New Play Development Series

FTC is proud to give theater professionals throughout southern Wisconsin an artistic home. To that end, each season the company collaborates with playwrights to develop and showcase new work. This year, in addition to the regular season of three mainstage plays listed above, FTC will host two staged readings of original plays.

There will be an extended talk-back with the authors and creative teams of these works at the end of each performance. Audiences are encouraged to stay and give feedback that will be used to further develop the scripts.

No advance tickets will be sold, but a suggested donation will be collected at the door. 

Sponsored by:
            

Wisconsin Story Project 
Uncivil Disobedience
By Mike Lawler
March 9 -10, 2012
7:30 pm in the Wisconsin Studio, Overture Center

Partially underwritten by the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission  

Photo Left: Firefighters at work in the aftermath of the bombing, UW-Madison Archives
Photo Middle: A view of Sterling Hall after the bomb, UW-Madison Archives
Photo Right: A sign put up outside Sterling Hall by members of the Physics Department in 1971
by Skot Weidemann, UW-Madison Archives 

When a bomb exploded just outside Sterling Hall in the early morning hours of August 24, 1970, it was a thunderous event in the history of Wisconsin. Intended to destroy the Army Mathematics Research Center, it caused enormous damage to the building and killed physics researcher Robert Fassnacht and injured three other people. While the AMRC was not affected by the blast, many people on both sides of the anti-war movement were.

The Wisconsin Story Project, in conjunction with the Oral History Project at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has spent several years conducting interviews and collecting stories from people who were there – and those whose lives were profoundly changed by the aftermath. These stories form the basis of a theatrical piece exploring the impact of the bombing on campus, and also within the larger protest movement of the 60s and 70s.

Audiences can ponder the motivations and possible justifications of the people involved in the Army Math/Sterling Hall incident for themselves on March 9th and 10th. Due to limited seating in Rotunda Studio, reservations are strongly encouraged. A suggested donation of $12 per person will be collected at the door. To reserve your seats, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Learn more about Uncivil Disobedience
Click here to read blog posts about Mike Lawler's development of the script, the staged reading process, and Forward Theater's partnership with Wisconsin Story Project.

Oatesland
By Sam White
May 19, 2012
7:30 pm in the Wisconsin Studio, Overture Center

Wisconsin Wrights winner Sam White drew on two decades of Army service to craft this play about a covert military intelligence team is stationed in Antarctica. As the soldiers carry out their mission -- to spy on a nearby Russian base, they become suspicious of their environment, their real purpose in the remote weather station, and of each other. In the long, tense hours of cold and isolation, at least one of soldiers believes he’s seen the ghost of Lawrence Oates, a member of a doomed polar expedition party in 1912. As the team argues about obedience and duty, they spiral out of control towards a dark and inescapable conclusion.