Western Michigan University's Department of Theatre opens its 2026-27 season this month with a lineup that ranges from an intimate family drama to a 270-degree immersive space voyage, according to Joan Herrington, department chair, and Associate Professor Kate Thomsen, who joined Cara Lieurance in a conversation about the new lineup.
Herrington says planning a season is a year-long process: faculty, staff and students weigh in, and the department reads dozens of scripts before settling on a lineup. "We read hundreds of plays," she says, noting the department read roughly 40 scripts for a single slot alone.
The season opens Sep 25 with Noah Haidle's Birthday Candles, a multigenerational family drama in the intimate York Theatre, followed Oct 30 by Kinky Boots, the Cyndi Lauper musical, choreographed by award-winning professional drag queen Gabriella Galore and directed by Jay Berkow in the Shaw Theatre. Nov 13 brings a reimagined Three Musketeers, staged with the premise that author Alexandre Dumas — himself a man of color — is written into the action. December's Next Stop Broadway showcase features graduating musical-theatre seniors alongside guest artist and Tony winner Gregory Jbara.
The spring semester turns more serious with Hilary Bettis's 72 Miles to Go, about a family separated by deportation, opening Jan 29 with guest director Denise Serna. Herrington calls it emotionally powerful, saying it has "one of the most impactful closing lines of any play I have read in my entire life." Thomsen adds that despite its difficult subject matter, "Hilary makes it easy to be with these people. They're resilient. They're funny." February brings a concert staging of Ragtime with the WMU Symphony Orchestra, and March delivers Thomsen's directorial debut in musical theater, Cabaret, staged in the immersive Williams Theatre.
The season closes with Peter Pan Goes Wrong in April and, in May, the world-premiere Daedalus Experience, an interactive space-travel piece that will christen a new 270-degree digital theater in the College of Fine Arts' Dalton Center — the first full production of its kind in Michigan.
Tickets for all productions are available at wmich.edu/theatre or by calling (269) 387-6222.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
