Yes, I know that I am late again. That seems to be my theme this spring! But read on and remind yourself to schedule your visits. Or, if you haven’t seen this yet, imagine what next year’s theater season is going to be like.
We’re thrilled to share MCT’s 2026-2027 season: five exceptional productions centering the excellence of Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s artists in stories that will open your heart, expand your thoughts, and leave you feeling more connected to your community.
MAYBE WE’LL FLY A New Play with Music Inspired by the Life of Mary Nohl By Marie Kohler Music by Josh Schmidt
September 18 – October 11, 2026 BTC Studio Theatre
From renowned Milwaukee artists award-winning playwright Marie Kohler (BOSWELL, MIDNIGHT AND MOLL FLANDERS), and Tony-nominated composer Josh Schmidt (The End, THE ADDING MACHINE, THE MINISTER’S WIFE), comes this wildly theatrical and richly poetic world premiere play with music exploring the life and work of legendary Wisconsin outsider artist Mary Nohl. Propelled by an evocative score for solo cello as well as a contemporary approach to movement from award-winning director Elizabeth Margolius, MAYBE WE’LL FLY will captivate and inspire as it celebrates outsiders everywhere.
A GIFT OF THE MAGI A Musical Inspired by the Short Story by O. Henry Music by Josh Schmidt Lyrics by James DeVita & Josh Schmidt Book by James DeVita
November 13 – December 6, 2026 BTC Studio Theatre
Hailed as “a Christmas delight” (The Isthmus), James DeVita and Josh Schimdt’s original musical based on O. Henry’s classic tale of love and generosity rings in the holidays in its Milwaukee debut. Newlyweds Della and Jim—accompanied by a beautiful live violin and cello score—search turn-of-the-20th-Century New York with full hearts and empty pockets for the perfect gift for one another.
SONGS WITHOUT WORDS (Or, The Mendelssohn Play) by Jennifer Vosters A Locally-Grown New Play
January 22 – February 7, 2027 BTC Studio Theatre
Musical genius siblings Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn were each other’s chief supporters, deepest inspirations, and best friends—but a rigid world immortalized only one in the canon. Featuring a tour de force solo performance from Jennifer Vosters (A DOLL’S HOUSE) and presented for the first time with live music in this full-length world premiere, SONGS WITHOUT WORDS wrestles enduring questions of gender and genius, family and fame, and siblinghood and the power of art.
SKELETON CREW by Dominique Morisseau 2022 Tony Award Nomination for Best Play
March 19 – April 4, 2027 BTC Studio Theatre
One of Detroit’s last auto stamping plants stands on shaky ground, and a close-knit crew of four factory workers must face a future without the steadiest employment they’ve ever known. Milwaukee’s own Dimonte Henning—Director of MCT smash hits THE MOUNTAINTOP and CLYDE’S—brings to life this poetic, powerful, and profoundly American play described by The Financial Times as “not so much state-of-the-nation as state-of-the-world.”
LIBERATION by Bess Wohl 2026 Pulitzer Prize Winner
May 7 – May 23, 2027 BTC Cabot Theatre
1970. Ohio. Six women determined to shake up their lives and change the world form a consciousness-raising group in a community center gym. Fifty years later, one of their daughters tries to understand where things fell apart. Fresh from a celebrated 2025 Broadway run, this provocative, funny, refreshingly irreverent, and intensely relevant powerhouse of a production poses vital questions about what we inherit, what we forget, and what we’re still fighting to understand.
This production includes nudity.
SKELETON CREW and LIBERATION are presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
APT is first company in Wisconsin to be awarded theatre’s highest honor.
This is an incredible honor for one of the elite theater’s from Wisconsin. American Players Theatre is remarkable…in their play selection, their cast selection, their director selection, and of course the full presentations we all are able to experience in their stunning theater setting. Congratulations to their actors, directors, stage support staff, and office support staff. Now on with the PR statement with the full details (and again I am late, this was released May 19th, 2026).
SPRING GREEN, WIS. — Today, the Tony Awards® Administration Committee announced that the 2026 Regional Theatre Tony Award will be awarded to American Players Theatre (APT) in Spring Green, WI, in the following statement:
The Tony Awards Administration Committee announced today that, based on the recommendation of the American Theatre Critics Association, American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin, will be the recipient of the 2026 Regional Theatre Tony Award. The honor, recognizing a regional theatre company that has displayed a continuous level of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theatre nationally, is accompanied by a grant of $25,000, made possible by City National Bank’s generous support.
“American Players Theatre is a one-of-a-kind institution, delivering world-class theatre presentations to the Midwest for decades, and we are thrilled to recognize the team there with this award,” said Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing and Jason Laks, President of The Broadway League. “By illuminating the shared human experience through timeless classics, they have broadened the theatre-going audience in their community and beyond.”
“As the official bank of the Tony Awards, City National Bank is honored to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of American Players Theatre, a standard of excellence in live performance,” said JaHan Wang, executive vice president and head of Entertainment & Sports Banking, City National Bank. “We are proud to support the dramatic arts, both on Broadway and across the nation, and to help ensure that the transformative power of theater continues to inspire audiences for generations to come.”
In a statement, APT’s Artistic Director Brenda DeVita and Managing Director Sara Young wrote “On behalf of APT, we are honored and overwhelmed to receive the 2026 Regional Theatre Tony Award. This award is for the whole APT community: the artists, artisans and staff who work so hard to bring stories to life on our Hill, who believe their work is special and that it matters — because it does matter. This award is also for our extraordinary audience, who come back year after year, sharing this theater with friends and family, because it is their theater. We are grateful to The Broadway League, The American Theater Wing, City National Bank and The American Theatre Critics Association for their faith in APT and in the promise of regional theater.”
Founded in 1979, APT’s mission is to perform timeless, challenging, poetic texts, with Shakespeare at the center, to the broadest audience possible. From June through November, APT produces nine plays and welcomes nearly 100,000 guests seeking a world-class performance in their outdoor Hill Theatre (1,075 seats) and indoor Touchstone Theatre (201 seats).
This year’s Tony Awards will return to the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, June 7. Hosted by music superstar and global icon P!NK, The American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards will broadcast LIVE to both coasts on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+* (8:00 – 11:00 PM ET/5:00 – 8:00 PM PT).
A full list of this year’s Tony nominees and additional honorees is available here. The full announcement from the Tony Awards is available here.
And I pulled this out of the regular PR, but you will want to have this info handy:
APT will kick off its 47th season on Saturday, June 6, with William Shakespeare’s As You Like It . Also playing this season in the Hill Theatre: The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder; Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov and adapted by Nate Burger; The Two “Gentlemen” of Verona by William Shakespeare and adapted by Aaron Posner with music by Greg Kotis; and Sueño, translated and adapted by José Rivera from the play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Playing in the Touchstone Theatre: The Chairs by Eugène Ionesco and translated by Martin Crimp; Casey and Diana by Nick Green; Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea by Nathan Alan Davis; and Witch by Jen Silverman.
Tickets for American Players Theatre’s 2026 season are on sale now at americanplayers.org, or by calling the APT Box Office at (608) 588-2361.
Kith & Kin Theatre describes Of Thread and Thorn as “A brand-new, contemporary play inspired by the women of William Shakespeare’s works. Sisters, Portia, Imogen, and Celia, contend with who they have become and who they once dreamed they would be. This tight-knit ensemble explores the dynamics and individual struggles of the three women in their teens, thirties, and fifties as they each seek to build true friendships with one another and find peace between the lives they were handed, and those they have created for themselves.”
L to R, front row Hailey Kanderski, Sarah Jo Martens, and Autumn Green. L to R, second row Nicole McCarty, Dajanae Williams, and Sandra Renick. Photographer: Adam Laberge and photos courtesy of Kith & Kin Theatre.
Yes, I read the contemporary play part but I focused on the inspired by the women of Shakespeare’s works and thought this would be a marvelous Shakespearean style comedy. So I was caught completely flat-footed by the incredible contemporary family drama that I experienced. Yes, playwright R.M. Laberge has given some thoughtfulness around the character of our characters by giving all six women names taken from the bard. And she has cleverly woven in familiar bits of quotations from his work to propel the story. So every theater buff and Shakespeare scholar in attendance will be poised on the edge of their seats trying to identify them. Spoiler Alert: for instance, when Portia discovers that her husband has left a baby bottle on the wood of the dining room table instead of on a coaster, as she wipes up the water ring, she exclaims: Out Damn Spot! Not really a spoiler, everyone will get that one.
So not the comedy that I was expecting…something far better. Of Thread and Thorn is an intimately drawn family drama of our contemporary era that may actually be closer to a Shakespeare tragedy than just a drama. As described, there are three women, sisters, who “contend with who they have become and who they once dreamed they would be”. But even that sells the story short as there are three other female characters who share their dilemma and have explorations of their own to contend with. The full story is their intersection and sense of self and family and place…and spoiler alert…a search for love that they all genuinely have but maybe don’t actually recognize. Yes, at times this is closer to a tragedy and I will admit to crying twice during the second act and there may have been a moment during the first.
L to R: Sara Jo Martens, Hailey Kanderski, Autumn Green, and Sandra Renick. Photographer: Adam Laberge and photos courtesy of Kith & Kin Theatre.
All of the visible activity in Of Thread and Thorn takes place in the family living/dining room. We first meet the three sisters, there as teens, seated around the dining room table just after their parents have died in a car accident. Their maternal Aunt Roz had been granted guardianship over the girls and is going over how she sees the future. She really isn’t mother material and admits as much and is willing to allow the girls to set their own courses…with Portia, the oldest at 17, the apparent head of household. This scene sets the tone as you would expect and all four characters are clearly defined and their relationships outlined and this sets the stage, so to speak, for what will follow.
Portia lives in a world focused and planned. Sarah Jo Martens’ Portia embraces those traits and more to the point we all feel that she is a little bit anal…well at first and maybe later. But as Portia ages, Martens gives us the feeling that she is clinging to those things for assurance and even late in the play when she realizes that she should let go, Martens shows us a woman who just can’t do that. Autumn Green is the middle sister, Celia. And being stuck in the middle she tends to be the arbiter or middle man in her sister’s arguments. Green does that well but she also clearly explodes when she get exasperated when Portia and Imogen just won’t listen. And her desire to mother or save others takes on other sad appearances in her non-family personal life. Imogen is a free spirit and Haley Kanderski plays her as a human dynamo from the git go. She is only 13 at the intro but already a fireball that I am not sure even Kanderski quite appreciates at first. And Aunt Roz, who is their guardian (of sorts) played to the tipsy hilt by Sandra Renick. Renick sports a larger than life persona here. Not quite sure if Roz is a dreamer, an optimist, an opportunist, or a lost soul. Renick could lead us in any of those directions depending on how the text plays out. These four personalities are distinct and all in their own ways pained. Since we only know them from the time of the accident onward, how much of their exceptionalism is from angst or their environment or their souls.
Sandra Renick. Photographer: Adam Laberge and photos courtesy of Kith & Kin Theatre.
Two other characters hold sway in this drama and play major parts as the eras pass by. Nicole McCarty plays the nanny, Hermione. McCarty is the actual adult in the room at all times. She depicts Hermione as cool, collected, and in charge until a critical pivot point late in the play. McCarty never gives up her sense of self or purpose, but finally shows a new sensitive side of Hermione to Portia. And Portia’s daughter, Regan, is a lightning bolt (as described by Imogene). At times Dajanae Williams is just a blur across the set but as Regan grows and matures, Williams continues to portray Regan as a boundless mass of kinetic energy.
L to R: Sara Jo Martens, Hailey Kanderski, and Autumn Green. Photographer: Adam Laberge and photos courtesy of Kith & Kin Theatre.
There is one other character but he is without portfolio…and that is Portia’s husband. He is only referenced in conversation but his ‘presence’ in the family has significant impact.
R.M.Laberge has written a masterpiece here and her daughter director Kimberly Laberge has given it a full throated presence. Of Thread and Thorns deserves to be on a bigger stage and seen by a larger audience. I am sure that will happen. And no I am not taking anything away from the Laberges by saying that. In the meantime, you should take advantage of seeing this up close and personal in its current intimate setting.
L to R: Nicole McCarty and Sara Jo Martens. Photographer: Adam Laberge and photos courtesy of Kith & Kin Theatre.
Of Thread and Thorn: A Shakespeare Shakeup is being presented by Kith & Kin Theatre from now through May 24, 2026 at Inspiration Studios at 1500 S 73rd St, West Allis WI. There is plenty of on street parking in the neighborhood.
Seating is general admission so get there early for your choice of seating. Ticket information here.
And extra credit reading is HERE in the Playbill. Of particular interest is R.M.Laberge’s note on how she developed the play.
Editor’s Note 5/19/2026. Two things I forgot to include yesterday. One a housekeeping item and the other an observation.
“Of Thread and Thorn is part of World Premiere Wisconsin, a statewide festival celebrating new plays and musicals running January-December 2026.” More into on World Premiere Wisconsin can be found here.
And, listen to the music being played in the theater before curtain, during intermission, and during the stage resets and black-outs between scenes. They too tell the story in a different but just as powerful way. Some theaters excel at setting the tone with the incidental music, and Kith & Kin has done it very well here. But I just don’t know who to credit this time.
