Your Northern Sky News • SPRING 2018
The Jungle, the Farm, the Woods, and the Lake Jeffrey Herbst, Artistic Director
I
f I were to tell you that the title of this article is a clue about where all four of our season’s offerings are set and that they are set in the same geographic area, you’d probably not guess the setting to be Wisconsin. The outlier, no doubt, would be the jungle. But, in fact, our two world premieres this summer are set in Wisconsin, as are the two remounts. Our world premieres feature some new writers and teams for us, yet again, and our remounts are from the two most prolific writing teams in the Northern Sky stable.
The Jungle: A hobo encampment found during the Great Depression, alongside the railroad, often on private property. Boxcar, with book and lyrics by Laurie Flanigan Hegge and music by James Valcq, is set in the 1930s in Whitehall, Wisconsin. Boxcar tells the story of a young boy named Charlie who befriends two hobos camped out on the edge of his family’s property. As this tender story unfolds and soars, Boxcar explores the hardships of the era while celebrating the ultimate triumph that comes from one human being coming to the aid of another in tough times. Laurie, who co-wrote Loose Lips Sink Ships and See Jane Vote, and James, who composed Spitfire Grill, Victory Farm, and The Passage, are collaborating for the first time. Laurie and her husband, Jon Hegge, who is directing and choreographing Boxcar, owned the family