CTM veteran Brian Cowing is assuming the role of interim artistic director of the youth theater company, while a national search is under way for a permanent replacement for the organization’s outgoing leader, Roseann Sheridan.
For Children’s Theater of Madison actors and audiences, life has taken complicated turns in recent years. CTM’s challenge to educate and inspire has only become more formidable in recent social and political climates.
But the 55-year-old theater troupe, co-founded by the late Nancy Thurow in 1965 as a Zeta Phi Eta communications sorority project, has risen to that challenge. For every season of “A Christmas Carol” there are also productions such as last year’s “Mockingbird,” Kathryn Erskine’s drama about a girl on the autism spectrum played by a young actor who is also on the spectrum. Promoting diversity and inclusion has long been part of CTM’s mission, and artistic director Roseann Sheridan says that mission has never been more critical.
In the spirit of this pandemic-disrupted year, Childrenâs Theater of Madison is offering its annual production of âA Christmas Carolâ free online with a cast of 95 that includes cameos by Gov. Tony Evers and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.
“A Christmas Carol: Home for the Holidays,” available at ctmtheater.org now through the end of the month, includes narration submitted by professional and young actors, community members and civic leaders.
The cast includes all of the actors who have played Ebenezer Scrooge in the past 15 years and many regular CTM and American Players Theatre actors. Also making appearances are Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin first lady Kathy Evers, UW marching band director Corey Pompey, the Rev. Alex Gee and Fabu Phillis Carter, a former Madison poet laureate.