NEXT ACTORS: THE INTERVIEW PROJECT
Summer 2026
This program is completely free for participants. We are proud to offer it that way.
You can devise.
You can perform.
Or you can do both.
A four-week documentary-style ensemble theatre experience for advanced high school artists, creating work from stories across Milwaukee.
For more than 25 years, Next Actors has offered Milwaukee teens a place to make theatre and share it with their community. In Summer 2026, the program enters a new chapter. Theatre training often focuses on developing an actor’s voice and skills.
This program asks something else:
What do I use my artist’s voice for?
THE EXPERIENCE
Next Actors is built around two connected parts. Participants may take part in one or both.
Interviewing & Writing
The cohort conducts interviews with community members, which are transcribed and crafted into theatrically engaging monologues.
The emphasis is on listening, accuracy, structure, and responsibility to the people whose stories are being told, while also creating work that holds an audience.
Embodiment & Performance
The cohort brings interview-based text to life through performance, with coaching from professional theatre artists, Elyse Edelman, Jake Penner, and others. Using voice, body, and imagination, participants embody real people with specificity, then work together to weave individual monologues into an ensemble piece.
WHO IT’S FOR
This program is for advanced high school and recently graduated theatre artists ready to use their craft in service of real-world storytelling.
Next Actors: The Interview Project is designed for advanced high school artists who:
- already have a strong foundation in acting and/or writing
- are ready for a focused, rigorous ensemble process
- are curious about the lives and stories of others
- want to use theatre as a tool for listening, dialogue, and connection
This is not a beginner program.
It is a next step.
PERFORMANCE & TOUR
The four-week process culminates in a public performance that brings the cohort’s work together into a single ensemble piece.
Participants who take part in the performance and embodiment weeks may also continue into a fifth-week tour, sharing the work with audiences across Milwaukee.
PROGRAM DETAILS
Dates
Core Program: July 6 – July 31
Public Performance: Saturday, August 1
Tour Week: August 3 – 7
Schedule
Monday–Friday, 10:00am–3:30pm
Participation Options
Interviewing & Writing (Weeks 1–2)
Embodiment & Performance (Weeks 3–4)
Full Four-Week Experience
Tour Week (following participation in at least one track)
Cost
This program is completely free for participants.
PROGRAM LEADERSHIP
Next Actors: The Interview Project is co-directed by Elyse Edelman and Jake Penner.
Elyse Edelman is the Artistic Associate at Next Act Theatre and has built her career as an actor, director, and educator across Wisconsin and the region. Her work as an actor and director includes multiple productions with Renaissance Theaterworks, Forward Theater Company, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Third Avenue PlayWorks, First Stage, In Tandem, Children’s Theater of Madison, American Players Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, and Door Shakespeare. Regionally, she has worked across the country, including many years in the Twin Cities. Some favorite regional credits include The Guthrie, Park Square Theatre, Mixed Blood, Minnesota Shakespeare Company, the Playwrights’ Center, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Riverside Theater. She is a member of the Advisory Company at Forward Theater Company and serves on the core faculty of First Stage’s Young Company. Training: University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA; LISPA.
Jake Penner is a director, teaching artist and arts administrator based in Madison, Wisconsin. Recent credits include: SANCTUARY CITY (Next Act Theatre), ASSASINS, CARIE: THE MUSICAL (Capital City Theatre); THE THIN PLACE, (Two Crows Theatre); ANTON’S SHORTS, HAMLET (American Players Theatre, Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award nominee); CLYDE’S, CLARKSTON, SKELETON CREW (Forward Theater Company); HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL (University Theatre, UW-Madison); THE LIGHT (PBS-WISCONSIN, Chicago/Midwest Emmy award win). Jake currently serves as the lead producer for the Wisconsin Directors Lab (Forward Theater Company) and Lead Teaching Artist for the Young Company at First Stage.
ADMISSION & LEARN MORE
Participation is by interview and audition, and applicants may be asked to submit supplemental writing materials.
Interested—or just curious if this program might be right for you? We welcome and encourage all inquiries. To learn more or to set up a conversation about fit, please contact:
Elyse Edelman, Artistic Associate
elyse@nextact.org
Working as an ensemble, participants practice documentary-style theatre-making by interviewing community members, shaping those conversations into theatrical text, and bringing that text to life onstage. The resulting monologues are woven into a single documentary theatre piece guided by a shared question