Wisconsin Classic Stage Announces Inaugural 2026/27 Season
Milwaukee, WI – After a sold-out pre-season debut of Henry V, classical theatre will never be the same.
Wisconsin Classic Stage launches its inaugural season with a bold, radical vision that brings esoteric classics to life in ways Milwaukee audiences have never experienced. Each production is crafted to challenge, captivate, and fully engage the audience’s entire being. Come see, feel, and live these classics.
THE PERSIANS
by Aeschylus
April 2026
The world’s first surviving play returns with startling urgency. Written by Aeschylus, a Greek soldier who fought in the very war he depicts, the play tells the story of Greece’s victory from the perspective of their recently defeated enemy the Persians. The drama centers on the return of Xerxes as Atossa and the Chorus awaits his arrival. Is he dead or alive? Is the nation shattered or secure in victory? WCS channels that audacity for the modern stage revealing how this ancient story of war, power, and empathy remains shockingly relevant today.
DOCTOR FAUSTUS LIGHTS THE LIGHTS
by Gertrude Stein
October 2026
Gertrude Stein’s hypnotic spoken word operetta detonates onstage like a ritual of language and light. Words loop, flare, and refract, pulling the audience into a trance where meaning is felt before it is understood.
Returning to the stage Josh Pohja reinvents his tour de force Faustus, hailed in New York City by Backstage Magazine as a “brilliant portrayal of Faustus – strained, mechanized, and trapped by his myopic plan.” It will be unlike anything Milwaukee has seen in a long time.
by Anton Chekhov
Wisconsin Chekhov Project (2027/30)
Launching our ambitious four year project exploring Anton Chekhov’s greatest works, Uncle Vanya is a tragicomic masterpiece of longing, lost years, and fragile hope. This production relocates Chekhov’s Russian countryside to Wisconsin farm country where rhythms of land, weather, and long haul commitment echo the play’s deepest truths. Humor, heartbreak, and absurdity intertwine as characters navigate love, duty, and desire making Chekhov feel entirely alive and rooted in the Wisconsin experience.
The Wisconsin Chekhov Project is a bold, four-year artistic initiative from Wisconsin Classic Stage dedicated to producing all of Anton Chekhov’s major plays across the Milwaukee area. Designed as a dynamic, evolving exploration rather than a museum piece, the project places Chekhov’s work in conversation with the landscape, temperament, and cultural rhythms of the Midwest.
Across four seasons, WCS will stage fresh, rigorous, actor-driven productions of:
- The Seagull
- Uncle Vanya
- Three Sisters
- The Cherry Orchard
Each production will be realized in intimate, minimalist environments, emphasizing Chekhov’s emotional architecture, psychological detail, and human comedy. The Midwest becomes not a backdrop but an interpretive lens—its wide horizons, quiet endurance, seasonal volatility, and plainspoken honesty aligning naturally with Chekhov’s world of yearning, resilience, and quiet catastrophe.
WCS Actors Studio
In addition to performances the WCS Actors Studio launches this winter offering classes in both Chekhov and Greek theatre to build a community centered on high-impact actor training. Using Viewpoints methodology, which Josh Pohja studied directly with Anne Bogart and The SITI Company, the program trains actors to command the stage fully physically, emotionally, and intellectually while serving as a playground and casting ground for WCS productions.
“This season marks the start of something radical. Milwaukee audiences are perceptive, culturally vibrant, and ready for esoteric classics unearthed from the museum culture of theatre, works that create an experience for the audience’s entire being. We are radically classical, rooted in tradition but daring in execution, and we are building a culture devoted to text, clarity, and spectacle. This season invites you to see what classical theatre can truly be for a new generation: bold, intelligent, and unforgettable.”
Call for Artist Submissions
Actors are invited to submit headshots and résumés for casting consideration in the 2026 season at wisconsinclassicstage [dot] com @ gmail.com.
About Wisconsin Classic Stage
Wisconsin Classic Stage is a Milwaukee-based theatre company redefining classical theatre for a new generation. We bring esoteric classics to life with clarity, physical imagination, and emotional resonance, creating performances that are unpredictable, defiant, and thrilling.
Through the WCS Actors Studio, we train actors in Classical theatre training, Suzuki and Viewpoints methodology to command the stage fully while cultivating a dynamic, ensemble-driven artistic community. WCS is weaving a bold, visionary thread into the vibrant tapestry of Milwaukee’s theatre community.
About Josh Pohja
Josh Pohja is the Managing Artistic Director of Wisconsin Classic Stage (est. 2025), where he directed its landmark production of Henry V and launched the WCS Actors Studio. He co-founded Vanguard Productions in 2022, bringing his distinctive creative vision to helm productions including All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, Antigone, and the critically acclaimed My Name is Rachel Corrie. Josh has also co-produced Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s Young Playwrights Festival and served as assistant director for Molly Rhode on Great Expectations. He is building a reputation for innovative and thought-provoking theatre throughout the Milwaukee region.
A graduate of the Los Angeles County High School of the Arts and Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama. Josh trained at CMU during a Moscow Art Theatre residency, studying under masters including Anatoly Smeliansky, Andrei Șerban, Natalia Fedorova, and Bulgarian director Mladen Kiselov. He also studied with Ibsen scholar Brian Johnston, Victoria Santa Cruz, Elizabeth Orion and Don Wadsworth. These teaching artists cultivated his passion for reimagining classical theatre.
Josh is an alumnus of the Saratoga International Theatre Institute (SITI) under Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. He is a 26-year member of Actors’ Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA.
Learn more: Visit https://tinyurl.com/2ea3eh2s for more.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
