From backstage to center stage, front of house or in front of a classroom, our public performances are a vehicle for training students in every aspect of theatre. They are also a source of high-quality live entertainment for our campus and community.
In 2024-2025, join the UWM Theatre Department for a season filled with journeys and storytelling, exploring themes of loss, reconciliation, and family reunion. Travel with us across the Ancient World, the mountains of North Carolina, the glamour of Broadway and the maze of contemporary London.
Upcoming Events
- Apr23April 23, 2025 - April 27, 2025
- Apr30April 30, 2025 - May 4, 2025
2024-2025 Theatre Season

October 9, 2024–October 13, 2024
Bright Star – Concert Performance
A tale of love and redemption set in the mountains of North Carolina in the mid-20th century. Written by American icon Steve Martin and singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, Bright Star features a Tony-nominated score with a bluegrass musical style all its own. This uplifting and heart-rending story inspired by true events follows a literary editor and a young soldier just home from World War II on their transformative journey through loss and separation to grace, reconciliation and reunion.

November 6, 2024–November 10, 2024
An epic tale of shipwreck and devastating loss, love and redemption across the Ancient Mediterranean. One of William Shakespeare's later plays, Pericles is ultimately a story of the triumph of the human spirit, exploring themes that dominate headlines today: the Middle East, refugees, perilous sea crossings and sex trafficking. It offers spectacular grace and one of the most beautiful reunions this master of the theatrical stage ever wrote.

March 5–March 9
The show that launched Bernadette Peters as a Broadway star, this delightful, funny, tongue-in-cheek love letter to Hollywood musicals of the 1930s tells the story of sweet Ruby’s journey from her small hometown to New York City to become a Broadway star. There, she meets Dick, a sailor with ambitions as a songwriter. In grand Hollywood fashion, they tap dance their way from the chorus to stardom on the deck of a passing battleship. Dames at Sea is a non-stop ride of romance, laughs, dance and musical delights.

April 2–April 6
“It’s been a year since I died.” Thus begins Maria Marten’s story of her own abuse and murder in 1827. The notorious “Red Barn Murder” and public trial sent shockwaves throughout England and continues to capture the public imagination. While the story has all the hallmarks of a classic crime drama—a missing body, a country location, a village stuck in its conventional traditions—it is not just a murder story. Told from the victim's perspective, this powerful production reveals who Maria Marten really was in an unexpectedly joyous story of women’s resilience, friendship, and reclamation.

April 23–April 27
First Year Project: Ten Minutes On a Bench
A dating app called Ten Minutes On a Bench is the latest match-making craze, placing singles on a park bench to find common ground. The clock is ticking, but there’s no limit to the variety of quirky, sexy, heartbreaking and humane conversations between dozens of characters looking for love. A new speed-dating romantic comedy about first impressions, dogs and cats, drinkers and smokers, impulse and caution, conversation and chemistry. Laugh, cheer and cringe witnessing the universal urge to connect. Sometimes, it only takes ten minutes.

April 30–May 4
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
15-year-old Christopher has an extraordinary brain: he excels at mathematics but struggles to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched, and he distrusts strangers. One night, at seven minutes after midnight, Christopher discovers his neighbor's dog, Wellington, has been speared with a garden fork. Suspected of the crime, Christopher is determined to solve the mystery. His detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a thrilling journey that upturns his world. Based on the best-selling novel by Mark Haddon and winner of Tony and Olivier Awards for best play in New York and London.