Thank you for joining us for our landmark 60th anniversary season! We invite you to: • Experience Milwaukee’s professional Equity music theatre company. We present the full spectrum of music theatre, ranging from blockbuster Broadway musicals to reimagined operas, from Gilbert & Sullivan operettas to contemporary off-Broadway revues. • Enjoy Skylight Style productions. We bring fresh approaches and create meaningful connections between the characters on stage and the audience in an intimate theatre that allows audiences to feel close to the powerful emotions on stage Our mission since 1959: To bring the full spectrum of music theatre works to a wide and diverse audience in celebration of the musical and theatrical arts and their reflection of the human condition. We fulfill this mission through • Partnering with nationally recognized directors and designers • Serving as the largest employer of Wisconsin artists in the State • Performing in the beautiful, intimate Cabot Theatre • Offering educational programming that reaches over 14,000 students annually • Engaging more than 30,000 people at performances each year Krystal Drake in Pippin (2018) Photo: Ross Zentner GENERAL INFO ABOUT THE CABOT THEATRE Box Office ADA Services Assisted listening devices “To help us forget some things, remember others, and to refresh the dry places in our spirit” 158 North Broadway, Main Floor, are made possible through support from Quote adapted from “World of Wonders” by Robertson Davies Milwaukee, WI 53202 Alvin & Marion Birnschein Foundation. The intimate Cabot Theatre, modeled after Phone: (414) 291-7800 Audio description and wheelchair seating an 18th century French jewel-box opera Email: [email protected] are available and can be arranged in house, was built in 1992. With just 350 Monday - Saturday, Noon to 6 p.m. advance by calling (414) 291-7800. seats, everyone has a great view and feels The lobby window is open two hours prior close to the powerful emotions on stage. to performances. Tickets also available Audience Guides are free through at www.skylightmusictheatre.org Enlighten, Skylight’s education program. The quote on the ceiling celebrates the The guide is available on our website spirit of music and theatre. The people Administrative Office and in the lobby of the theatre. and cupids depicted represent various 158 North Broadway, Sixth Floor, important players in Skylight history and Milwaukee, WI 53202 Skylight Insights Skylight artistic landmarks from the Milwaukee skyline as it Phone: (414) 291-7811 staff lead free pre-performance talks appeared in 1992. Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. one hour before curtain for every Wednesday and Sunday performance. The ceiling features the Goddess of Emergency Phone Number Memory: Mnemosyne, mother of the (414) 908-6645 Ushering For information, current Nine Muses. Each of the nine boxes on the Alert House Management of your seat opportunities and to sign up to Gallery level celebrates one of the Muses location before the performance and leave become a volunteer usher, visit www. (History, Tragedy, Comedy, Literature, the above number so they may reach you. skylightmusictheatre.volunteerhub.com. Science, Oratory, Poetry, Dance and Music) Can you find the following and is decorated with associated images. Recording Equipment and Cameras Volunteer for Skylight by e-mailing In a nod to the spirit of fun that makes up 1992 landmarks? The videotaping or other video or [email protected]. Skylight’s DNA, playful images are part of St. John’s Cathedral audio recording of this production the decorations for each Muse. Can you spot Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance is strictly prohibited. Lost and Found Leave a message with the bag of cough drops for one of them? Company the House Manager at (414) 908-6645. City Hall Late Arrivals “Do you want to have some real fun?” Wisconsin Electric Power Company Patrons arriving after the performance – Question Clair Richardson asked that led has started will be seated at the to the birth of Skylight in 1959. When Clair Elsa’s on the Park discretion of House Management. died in 1980, per his wishes, his ashes are The original Skylight Theatre on kept in an urn under the stage, fulfilling Jackson Street his request that all future productions be The Wisconsin Gas Company performed “over my dead body.” The Pabst Theatre A Few Highlights from 60 Years 1959 Skylight Opera Theatre is 1962 Needing more 1967 Skylight is founding 1980 Clair Richardson dies. Per founded by Clair Richardson and space, Skylight moved member of the United his wishes, his ashes are kept in an Sprague Vonier in the skylighted attic nearby to a converted Performing Arts Fund (UPAF), urn under the stage, fulfilling his of a European-style coffee house at tire-recapping garage at which generously provides request that all future productions 929 N. Jefferson St. The first show 813 N. Jefferson St. on ongoing support to Skylight be performed “over my dead body.” is a musical revue based on the life Cathedral Square and and other area performing and works of Gilbert & Sullivan created a 99-seat theater arts organizations. 1992 In April, construction 1993 In October, Skylight opens its new 1995 On January 31, the 358-seat theatre is 2012 Name changes begins on the Broadway Theatre home in the Broadway Theatre Center. The $6 inaugurated as the Cabot Theatre. Colin Cabot from Skylight Opera Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway in million renovation and new construction was looked at small opera houses in France for to Skylight Music Theatre Milwaukee’s historic warehouse supported by an extensive capital campaign. inspiration, and found Le Theatre de la Coupe d’Or in to better reflect the broad district, the Third Ward. Rochefort sur Mer. The Cabot Theatre was designed array of music theatre works based on that theater’s architectural drawings. presented. 2 Skylight Music Theatre 2019-2020 Season Oklahoma! 3 music theatre Michael Unger Jack R. Lemmon Artistic Director Executive Director PRESENTS Music by Richard Rodgers Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II September 27 – October 13, 2019 CABOT THEATRE | BROADWAY THEATRE CENTER DIRECTOR Jill Anna Ponasik MUSIC DIRECTOR David Bonofiglio CHOREOGRAPHER James Zager SCENIC/LIGHTING DESIGNER Peter Dean Beck** COSTUME DESIGNER Kärin Simonson Kopischke ** PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER Daniel J. Hanson* Season Sponsored by This program is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. * Appearing through an agreement between Skylight Music Theatre and Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. ** The Scenic/Lighting Designer and Costume Designers are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 Based on the play “Green Grow the Lilacs” by Lynn Riggs Original choreography by Agnes de Mille OKLAHOMA! is presented through special arrangement with R & H Theatricals: www.rnh.com The videotaping or other video or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited 4 Skylight Music Theatre 2019-2020 Season A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR - JILL ANNA PONASIK SKYLIGHT LEADERSHIP CONT. One afternoon, while working in my office, my 8 year old son popped Michael Unger (Artistic Director) is thrilled to join the Skylight team in to show me his most recent LEGO creation. It wasn’t a monster or a as Artistic Director. Michael is also the Producing Artistic Director of spaceship, but a pretty decent Surrey With A Fringe On Top, complete NewArts in Newtown, CT, which he started with a local father in with Laurey, Curly and snow white horses (one’s like snow, the other’s response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy. For NewArts more like milk). he has directed a dozen large-scale musicals involving over 550 local children. He was until recently the Associate Artistic Director and How can Oklahoma! be so durable that it not only occupies a position Director of Education for Off-Broadway’s York Theatre Company. as the cornerstone of the American Musical Theatre but has a radically reimagined Michael’s work will be seen around the country in 2020 with the 70th Anniversary production running on Broadway right now? That it has enough energy within it to National Tour of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. Michael has directed many benefit fuel over 600 productions annually in concerts, including for the Sandy Hook, CT and Parkland, FL communities. Selected world the United States and Canada? That premieres include The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Caligula, and A Rockin’ over 75 years after it was written, it is Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is featured in the award-winning documentary film, capable of inspiring an 8 year old boy Midsummer in Newtown. Other directing credits include McCarter Theatre, 59E59, to fashion an homage out of LEGOs? Paramount, W.H.A.T., Signature, Cape Playhouse, Deaf West, and The MUNY. He has directed fifteen operas, two of which are available on DVD. Oklahoma! speaks to us with a directness that is remarkable. Its quintessentially American story and A MESSAGE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR - MICHAEL UNGER soaring score continue to entice. A piece we once might have thought This is a very precious moment for me – the very instant I get to “meet” each of you in the of as simple, upon closer inspection, Skylight audience. I am honored to be your new Artistic Director and I look forward to reveals a depth that has been there our continued partnership as you witness, and we present, illuminating music theatre in the whole time. Without changing the distinctive, intimate, imaginative Skylight style. a word or a note, we can look at Oklahoma! with fresh eyes, and listen with new ears to what it has to say to us today.