Doc Heide Celebrates 50 Years with Northern Sky With WHEN PIGS FLY!

When Doc Heide joined the UW-Green Bay Heritage Ensemble 50 years ago this year, the troupe was a tiny group of college students on a woodsy stage in Peninsula State Park created to host naturalist programs.

A half-century later, Heide and his talented colleagues have built the Door County company into one of the most unique and successful musical theaters in America.

Northern Sky Theater, which Heide co-founded in 1990, has become one of the only troupes in the US that solely creates and produces original musicals. And its success has been jaw-dropping.

The troupe regularly draws over 30,000 people a year to see brand-new shows. It’s premiered 65 new musicals. While other American theaters are shuttering their doors, it recently opened a new $8 million indoor theater to supplement its 650-seat theater under the stars.

Shows originated by its writers have been hits coast to coast, Off-Broadway, on PBS, and worldwide. And it’s managed to do this while focusing on shows set in Wisconsin.

“The only way most musical theaters draw patrons is to produce famous shows that played well in New York,” Heide said. “In contrast, we get 400 people coming nightly to see shows they’ve never even heard of, often written and set right here in Door County.”

“Our audience is incredibly loyal,” continued Heide. “Almost every week patrons tell me they first came when they were kids, and now they’re bringing their kids and grandkids.”

Heide was raised in Green Bay. He joined the Heritage Ensemble, Northern Sky’s predecessor, when he was a UWGB junior in 1973. The Ensemble, founded at UWGB in 1970 by David Peterson, presented Wisconsin and American history on stage for campers using folk songs and stories. 

Heide loved the troupe so much that he returned in summers to Wisconsin to perform while pursuing a Ph.D. in psychology in Pennsylvania and later while teaching grad school in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Peterson eventually asked him to write shows for the troupe. When Peterson retired in 1990, he gifted the Ensemble to Heide and another Ensemble member. Fred Alley (who won the Richard Rodgers Award for his international hit The Spitfire Grill) soon joined the company. They turned it into American Folklore Theatre, renamed Northern Sky Theater in 2015. 

Heide has now written or co-written two dozen shows for Northern Sky, including the world premiere of When Pigs Fly! which runs from September 15 to October 21 in Northern Sky’s beautiful new 250-seat indoor Gould Theater.

He’ll also be in the cast along with co-author Lee Becker. Amy Chaffee (who’s co-starred on Desperate Housewives, Judging Amy, The Young and the Restless, AMC’s Interview with the Vampire, etc.) rounds out the cast of four along with award-winning Memphis string wizard Eric Lewis (who has toured with Robin & Linda Williams, opened for Travis Tritt, Chuck Berry, etc.). 

In When Pigs Fly! colorful Door County characters tell hilarious stories and sing uplifting songs, all while seeking the help of a local saint to win a pie contest, pursue romance, and lift a curse on the family farm. It’s one of many Northern Sky shows set in Northeast Wisconsin.

Heide credits UWGB for the foresight to create Northern Sky’s predecessor troupe over half a century ago.

“UWGB has always tried to be sensitive to our region’s needs and culture,” he said, “so it’s natural that it would have launched a project focused on regional folklore. People love seeing folks like themselves portrayed on stage.”

“And who would have thought,” he continued, “that a tiny little troupe in the woods that charged 50 cents a ticket would have spawned a major professional theater that brings awareness to our area from all over the world?”

When Pigs Fly! runs September 15 through Ocrtober 21 on weekdays at 7:00pm and Saturdays at 2:00pm and 7:00pm. Tickets may be purchased online at www.NorthernSkyTheater.com or via phone at (920) 854-6117. Ticket office hours are 1-7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Indoor Gould tickets are $37 per adult, $23 per student, and $18 per child 12 and under.

When Pigs Fly! is sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio. The Northern Sky Theater season is sponsored by Door County Medical Center, The Cordon Family Foundation, and Tony & Judy Licata.

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