Putting New Plays at the Center of Milwaukee Rep's Stages
Theater endures because it remains urgent. The great playwrights, from Shakespeare to August Wilson live not through preservation, but through their works’ continued confrontation with who we are now. When staged with conviction, their work is not a retreat into the past, but an encounter with the present.
At the same time, theater’s vitality depends on new voices. Each generation brings its own language and questions, and new work gives shape to what has not yet been named. These voices do not replace the canon; they expand it. Artists we have supported such as Ayad Akhtar, Idris Goodwin and Eleanor Burgess have done precisely that by writing plays that speak urgently to the present.
Audiences deserve both. And while there will always be room to celebrate the canon, Milwaukee Rep is simultaneously deepening our commitment to new work by building upon the John (Jack) D. Lewis New Play Development Program—investing in the artists and stories shaping the field today and into the future.
New Plays Coming Soon
Over the next two years, Milwaukee Rep will produce six new plays across all three stages of the Associated Bank Theater Center, highlighting bold new work rooted both locally and globally.
The slate includes a stage adaptation of Ayad Akhtar’s American Dervish; Aaron Posner’s The Cherry Tortured, a reimagining of Chekhov set in Door County; MKE MVP, in which Matt Zembrowski chronicles the Milwaukee Bucks’ championship run; a revised one-woman version of Katie Bender’s Instructions for a Séance, tracing Harry Houdini’s beginnings in Appleton; and the American Premiere of a new, untitled work by Australian playwright Andrew Bovell for a future season.
Investing in Playwrights Through Commissioning
Milwaukee Rep has also commissioned three new plays by Ayad Akhtar, Gloria Majule, and Nygel D. Robinson, supporting each project through a fully resourced, artist-centered development process leading toward future productions on our stages.
Led by Literary Director Annika Perez Krikorian, the commissioning program is grounded in long-term investment by developing, producing, and shepherding new plays beyond their first production and into the national landscape.
Demonstrated Impact of New Plays On Stage
Recent successes underscore the program’s impact: Lloyd Suh’s The Heart Sellers won the 2024 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA Award and is among the most produced plays nationwide; Antonio’s Song / I Was Dreaming of a Son by Dael Orlandersmith and Antonio Edwards Suarez premiered at Milwaukee Rep before transferring to the Goodman Theatre; and The Craic, conceived by Mark Clements and Deanie Vallone, became the best-selling show in Stackner Cabaret history and will return in the 2026/27 Season.
Additional highlights include the World Premiere musical Run Bambi Run, named one of the year’s ten best productions by The Chicago Tribune, and Andrew Bovell’s Things I Know to Be True, which was optioned by Nicole Kidman for an Amazon series.
A $2 Million Gift for New Plays
Supporting these efforts is a recent and transformative $1 million gift from longtime supporters David Herro and Jay Franke. Their generosity brings the John (Jack) D. Lewis New Play Development Program’s dedicated resources to $2 million, significantly expanding Milwaukee Rep’s capacity to commission, develop, and produce new plays, and ensuring sustained, long-term investment in the artists and stories that will shape the future of the American Theatre.
