UW-Green Bay Theatre and Dance and co-producer the Sharon Resch Institute of Music are ending their 2023-24 Theatre season with the wildly popular musical The Mad Ones. Written by Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk, this 2017 musical became a viral sensation with a cult-like following due to Kerrigan and Lowdermilk’s contemporary and emotionally charged score with insightful and fun lyrics. Coming to the Jean Weidner Theatre April 17-21, the musical tells the story of Samantha Brown (played by student Audrey Soberg), a recent high-school graduate embarking on the next phase of her life. As Sam steps into her car at the beginning of the play, the action shifts to inside Sam’s mind, where audiences go along with her as she explores and comes to terms with her memories of the past year.
According to the musical’s director, Thomas Campbell (Chair of Theatre and Dance), the play is a powerful exploration of identity and discovery. Campbell states, “Sam is a person we all know who is dealing with huge questions about life, who she wants to be, and where she wants to go. What she experiences as she unpacks the past year of her life is accessible to anyone who has felt stuck.” At the play’s crux is Sam’s best friend Kelly (played by Ava Brewer) – a ghost haunting Sam’s memory while spurring her to make choices. On this aspect of the show, Campbell also points to the universality of grief. “Who hasn’t experienced grief in some way – the loss of friend or family member, the loss of job, the loss of a friendship – any one of those can be overwhelming. Being able to explore those emotions through a musical has been cathartic for a lot of reasons.”
The Mad Ones is directed by Campbell with Music Direction by Benjamin Olejniczak and Choreography by Autumn Rettke. Costume and makeup for the production is by Kaoime Malloy with Scenic, Projection, and Props design by Sera Shearer. Lighting Design by Dinesh Yadav and technical operations facilitated by David Cook.
