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There are some situations that call for optimism, and right now planning for Overture Center’s reopening and the debut of the 2020-2021 season calls for those positive thoughts by the truckload. But VP of Programming & Community Engagement Tim Sauers is up for the challenge. “We’re looking forward. We’re planning for the future, for a time when we can finally all come together again.”

To announce the upcoming roster of performing arts experiences, Sauers normally hosts a celebratory evening in Overture Hall for hundreds of Broadway fans and regular arts center patrons. In between video clips and mini performances he regales the enthusiastic crowd with personal recommendations and testimonials about the lineup of music, dance, theater, comedy, classic film and children’s programming. This year, due to the current shelter-at-home order, he chatted about the upcoming season via Facebook on April 13, interacting only digitally with fans across southern Wisconsin.

Award-winning TV/Broadway/Film writer Aaron Sorkin opens his play The Farnsworth Invention with the line, “There’s a rule in storytelling that states you should never tell your audience something they already know, but I’m going to chance it anyway. . .”

When Jack Nee joined the Strollers Theatre board of directors in 2017, he knew little about the community theater. But he was surprised when he looked at the company’s production history. “In over six decades of performances, a grand total of two plays by people of color had been produced,” he says. Now, with its 2019-2020 season, Strollers has doubled that number with productions of Men on Boats, by Indian American playwright Jaclyn Backhaus, and Question 27, Question 28 by Singaporean playwright Chay Yew. “That still isn’t great in the big picture, but it is better than keeping to the status quo. The number can always go up, and it should.”

Nee is directing Chay’s documentary play, Question 27, Question 28, which runs at the Bartell Theatre, Feb. 20-22. He’s been intrigued by the script since he first read it several years ago. “I’ve read numerous plays by Asian American authors; this is one that seemed necessary, given what has transpired in the U.S. the past few years.” Nee says. “The demonization of certain populations in this country needs to be combated in as many ways as possible.”

A culinary, historical and political monologue, performed by the author

Produced by Third Ridge Theater Directed by Jen Plants

November 14 – 16 at 7 p.m.   Tickets: $20   

To purchase, visit missamericanpie.simpletix.com

Seating is limited. Pie will be served.

American Players Theater is a magical place. I have been picnicking and seeing shows -- comedies and tragedies, classic and contemporary, indoors and outdoors -- in that glorious spot in the woods for more than 30 years now. But each trip still surprises me. This summer was no exception. 

“The anticipated Madison premiere of Hamilton is finally here!” crows Tim Sauers in a recent conversation about the upcoming season. Overture’s VP of programming and community engagement is speaking a bit prematurely — the tour buses won’t actually roll into town until mid-November. But ticket seekers are closer to getting in “the room where it happens” than they’ve ever been.

Oh, yeah, and almost 100 other performing arts events

Hundreds of ticket buyers, current subscribers, donors and friends gathered in Overture Hall on April 8 for the official unveiling of the performing arts center’s 2019-20 season — and the big reveal of the dates for the Madison run of the smash hit Hamilton.

After official welcomes from Overture president and CEO Sandra Gajic and some singing and dancing from the talented teens who make up the Jerry Ensemble, Tim Sauers, vice president of programming and community engagement, introduced videos highlighting each ticketed event in the forthcoming brochure. He was dressed in a yellow shirt, suspenders, red tie and plaid shorts — turns out he was celebrating the only Wisconsin engagement for The SpongeBob Musical, which is part of the upcoming Broadway series.

When I was finishing up my Master's degree in Literautre, History and Criticsm of the Theater at UW Madison, way back in 1995, well meaning friends often asked what one would do with such a specialized and obscure degree. I answered confidently that I would be well qualified to be a theater critic. Or a dramaturg. 

There's something wonderful about big, ensemble shows. Intense, two-person dramas are great, but sometimes you just want to see an entire stage filled with people—a whole community interacting. These plays are great for actors because they provide more opportunity, and you can learn a lot from being part of a large company. But they are also a drag, because someone still gets the lead and someone still has to play the villager, a part that may have little stage time, no lines, and not much to do. 

It's true what they say -- you can't really go home again. But this spring I went back to my hometown of Milton, Wisconsin, to meet with the executive director of the Milton House Museum about a playwriting gig. Kari Klebba asked me to write a monologue about an escaped slave who lived in Milton for a short time during the 1860s. She had already contacted my friend Reggie Kellum about performing it as part of the museum's Civil War Days event.