The Green Room

The lineup for the 2020 Madison World Music Festival was finalized in February, the earliest date ever in the festival’s 17 years. I thought I could relax.

Then came the pandemic. It didn’t take long for us to decide that we will offer a festival, digitally. Little did we know what that meant. Now, about one week before the festival, we’re still learning how to do it. Fortunately, we have an excellent staff with a can-do attitude and a director who is willing to provide the necessary resources.

Over these past few weeks, the staff of the Wisconsin Union Theater have been listening, reflecting, learning, and planning. Silence is complicity, and so we say loudly and directly:

Black Lives Matter.
We denounce police brutality.
We share protesters’ outrage for the wrongful deaths of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many others.

The Wisconsin Union Theater’s role is to present the highest quality performing arts to our University faculty, staff, and students and to our Madison community. Our mission is to bring people together to experience the transformational power of live performing arts, creating togetherness in space and in spirit. We are guided by the mantra, “The show must go on.”

One of the greatest parts of the Wisconsin Union is the way students make it their home. It is the place to meet people, eat some cheese curds, watch the sunset and do homework. The Union is versatile, which is part of the reason it is so special for students, alumni and Madisonians alike.

Rehearsal of "Watching Over the Mother"

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain knows how to have a good time. Since their creation in 1985, the group has been strumming, singing and laughing their way to international success. During their performances, no genre of music is off limits as they remix well-known songs on their "bonsai guitars" and show audiences that music does not have to take itself so seriously. 

George Hinchliffe’s Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
perform "Heroes" by David Bowie

As a newcomer to the Madison area, the Wisconsin Union was a delightful surprise to me. The opportunities to engage, indulge, create, and enjoy everything about this place was beyond impressive: it was amazing. I couldn't believe that I could wander art galleries and rent snowshoes in the same place that I could take in a great show or create my own piece of art. A year later, I found myself working in this fabulous place and I'm still amazed.

This season at the Wisconsin Union Theater, we are celebrating the rich history of classical music performers in our 100th Anniversary Concert Series. Many performers have visited our theater multiple times and have had careers that span decades. However, in February we welcome an ensemble that is just getting started.

I’m building a dance to curb emissions. If that seems unlikely, well then at least to curb passivity, or worse yet, conspiratorial thinking about our climate crisis. In a few weeks at the Wisconsin Union Theater, The Seldoms will premiere Floe, a new multimedia performance piece about climate change. The ensemble, our collaborators, and I have spent two years conceptualizing, researching, and building this project. Two years, to what end?

While driving to the Concourse Hotel on a brisk November morning, questions were running through my head. What did I want to ask pianist Emanuel Ax? What details did I want to share about my own experiences?

Adalia Hernandez Abrego, Amanda Venske, Emanuel Ax, Elizabeth Snodgrass, Nov. 2, 2019

January 31st, 2020, I will ascend to the stage as the character Lemml in the musical Indecent, kvelling to the audience, “we have a story we want to tell you about a play, a play that changed my life.”

INDECENT rehearsal.

That story is the true tale of the progressive Yiddish Theatre troupe that brought God of Vengeance to Broadway almost a century ago, on February 19th, 1923.