Celebrating the women of Northern Sky in concert.
Three weekends of music and stories in Peninsula State Park.
Enjoy the songs and stories of the fantastic women who have crossed our boards over the years. It’s a way to celebrate the characters themselves–plus the women who have played them, written them, designed their sets and costumes, and choreographed and directed them.
The idea for this concert originated during the pandemic lockdown when Northern Sky was running a “Virtual Season” online. On October 17, 2020, we presented 18 archival clips taken from 15 different productions ranging from 1993 to 2019. Now we’re bringing this celebration live and in-person to the Park stage! The 2023 concert will include songs from Sunflowered, Loose Lips Sink Ships, Dairy Heirs, Victory Farm, Boxcar, Belgians in Heaven, Lumberjacks in Love, and The Fisherman’s Daughters.
2023 Featured Performers: Lachrisa Grandberry, Karen Mal, Alissa Rhode, and Molly Rhode
Special guests include Christiana Trapani, Cyndy Stiehl, Katie Dahl, Meredith Coulson, Laurie Flanigan Hegge, Amy Chaffee, Suzanne Graff, Heidi Ling, Eva Nimmer, Kelly Doherty, Jamie Mercado, Ann Birnschein, and Holly Feldman. This group includes performers, authors, composers, board members, marketing and managing directors, and former house managers that now run two of Door County’s most well-known businesses, Door County Candle Company and White Gull Inn.
Showing: August 30 – September 16, 2023
Wednesday–Saturday at 4:00pm
At the Park Amphitheater
Sponsored by: The Women’s Fund of Door County | Season Sponsors: Door County Medical Center, The Cordon Family Foundation, Tony & Judy Licata
Wednesday, August 30: Eva Nimmer
Thursday, August 31: Christiana Trapani
Friday, September 1: Christiana Trapani
Saturday, September 2: Heidi Ling
Wednesday, September 6: Cyndy Stiehl
Thursday, September 7: Ann Birnschein & Amy Chaffee
Friday, September 8: Katie Dahl & Meredith Coulson
Saturday, September 9: Kelly Doherty
Wednesday, September 13: Jamie Mercado
Thursday, September 14: Laurie Flanigan Hegge
Friday, September 15: Suzanne Graff Gomes
Saturday, September 16: Holly Feldman
It’s only fitting that we dedicate a concert celebrating the women of Northern Sky to two of the women whose contributions were critical to the theater’s success: Kathleen ‘Neen’ Rock and Kaye Christman.
Neen worked with the company and its predecessor, the Heritage Ensemble, from the mid-1980s until her death in 2021. Her creative hands are all over Northern Sky, with her bio still included in this year’s playbill for her design contributions to several shows that she helped originate. These are shows that she also initially stage managed and helped shepherd through the new works process. Neen was all-in at Northern Sky. Her name graces the Northern Sky costume shop as a reminder of how incredibly important she was to the company as a colleague and dear friend.
Kaye came on board as the managing director of American Folkore Theatre in 1998. She was a year-round presence for the organization and was instrumental in forging a strong relationship with the company’s new board, cementing an extremely positive culture amongst all interested parties. Over the course of her twelve years at the helm, Kaye implemented business practices that helped move the company into true professionalism as she guided Northern Sky through substantial growth, all the while maintaining what drew her there in the first place: her love of what they were creating. Kaye retired in 2010 and died in 2019, but her star still shines bright in our Northern Sky.