By Jacob Janssen, Peninsula Pulse — September 25th, 2025

Alec Silberblatt. Submitted.

by JACOB JANSSEN, Third Avenue Playworks Jackie & Steve Kane Artistic Director

At Third Avenue PlayWorks, we are hard at work on our next production, Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night, by Alec Silberlblatt, and something that makes the show special is the fact that it is a world premiere. 

You might be asking yourself, what exactly is a world premiere? Simply put, this is the very first time this play will be performed publicly anywhere in the world. Most productions that you see staged are called revivals. Revivals are shows that have had their original production at some point in the past. For the last year, the team at TAP has been working with the playwright, Alec Silberlatt, to develop the script and designs to create this first full production of the play for our audience here in Door County. When you see Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night at TAP, you’ll be among the first ever to see this new work brought to life.

Audiences have an important role in the development of any new work. As an audience member, your response to the show is vital information for the creative team working on it. Playwrights pay special attention to how an audience listens to and reacts to the action onstage, which guides the further development of the play. So by attending a world premiere, you’re helping in your own way to shape the script.

Ryan’s Pub was originally developed at Seven Devils New Play Foundry in McCall, Idaho. Seven Devils is a playwriting conference that provides writers with support as they work on creating their plays. At TAP, we have had a long relationship with Seven Devils. The team at Seven Devils did the primary development work on our 2023 world premiere of I Carry Your Heart With Me by Jennifer Blackmer. 

Alec Silberblatt is an accomplished performer and playwright originally from Pittsburgh, the setting for Ryan’s Pub. Most recently, Pittsburgh Public Theater commissioned his play, A Tell-Tale Heart, which premiered online during the pandemic and in 2023 premiered live to sold-out audiences at Pittsburgh Public Theater, where he also starred in the production. His new play, The Vampire, was recently presented as part of Theatre Aspen’s 2025 Solo Flights Festival.

But what will you see when you come to Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night at TAP? Ryan’s Pub is about Marci and Richie, the best trivia team (at least by their standards) in the Pittsburgh area, as they contend with cheaters, bad bosses, and coming face-to-face with their demons. 

“I seek to find the extraordinary in the ordinary,” Silberblatt said about the play. “Make the mundane poetic. Make heroes out of the flawed folks you might meet at the local bar.” 

Our production features performances from Doug Mancheski and Kelli Strickland, and design work from Alex Polzin, Kotryna Hilko, Brian Grimm, and Colin Gawronski.

Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night runs Sept. 24 through Oct 12 at Third Avenue PlayWorks in Sturgeon Bay, 239 N. 3rd Ave.

Culture Club is contributed by members of the Peninsula Arts and Humanities Alliance, a coalition of nonprofit organizations whose purpose is to enhance, promote and advocate the arts, humanities and natural sciences in Door County. The member organizations are: Birch Creek Music Performance Center; Björklunden; The Clearing Folk School; Door Community Auditorium; Door Shakespeare; The Hardy Gallery; Midsummer’s Music; Miller Art Museum; Northern Sky Theater; Peninsula Music Festival; Peninsula Players Theatre; Peninsula School of Art; Third Avenue PlayWorks; Trueblood Performing Arts Center; and Write On, Door County.