Sofia Ascorbe

Many peers around my age may remember the first time they saw Elf, the 2003 movie starring Will Ferrell. It was a fresh take on the Christmas cheer trope, introducing an overly enthusiastic and endearingly naïve (and exaggeratingly tall) human who was really convinced he was an elf, just like his 3-foot North Pole peers.

At its best, Spring Awakening smartly and gut-punchingly calls out religious and bourgeois hypocrisy and shows the (very literal) grave dangers of society’s obsession with innocence and sexual purity on the very youth that this obsession claims to protect. Here, on Skylight Music Theatre’s stage, its inclusivity transcends it to new heights.

25 years after its first production, Mamma Mia! the musical is making the rounds with a stop at Milwaukee's own Marcus PAC. Famously based off the book by Catherine Johnson and featuring music by ABBA, the story centers around Sophie, who is set to get married in Greece, and the mystery of her biological father's identity.

What the Constitution Means to Me was written by playwright, screenwriter, and performer, Heidi Schreck. The show is full of laughs, heartbreak, and a profound telling of a woman’s story that unexpectedly, but beautifully, weaves in the direct impacts of her life by the text in our U.S. Constitution.