WAVE Productions Presents: A New Brain

WAVE Productions is a student theater company at Northwestern University. We provide an environment in which students can educate and empower themselves and others through the art and business of theater. We seek to engage and provoke response within our communities by striving to produce stories the campus needs to hear.

This year, for our fall quarter show, WAVE will be presenting A New Brain. By the Tony Award-winning authors of Falsettos, A New Brain is an energetic, sardonic, often comical semi-autobiographical musical about a composer during a medical emergency. Gordon collapses into his lunch and awakes in the hospital, surrounded by his maritime-enthusiast lover, his mother, a co-worker, the doctor, and the nurses. Reluctantly, he had been composing a song for a children’s television show that features a frog—Mr. Bungee—and the specter of this large green character and the unfinished work haunts him throughout his medical ordeal. What was thought to be a tumor turns out to be something more operable, and Gordon recovers, grateful for a chance to compose the songs he yearns to produce.

Our show’s timeline makes it one of the first student theater productions that incoming first-year students are able to participate in, both as actors and as production team members. We are excited to embrace this by building a large team composed of students of all years, fostering a space that prioritizes education and mentorship.

The benefits and services provided by Northwestern University’s student groups are available to all students without regard to any category protected by the law. The University believes different perspectives, experiences and backgrounds are critical to a dynamic and vibrant University community, and as such all students are welcome and encouraged to join each group. Any student interested in exploring establishing a new affinity group should contact SOA.