Sofia Ascorbe

As I walked into Studio Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center, a neon sign reading “Marty’s Supper Club” prominently sat next to a scene with strung indoor Christmas lights, wood paneled walls, Packers memorabilia, and local beer signs. The low buzz of the lights hummed from Lisa Schlenker’s dimly lit set. As the house lights lowered and the show came alive, a door swung open into the bar from the cold, snowy, outside weather…we are in Wisconsin, and we are at Marty’s. 

On a chilly Saturday evening in Milwaukee, we were transported to a culture filled with local beer, boiled cod dishes, cold, snowy winters, and dialectical quirks…not too far a jump for a Wisconsinite, at first glance.

It is a joy to witness theater—this joy is only compounded when it includes the brilliant young adults who call your workplace their home for learning, if only just for a few years. As a Marquette University employee, I was delighted to find that Skylight Music Theatre’s Fiddler on the Roof is as warm and deeply moving as I expected, but with the inclusion of a

When my friend and I carpooled to this show on opening night, we briefly discussed what we imagined the plot to be. With the hit HBO show’s finale buzzing around, we wondered aloud: “will this be White Lotus-esque?” To our surprise, and delight, the play not only comments on wealth and class inequities, but also tells a deeper, unifying story of the lives of two women and their circumstances, struggles, hopes, and messy human condition.

Many peers around my age may remember the first time they saw Elf, the 2003 movie starring Will Ferrell. It was a fresh take on the Christmas cheer trope, introducing an overly enthusiastic and endearingly naïve (and exaggeratingly tall) human who was really convinced he was an elf, just like his 3-foot North Pole peers.

At its best, Spring Awakening smartly and gut-punchingly calls out religious and bourgeois hypocrisy and shows the (very literal) grave dangers of society’s obsession with innocence and sexual purity on the very youth that this obsession claims to protect. Here, on Skylight Music Theatre’s stage, its inclusivity transcends it to new heights.

25 years after its first production, Mamma Mia! the musical is making the rounds with a stop at Milwaukee's own Marcus PAC. Famously based off the book by Catherine Johnson and featuring music by ABBA, the story centers around Sophie, who is set to get married in Greece, and the mystery of her biological father's identity.

What the Constitution Means to Me was written by playwright, screenwriter, and performer, Heidi Schreck. The show is full of laughs, heartbreak, and a profound telling of a woman’s story that unexpectedly, but beautifully, weaves in the direct impacts of her life by the text in our U.S. Constitution.