Peninsula Players Theatre is delighted to announce the cast for the world premiere reading of the play the after wife by Sophie McIntosh, the final presentation of the 2026 The Play’s the Thing series. Artistic Director Linda Fortunato directs an ensemble that includes Emily Ann Brooks,Connor Nekich, Greg Pragel, and Cassie Slater.
the after wife is presented in conjunction with World Premiere Wisconsin, a statewide festival celebrating new plays and musicals running throughout 2026. The reading will be performed on Monday, April 6, at Björklunden, at 7590 Boynton Lane, Baileys Harbor, at 7:00 p.m. There is no admission fee, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Donations are welcome.
Set in 1963, Nora is the perfect housewife, because she was engineered to be one. As the most advanced humanoid robot ever created, she’s placed in the home of inventor Martin and his teenage children. But when Martin’s daughter Ruth realizes Nora looks exactly like her missing mother, she begins to suspect a darker truth.
The playwright, Sophie McIntosh, grew up in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin and is delighted to share her work in her home state. McIntosh holds a BA in drama from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and recently graduated with an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University. Recent productions of McIntosh’s work include the world premiere of macbitches (New York Times Critic’s Pick); the premieres of Road Kills (recommended by The New York Times and The New Yorker), cunnicularii, and cityscrape with Good Apples Collective; and Eleven Weeks of Nuclear Summer at University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan.
McIntosh’s plays have also been developed at Pioneer Theatre Company, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, and Atlanta Shakespeare Company, among others, and her work has been performed at colleges across the country.
The ensemble includes three newcomers and one alum of Peninsula Players Theatre. Credits span nationwide stages, including throughout Chicago and Wisconsin.
Making her Peninsula Players Theatre debut, Emily Ann Brooks, is a performer and theatre/dance teacher based in Chicagoland. She has appeared in The Music Man and Hello, Dolly! at Marriott Theatre, Dames at Sea at Florida Studio Theatre, and many more including credits at Paramount Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Northlight Theatre. She is an alum of Northwestern University.
Connor Nekich debuts at Peninsula Players Theatre as well. Nekich is a Chicago-based performer who spent this past season as a member of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Emerging Professional Residency where he appeared in A Christmas Carol. Other credits include Oliver!, Juliet and Romeo, and To Catch A Thief at Skylight Music Theatre.
Another Peninsula Players Theatre newcomer, Greg Pragel, is based out of Green Bay and has appeared in Gutenberg, The Musical! and King James at Forward Theater Company, Every Brilliant Thing at The Weidner, and Boeing Boeing at Third Avenue PlayWorks. Pragel is a graduate from the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and is a lecturer on the subject at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Cassie Slater has appeared in several seasons at Peninsula Players Theatre, including last season’s productions of Little Women: The Broadway Musical and Steel Magnolias. She began her career in Chicago, where she received her BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University, and is a recipient of a Joseph Jefferson Award for her role as Mary in Merrily We Roll Along. She has worked extensively in the development of new musicals and has been a featured vocalist at Lincoln Center and at Merkin Hall in New York.Slater’s autobiographical play with music, How To Lobster, premiered as part of Steppenwolf Theatre’s LookOut Series in the spring of 2023.
This reading concludes the 2026 The Play’s the Thing series. Peninsula Players Theatre’s 91st season begins on June 16th with the production of Baggage by Sam Bobrick.
The Play’s the Thing is funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as generous support from Friends of Door County Libraries, Patrick O’Hearn & Anita Zipperer, The Shubert Foundation, and operating funds of Peninsula Players Theatre.
Peninsula Players Theatre is America’s oldest professional resident summer theatre. It is unique in the country for its diverse productions, continued loyalty to a resident company, and beautiful setting of 16 wooded acres along the cedar-lined shores of Green Bay. In the past 91 years, the theatre has become a Door County landmark and cornerstone arts institution, attracting audience members nationwide. To learn more about Peninsula Players Theatre, visit www.peninsulaplayers.com.