Forward at Fifteen

Forward Theater Company's 2023-2024 Season

Our fifteenth anniversary season is a feast for the senses. From intimate and inspiring to bigger than life and fresh from Broadway, this season has something for everyone.

Want to see all four shows? Season tickets are still available! Enjoy free and flexible date exchanges, priority seating, and save up to 30% off regular tickets.


Regular tickets are on sale now. Scroll down to explore the season.


Our 2023-24 Season Sponsor:

Our 2023-24 Foundation and In-Kind Sponsors: MG&E, Madison Community Foundation, Evjue Foundation, Wisconsin Arts Board - with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts, The Madison Concourse Hotel, Distillery Design, Wisconsin Public Radio, and PBS Wisconsin.




The Garbologists

by Lindsay Joelle
September 7-24, 2023

Wisconsin Premiere

Directed by Jen Uphoff Gray

This off-beat buddy comedy pairs essential workers from two different worlds in the shared cab of a New York City garbage truck. Danny’s a white, blue-collar mansplainer hiding a heart of gold. Marlowe’s a Black, Ivy League-educated newbie learning the ropes from her old-school partner. When they’re thrown together to pick up what the world has discarded, they discover there’s more that binds them than taking out the trash.

"A surprisingly humane and honest play that’s filled with as much laughter as it is drama...and reminds us that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. We learn that if given a tattered, grimy old volume of text and illustrations, and you take the time to examine it carefully, its value can exceed your imagination."
- Chicago Theatre Review

Sponsored by: Nancy Ciezki & Diane Kostecke, Stafford Rosenbaum





Clyde’s

By Lynn Nottage
November 2-19, 2023

Wisconsin Premiere

Directed by Jake Penner

Just outside of Reading, PA, a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption, as they find purpose and inspiration in their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich. Even as the shop’s callous owner tries to keep them under her thumb, the staff members are given purpose and permission to dream. This flavor-bomb of a comedy from Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage makes its Wisconsin premiere after its Tony-nominated run on Broadway.

“Deeply felt, quirky, and urgent, Clyde’s is a laugh riot with real meat on its bones.”
- The New York Times

Sponsored by: American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact, Findorff, Custer Burish Financial Services

In-kind support provided by Metcalfe’s Market.








The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk

by Daniel Jamieson
January 25 - February 11, 2024

Regional Premiere

Directed by Brian Cowing

Against the backdrop of the early 1900s, Bella and Marc Chagall witnessed revolutions in art and nations. Spanning continents, immortalized in paint, their love both sustained and challenged them. A sensual feast of music, dance, color, and light, Flying Lovers invites us into the sumptuous imaginations of an artist and a writer, from their first meeting in Vitebsk to the melancholy sweetness of their last days together in New York.

“This is a show that feels deeply personal and deeply felt. It’s a whirl of colour and surreal humour, reflecting back Chagall’s art from the stage, but it’s also a paean to the quiet creativity of uncelebrated or less celebrated lives, particularly women’s, and to the idea that even when you find your soulmate you are seeing the same things through different eyes. A small, vibrant and delicate thing that considers the nature of creativity… and the way that love itself can be an art.”
– The Guardian

Sponsored by: Sybil & Maurice Better, Steve & Jacqui Suleski





What the Constitution Means to Me

by Heidi Schreck
April 4 - April 21, 2024

Directed by Jen Uphoff Gray

Featuring Colleen Madden

As a teen, Heidi Schreck won scholarships for college by participating in Constitutional debate competitions. Now, she cannot help but weigh the earnest study, idealism and hopeful wisdom of her youth against the complexities of being a citizen and a woman in the United States in the 21st century. Join Wisconsin favorite Colleen Madden as she steps into Heidi’s shoes to ask us what this living document means to us— and what it means to be an American.

It’s also an instance of theatrical activism at its purest, modeling the world the play hopes to achieve…in which all stakeholders, not just powerful ones, are invited to the podium.
– The New York Times

Sponsored by: Katie Dowling-Marcus & Ben Marcus, DeWitt



Wisconsin Wrights New Play Festival

May 2024, Dates TBD

One Weekend Only

Forward Theater Company’s biennial Wisconsin Wrights New Play Festival is an investment in new works that awards Wisconsin playwrights the rare opportunity to develop their plays in a professional public reading series.

Three full-length plays by Wisconsin authors will be chosen to receive a week-long rehearsal process with professional directors and actors. These plays will be read before the public over a three-day weekend, giving audience members the chance to peek behind the scenes of the play development process.

Sponsored by: First Business Bank, Numbers4Nonprofits