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 exciting new works. • 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 theatrical artists in the State • Performing in the beautiful, intimate Cabot Theatre • Bringing the excitement of a live orchestra to every production • Offering educational programming reaching 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 emotion and action 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 Alert House Management of your seat opportunities and to sign up to the Gallery level celebrates one of those location before the performance and leave become a volunteer usher, visit www. Muses (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 The Gospel at Colonus 3 music theatre Michael Unger Jack R. Lemmon Artistic Director Executive Director Presents Conceived and Adapted by Lee Breuer, Music Composed by Bob Telson Original Lyrics by Lee Breuer, Adapted Lyrics by Bob Telson and Lee Breuer January 17-26, 2020 CABOT THEATRE | BROADWAY THEATRE CENTER DIRECTOR Sheri Williams Pannell MUSIC DIRECTOR Christie Chiles Twillie SCENIC DESIGNER Julia Noulin-Merat COSTUME DESIGNER Amy Horst LIGHTING DESIGNER Susan Nicholson SOUND DESIGNER Fitz Patton STAGE MANAGER Martinique M. Barthel* The Gospel at Colonus is sponsored by Jan Serr & John Shannon 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 State. Based on an adapatation of Sophocles’ OEDIPUS AT COLONUS in the version by Robert Fitzgerald and incorporating passages from both Sophocles’ OEDIPUS REX and ANTIGONE in the versions by Dudles Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, which are published as THE OEDIPUS CYCLE OF SOPHOCLES, a Harvest/HBJ Book, Harcourt Bracy Jovanovich, Inc. Produced on Broadway, 1988 by Dodger Productions, Liza Lorwin, Louis Busch Hager, Playhouse Square Center and Fifth Avenue Productions; Executive Producers Michael David, Edward Strong and Sherman Warner. Originally Produced by the Brooklyn Academy of Muisc Next Wave Festival, Harvey Lichtenstein, Executive Producer, Joesph V. Meillo, Producer, in association with Liza Lorwin and Walker Art Center. Subsequent productions since 1997, produced by Sharon Levy, Dovetail productions. THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS is available through Theatre Communication Group, NYC, and that the original cast recording is released on the Elektra/Nonesuch label. 4 Skylight Music Theatre 2019-2020 Season A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR - SHERI WILLIAMS PANNELL SKYLIGHT LEADERSHIP It was the mid-eighties. As a young theater artist, I sat excitedly in front of my television Michael Unger (Artistic Director) is thrilled to join the Skylight team watching a performance on Milwaukee’s PBS television station that both exhilarated and as Artistic Director. Michael is also the Producing Artistic Director of puzzled me. My ears told me I had just experienced a worship service complete with NewArts in Newtown, CT, which he started with a local father in praise break, “Lift Him Up!” But the story was not one taught in Sunday School, but from response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy. For NewArts Greek classic literature. I looked at the brilliant all-Black cast in their African attire and he has directed a dozen large-scale musicals involving over 550 local thought, “One day I am going to perform in a production of THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS.” I children. He was until recently the Associate Artistic Director and even knew the role in which I wanted to be cast, Antigone, the Evangelist. Fast forward to Director of Education for Off-Broadway’s York Theatre Company. January 2020. While not in the cast, I am still part of the show. I am grateful to Skylight Michael’s work will be seen around the country in 2020 with the 70th Anniversary Music Theatre for the honor of directing this production and collaborating with music National Tour of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. Michael has directed many benefit director Christie Chiles Twillie. concerts, including for the Sandy Hook, CT and Parkland, FL communities. Selected world premieres include The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Caligula, and A ROCKIN’ Influential Harlem renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston drew parallels between the Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is featured in the award-winning documentary film, Black church and Greek Theatre. Her thesis was put to the test by the team of Lee Breuer Midsummer in Newtown. Other directing credits include McCarter Theatre, 59E59, and Bob Telson in their creation of THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS.