical: Northern Sky Hopes to Hook Audience with THE FISH WHISPERER Image

In the small Wisconsin town of Shewauga, the fish aren’t biting – which means the tourists aren’t coming. For a town that depends on an annual influx of such outsiders, that spells disaster. Can a stranger named Hannah Waters –Continue reading

Asking the Big Questions: New Peninsula Players Comedy Goes Deep

9 June 2023
Asking the Big Questions: New Peninsula Players Comedy Goes Deep Image

Everybody is a wonderin’ what and where they all came from Everybody is a worryin’ ‘bout where They’re gonna go when the whole thing’s done But no one knows for certain and so it’s all the same to me IContinue reading