Theater Forward
From Forward Theater Company, a podcast featuring Jen Uphoff Gray, Julie Swenson and Mike Fischer as they discuss theater issues on a local, regional, and national level.
Episodes
One of our favorite episodes every year! American Theatre magazine has released its list of the most produced plays and playwrights in the 2026-27 season, and we LOVE to break it down. This list is an insightful snapshot of the trends in American theater, and the team drills down into what it says about the current state of the art - and what it means for theater lovers in the season ahead. Check out the list for yours...
This year marks the second World Premiere Wisconsin theater festival, which is currently celebrating new plays and musicals across the state through 2026.
We talk about what's changed since the inaugural festival in 2023, what we've learned about new play development and our theater ecosystem as a result.
Never heard of World Premiere Wisconsin? It's one of the only statewide theater festivals of its kind, and world pre...
In part two of this summer series, we invite three more of our favorite Wisconsin theater artists to share memories of the mentors who inspired them, challenged them, and helped shape their careers. Funny and heartfelt (with a special surprise for Jen!), these stories celebrate the lasting impact of the people whose lessons stay with us long after the applause has faded.
Theater is built on passing knowledge from one generation to the next, and every theater artist has a story about someone who changed their life. In this special two-part series, we invite some of our favorite Wisconsin theater artists to share memories of the mentors who inspired them, challenged them, and helped shape their careers. Funny and heartfelt (and occasionally surprising), these stories celebrate the ...
If you follow theaters anywhere in America, you know that spring is officially Season Announcement Season! Across the country, theater companies are revealing their upcoming slate of plays (and pretending the choices were effortless).
We’re often asked how the season actually comes together: What do we look for? What do we argue about? What makes a play feel “Forward”? In this episode, ...
Inspired by our rolling world premiere of Lady Disdain by Lauren Gunderson (a modern rom-com set in the world of romance publishing), we decided to get a little dirty and talk about our own guilty pleasures. No apologies, no filters. From sit-coms to Andrew Lloyd Webber to french fries and (GASP) preferring Love's Labor's Lost over Richard II, the team opens up about their own guilty pleasures, and why it's important to neve...
Suzan Fete is a founder and Artistic Director of Renaissance Theaterworks in Milwaukee, WI, celebrating their 33rd season of producing plays while promoting the work of women, both on and offstage. As Suzan approaches retirement from Renaissance, we invited her to reflect on her career, the evolving role of feminism on stage, and her dreams for the future of American theater.
In this episode, we turn the mic around! We invited our own Marketing Director and podcast producer Scott Haden into the studio for a candid conversation about what it takes to promote live theater in 2026. We talk about how the landscape has shifted over the past decade, and how arts organizations are working harder than ever to connect with audiences in a crowded digital world. We also explore how people are disco...
Put on your scuba gear, because this conversation goes DEEP. We sit down with Milwaukee-based dramaturg and author Deanie Vallone to talk about the "heart and the art" involved in developing new work. If you didn't know, we LOVE new plays. New plays are a celebration of the aliveness of our artform! A dramaturg plays a major role in their development, providing insight and expertise to help them evolve to the next level. We dive i...
Join us for our end-of-year episode, in which we share our theater-related resolutions for 2026 (that we swear we won't break). We talk about theatergoing roadtrips to places we've never been, exploring productions by our favorite playwrights, helping actors master the business side of show business, and continuing in our mission to build a strong theater community in the state of Wisconsin.
As the holidays approach, we share everything we loved about 2025, including stellar productions, new endeavors, the ever-expanding support of our audiences, and the brilliant artists that make everything we do possible.
We are excited to welcome Chad Bauman, the Ellen & Joe Checota Executive Director of Milwaukee Repertory Theater!
Milwaukee Rep has a LOT going on right now - including the debut of their brand-new, state-of-the-art theater center on the heels of an epic flood that threatened to pull the rug out before the season even began. We dive into the highs and lows of the last year at the Rep, the attention Wisconsin theater is getting ...
We can't wait to give our take on the top 10 most-produced plays and top 20 most-produced playwrights in America this season! These annual lists are generated by American Theater Magazine, and we love to dive in and discuss. We talk about what we expected, what surprised us, and how this list reflects some interesting trends for theater in America. Spoiler alert: this season we're producing a rolling world premiere from America's...
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok is one of America's hottest playwrights, and we're excited to experience two of her plays in Wisconsin during the 2025-26 season. We welcome Marcella Kearns and Jake Penner, two directors preparing to stage her work, to discuss Majok’s themes of survival, resilience, and connection.
They share what makes Majok’s plays hit so hard—and why d...
We get down to business about one of the most contentious issues in modern American theater - play length and whether or not to have an intermission. Audiences have VERY STRONG feelings about this, and as producers of new plays we see these trends firsthand. As much as we love a 90-min theater experience, are our shrinking attention spans getting in the way of deeper, richer storytelling? Have we lost our theater stamina? The deba...
We are excited to welcome BJ Jones, Artistic Director of Northlight Theatre in Skokie, IL. Northlight is among the largest non-profit theaters in the Chicago area, known for their commitment to contemporary works and their extensive youth education program. In this episode, we discuss the current evolution of regional theater, balancing audience wants with your own artistic vision, the art of "timing the moment" with new and relev...
Summertime means outdoor theater! We discuss the productions we're excited to see at some of our favorite summer theaters. We also dive into the 2025-26 season announcements from Wisconsin theaters, and share what we'll be checking out in the year to come.
We tackle the sudden and rapidly-shrinking landscape of government arts funding - and what it means for organizations trying to stay afloat without compromising their values. From disappearing grants to the risks involved for the artists and companies that are sitting out (and speaking out), this conversation is candid, urgent, and eye-opening. But amid the challenges, we also take a hopeful look toward solutio...
It's season announcement time for theaters across the country, and we're excited to share our slate for the 2025-26 season! A common question we get is, "how do you choose your plays?" We talk about the decision process behind selecting these four productions, and how they fit together in the grand scheme. The 2025-26 season at Forward Theater. Season tickets now available at ForwardTheater.com. PRIMARY TRUST by Eboni Booth Direc...
Jen Uphoff Gray welcomes Kait Kerrigan and Nathan Tysen, writer and lyricist of Broadway's THE GREAT GATSBY! In this episode, this musical power couple shares their insight into the broken pipeline of musical theater development, which leaves countless new works stuck in limbo. We discuss the roadblocks that prevent fresh stories from reaching American audiences and why regional theaters hesitate to take the leap. But it’s ...
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