Next season, First Stage celebrates 30 years of "Transforming Lives Through Theater" with a season chock full of world premieres as well as a cherished holiday classic taking its place alongside "The Nutcracker," "A Christmas Carol" and "Who Killed Santa" as Milwaukee favorites. The lineup has a distinctly local flavor, as well.

First Stage is one of the most consistent theater companies in Milwaukee where they never cut corners in production values – always at the very top of what makes great theater. From set design to costumes to lights to sound to stage management, First Stage is as creative and interesting as anybody in town.

The season kicks off with "Goosebumps the Musical: The Phantom of the Auditorium," an adaptation by John Maclay, associate artistic director at First Stage, with music and lyrics by Danny Abosch. Artistic director Jeff Frank called the play "a lively adaptation of one of the most popular modern youth literature series in history."

Maclay will team with Chicago actor Joe Foust, one of the best in that city, for an adaptation of "Robin Hood" later in the season as well.

Sheri Williams Pannell, after an achievement directing Skylight's "Crowns" this season, will unveil her play "Welcome to Bronzeville." Set in 1957, it aims to capture the sounds, feel and rhythm of Milwaukee’s black community in a time of family and celebration of life.

Frank will once again direct his "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" for the holiday season, a rollicking telling of the "most famous reindeer of all."

But perhaps one of the most interesting productions of the year will be an adaptation of "Mockingbird" by Julie Jensen. The play was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

It’s the story of a young girl on the autism spectrum whose older brother, who was her protector, dies and leaves her to face her world alone. Jensen described the play as "a combination of chaos and control so it looks off-center and weird, but it is not dancey. It doesn’t look as if it is choreographed, but it is."

Information about the season, including productions for the First Steps series and the Young Company, can be found here.

In touch with reality

This note comes under the heading of free advice to those who market and sell theatrical and other performing arts productions: There is a danger in raising expectations in advance of a production.

Let me give you some examples from other lives.

Last year, the Green Bay Packers were everyone’s pick to win the Super Bowl. That expectation, adopted by fans, made the disappointment that much deeper as the season wore on. When expectations are high, anything less – even if it’s good – is a disappointment.

For years, the Milwaukee Bucks tried to keep expectations at a realistic level going into their season. They didn’t promise the world, and when the world did not arrive, the disappointment was no shock to the system of the fans.

There are at least two things that can be, at least, dangerous to theatrical marketing.

One is to make the claim that the play is important to the world in which we live. It can be a claim that it will spark conversations that may well be productive when looking for solutions to world problems.

The second danger is making a promise that the play will be one of the best ever. I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve seen the words "outstanding," "brilliant," "memorable" or "fantastic" in promotional efforts. The plain fact is that those words describe rare standards, and while a play may well be a truly enjoyable evening, it may well not be "memorable."

Again, realistic expectations are important.