The show
June 1911. The new brick depot is finished, the brass band has been rehearsing for a month, the mayor has written a speech of unreasonable length, and the first passenger train is due in Porter Falls on Saturday. Then the spring flood takes out the trestle at Cedar Bluff. Over one week, a stationmaster who has never seen a train arrive, a lumber heiress who would like very much to leave on one, a Porter Manual Training School student who thinks he can rebuild the trestle with his class, and a town band that can play exactly two songs try to get the train to town before the newspaper in the rival town hears about it.
The Millrace Follies of 1911 is an original musical. Book and lyrics are by Dana Marchetti ’09, a Porter alumna and high school drama teacher, and music is by Peter Trombley, assistant professor of theory and composition. It had a staged reading in spring 2025 and this is its first full production. The score uses ragtime, marches, a barbershop quartet and one very sincere ballad sung to a steam whistle. The depot in the show is the one that now holds the Welcome Center.
Dates and tickets
| Date | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Thu, Apr 15 | 7:30 p.m. | Opening night |
| Fri, Apr 16 | 7:30 p.m. | ASL-interpreted |
| Sat, Apr 17 | 7:30 p.m. | |
| Sun, Apr 18 | 2:00 p.m. | Open-captioned |
| Wed, Apr 21 | 10:00 a.m. | School matinee; relaxed performance |
| Thu, Apr 22 | 7:30 p.m. | |
| Fri, Apr 23 | 7:30 p.m. | |
| Sat, Apr 24 | 2:00 and 7:30 p.m. | Matinee audio-described; closing |
Heritage Auditorium, Applied Arts Building, 900 seats. Tickets are $15 adult, $5 for seniors 65+, youth and other colleges’ students, and free for Porter students with a Porter Card. K–12 groups pay $5 a student for the school matinee. Everything goes through the box office. Student seats open April 1.
Running time and content advisory
Running time: about 2 hours 20 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission.
Content advisory: period slapstick, including a pie, a ladder and a collapsing bandstand; mild innuendo of the 1911 sort; a loud steam-whistle effect at the end of Act One; a storm sequence with rapid lightning effects that are close to strobe; theatrical haze. No strong language. Suitable for ages 8 and up. The relaxed school matinee keeps the whistle softer and the house lights partly up.
The company
- Director: Simon Persson, professor of acting and directing
- Music director: Malik Bwalya, associate professor of vocal and choral music
- Choreographer: Leah Moen, lecturer in dance (see dance courses)
- Scenic design: Hannah Antonelli. The set includes a full-scale depot platform and a locomotive front that moves 14 feet downstage on a track built by an engineering capstone team.
- Costumes: Bruno Brenner and the Costume Construction class: 61 period costumes, 40 of them built new.
- Orchestra: 14 players, filled first from the Wind Symphony and the Jazz Orchestra
- Cast: 12 principals and an ensemble of up to 20, from auditions November 30–December 2, 2026
Auditions and getting involved
Auditions are open to every student, and so are the crew, orchestra and design assistant positions. Prepare 32 bars of a song in a musical-theatre or folk style (bring sheet music for the accompanist) and expect a short movement call. Dance experience is helpful but not required, and the choreographer has promised the bandstand number will be teachable. Callbacks are Friday, December 4, rehearsals start January 26, 2027, and they run Monday–Thursday 6:30–10 p.m. and Sunday 1–5 p.m. Full instructions are on auditions. Production work can count for credit through the theatre practicum. See the full season for what else is on that spring.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. The Millrace Follies of 1911, its authors, characters, songs, company and performances are invented, as is the town’s railway history; there is no such musical and no production to attend. The photo is AI concept art.