Next Act Theatre is happy to announce our 2023-24 season! Artistic Director Cody Estle’s first season at Next Act takes what you love about our theatre—local talent in entertaining, meaningful and well-designed productions—and adds a new energy to it. This coming season, you’ll enjoy timeless revivals alongside the best of new American theatre.
New season tickets are already on sale alongside renewals. Buy fixed subscriptions here or memberships here.
Our 2023-24 season includes:
SPLASH HATCH ON THE E GOING DOWN
by Kia Corthron
directed by Cheryl Lynn Bruce
September 20 – October 15, 2023
Wisconsin Premiere
Thyme, a young Harlem girl, is an excellent student and hyper-aware of environmental issues, including in her own neighborhood. She is also married and pregnant. Her husband Erry is sincere and mysteriously, increasingly ill. As her pregnancy develops and Erry declines, Thyme must reconcile her boundless collection of facts and data with the reality of her surroundings. Kia Corthron vividly depicts the reality of how our systems often let society’s most vulnerable fall through the cracks.
THE MOUSETRAP
by Agatha Christie
directed by Mary MacDonald Kerr
November 22 – December 17, 2023
The snow is deep and still falling as guests begin to arrive at Monkswell Manor: the eccentric young architect, the haughty old pensioner, the retired general, the weary traveler, the mysterious stranger. One of them is not what they seem… There is a murderer in their midst! Will one of these suspicious strangers be the next victim? From Agatha Christie comes a world-famous murder mystery with a thrilling twist ending. This clever whodunnit, the world’s longest-running play, is a perfect theatrical gift for the holiday season.
Featuring Libby Amato, Lillian Brown, Margaret Casey, Jonathan Gillard Daly, Rudy Galvan, Casey Hoekstra, Doug Jarecki and Josh Krause.
SCARECROW
Written and Performed by Heidi Armbruster
directed by Laura Gordon
February 21 – March 17, 2024
Midwest Premiere
A big-city actress lands back at her family’s Wisconsin dairy farm to grieve herself back to life. But can she ever make enough meatloaf to feel a sense of purpose again now that her most important person is gone? A look at loss and survival. Resilience and renewal. And Hallmark movies. Broadway’s Heidi Armbruster pens and performs a rip-roaringly hilarious and unbelievably touching one-woman journey of roller coasters, kittens and cows.
Featuring Heidi Armbruster
THE TREASURER
by Max Posner
directed by Cody Estle (his Next Act directorial debut!)
April 24 – May 19, 2024
Wisconsin Premiere
Ida Armstrong is broke, lonely and fading fast. And she’s spending all of her children’s money, forcing her son to assume the unwanted role of The Treasurer: an arrangement that becomes untenable the more he questions his devotion to her. In this darkly funny, sharply intimate portrait, Max Posner chronicles the strained ties between a son and his aging mother, and the hell of a guilty conscience.
New season tickets are already on sale alongside renewals. Buy fixed subscriptions here or memberships here. Please contact the Next Act Theatre ticket office at (414) 278-0765 or boxoffice@nextact.org with any questions.
Single tickets for the upcoming season will go on sale August 1. We can’t wait to see you at the theatre!