Theatre Z to present Heroes of the Fourth Turning

After a successful public reading two years ago, Theatre Z will finally present its production of Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning this week at Jean Weidner Theatre, located in the Weidner Center.

This week’s showing won’t be the first time Theatre Z, led by St. Norbert Theater Professor Stephen Rupsch and Former St. Norbert Theater Professor April Bieswinger, has attempted to bring Heroes of the Fourth Turning to the stage.

“We did a reading of it two years ago…” Rupsch said. “I got some folks together and we did a public reading and people really responded to it very positively. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to go ahead and do it… Last year, we were going to do this same show, but we had an actor get sick at the last minute and we couldn’t recast, so we had to cancel.”

Described as “astonishing and riveting” in The New York Times, Heroes of the Fourth Turning explores some of the ramifications of personal identity, citizenry and spirituality while dealing with divisive politics and religious ideologies.

“Those of us in the theater, we tend to be politically on the left side of things and there’s always this question about are you preaching to the converted? How is your art actually contributing to the discourse?” Rupsch explained. “What was most intriguing for me about reading this play is that these characters are conservative Catholics and they were portrayed in a way that, like in any play, you get into who they are personally. There’s a lot of political discussion happening, but it’s really about what’s happening in their relationships between them, what they want out of life, how they think that they might be able to get it, disappointments and feeling rejected — all the kind of normal domestic stuff that you would expect in a kind of realistic drama about friends who come back together to celebrate their old mentor who is not the president of a small Catholic college in Wyoming.”

If those in the audience take one thing away from the show, Rupsch said he hopes it’s, “Listen. Listen to other people and don’t shut them down too quickly.”

Performances of Heroes of the Fourth Turning will take place June 4, 5 and 6 at 7 p.m. with an additional showing June 7 at 4 p.m.

More information and tickets can be found at bit.ly/3S51Q3f.

The box office at the Jean Weidner Theatre will open one hour prior to show time and offer a limited number of full price, senior and student tickets ($20, $16 and $8).