POSTPONED: Ten Days in a Madhouse

press release: We recently received some very good news about this project! The workshop will continue, but will not go on as planned in June. The event will likely be some combination of online and in-person, with resources available both ways as well. We are waiting until the current Safer at Home deadline on May 26 before we make a decision. But have no fear. The workshop will happen, as will the 2021 full production as the second full production in the Wisconsin New Musicals Cycle. 

Music and lyrics by Jennifer Hedstrom; book and lyrics by Karen Saari; directed by Meghan Randolph. Tickets on sale May 1 via mtmadison.com 

The workshop of MTM's next developing musical. Part of the Wisconsin New Musicals Cycle. 

After a successful reading in December of 2019, TEN DAYS IN A MADHOUSE, by Madison artists Jennifer Hedstrom and Karen Saari, returns with improvements for another look! Enjoy food and drinks, see renderings of sets and costumes, hear early demos, learn about Nellie Bly, see the show in a staged reading, and offer your feedback! The New Musicals Cycle is a crucial and unique process in which Madison audiences get to see new musicals develop and have a stake in the progress! 

In 1887, the ambitious and brave Nellie Bly, 23 years old, marched into Joseph Pulitzer's office and offered to get herself committed to the insane asylum at Blackwell's Island so she could report on the atrocities inside.  Less than two days after she feigned insanity at women's boarding house, a judge sent her to the dreaded reclusive institution, where she met and memorized the stories of the women who lived there, vowing to avenge their cruel treatment...if she ever got out. 

In this new musical, the story of Nellie's time at Blackwell's Island is dramatized by local writers Karen Saari and Jennifer Hedstrom with haunting and beautiful music complementing a hard-hitting script faithful to Nellie's eventual book-length exposé.