The Ghost of Darius in The Persians — Wisconsin Classic Stage 2026. Photo: Paul Ruffolo Photography

26/27 Season · Milwaukee's Premier Classical Repertory Company

Wisconsin
Classic Stage

Bringing the ancient, the timeless, and the vital to life on stage.

Cole Castine as Xerxes & Maggie Marks as Queen Atossa · The Persians, 2026  |  Photo: Paul Ruffolo Photography

Bold Plays Timeless Questions Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Still to Come in 26 / 27

01

An Operetta by Gertrude Stein

Doctor Faustus
Lights the Lights

Gertrude Stein  ·  An Operetta

A soul sold for electric light. Stein's fever-dream operetta dismantles the Faust legend and rebuilds it as pure incantation. Directed by Cole Castine.

Oct 30 – Nov 8, 2026 · 8pm & 10pm

Tickets on sale soon
02

A Tragicomedy

Uncle Vanya

Anton Chekhov  ·  A Tragicomedy

Lives unlived. Love unreturned. Chekhov's most devastating portrait of quiet surrender — and somehow, his funniest.

March 2027

Tickets on sale soon
Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights by Gertrude Stein, directed by Cole Castine — Wisconsin Classic Stage, October 2026
Coming Soon

Coming Soon · October 2026

Gertrude Stein's

DOCTOR FAUSTUS LIGHTS THE LIGHTS

Directed by Cole Castine

Gertrude Stein's dazzling and operatic reimagining of the Faust legend plunges us into a world of perpetual light, where desire, death, and damnation collide with wicked humor and dreamlike logic. Faustus wants to escape the burden of being alive, but when the Devil offers him eternal youth in exchange for the soul of a mysterious woman, the bargain becomes a seductive battle over who gets to choose life, death, and what comes after. Radical, playful, and deliciously unsettling, Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights turns the classic myth inside out and invites you into a world where nothing is quite what it seems and the Devil may not be the most dangerous thing in the room. Unlike anything audiences have ever experienced. Enter the current this Halloween!

Dates Friday, October 30 – Sunday, November 8, 2026
Time 8pm and 10pm nightly · 8pm on Sundays
Venue Calvary Presbyterian Church · 935 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207
Runtime Approx. 1 hour (running time unconfirmed) · Inside Calvary Presbyterian Church Sanctuary Hall
Playwright Gertrude Stein
Director Cole Castine
Cast TBA

Tickets on sale soon — join the WCS Insider list below and you'll hear first.

Past Productions

Every WCS production leaves something behind. Our stage programs and patron study guides stay online for good — read the company notes, the dramaturgy, and the essays that surrounded each show.

Poster for Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts at Wisconsin Classic Stage, 2026

Closed · Summer 2026

Ghosts

July 10 – 19, 2026 · Ibsen in the Parking Lot

Cole Castine as Xerxes in The Persians at Wisconsin Classic Stage, 2026. Photo: Paul Ruffolo Photography

Closed · Spring 2026

The Persians

April 24 – 26, 2026 · Calvary Presbyterian Church

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Wisconsin Classic Stage recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples who have called this land home for generations. The state known as Wisconsin is home to eleven sovereign Tribal nations: Bad River Ojibwe, Forest County Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe, Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Menominee Nation, Mole Lake Sokaogan Chippewa, Oneida Nation, Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe, St. Croix Band of Ojibwe, and Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans. No matter where you stand in Wisconsin, you stand on the ancestral land of a Tribal nation. We encourage everyone to reflect on that history and to recognize the enduring contributions of these communities — past, present, and future.