Category: 2026 Season

Red Herring show logo, 2026 at Third Avenue PlayWorks
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Audience Guide: Red Herring

A red herring is an idiom that is a “piece of information, clue, or subject that is deliberately or accidentally used to mislead, distract, or divert attention away from the central, most important issue.” This idiom derives from the practice of using a pungent, salted, and smoked fish (herring) to draw hunting hounds off a scent. The playwright uses a literary “red herring” to mislead the audience into believing one thing, when another may be true. How many red herrings can you find in the play? The nonpungent, idiomatic kind, of course.

Red Herring show logo, 2026 at Third Avenue PlayWorks
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Cold War Comedy Heats Up TAP

Red Herring by Michael Hollinger is the third show of the 2026 season at Third Avenue PlayWorks (TAP), running from July 15 through Aug. 9, with performances by Ellie Duffey, Seth K. Hale, Carolyn Hoerdemann, Alicia Rice, Ethan Serpan and Noah Simon.

Red Herring show logo, 2026 at Third Avenue PlayWorks
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Sets and costumes play co-stars on TAP stage

It is not easy to go from a nursing home in France to a writers' room in California to a detective's office in Boston in the span of nearly three months, but not all places are Third Avenue PlayWorks. Rehearsals have begun for TAP's next production, Red Herring. The comedy follows a female detective in Boston as she tries to solve a murder while navigating her relationship with an FBI agent during the Cold War.

Alan Kopischke, Actor headshot
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Kopischke Earns Tenure 

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents formally approved local performing artist Alan Kopischke’s promotion to Associate Professor with tenure in UW-Green Bay’s Theatre and Dance Department, effective in the fall of 2026. Kopischke’s record also stood out for his continuing work as an actor, producer, stage intimacy choreographer and nonprofit board member. Kopischke most recently performed in Heroes by Tom Stoppard at Third Avenue PlayWorks, where he has also recently rejoined the board. He produces the Door Kinetic Arts Festival, which will celebrate its 10th year of developing new work in a variety of arts disciplines in September. 

Karen Estrada, Actor and Director headshot
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From the Director: Red Herring

In 1952, the second Red Scare is at its height. Televised Senate hearings fan the flames of suspicion, the hydrogen bomb is under development, and paranoia seeps into every aspect of American life. The fear that a communist might be around every corner—or even sharing your bed—turns neighbors into suspects and private lives into political battlegrounds. Holy Mackerel! Who couldn't use a break from such relentless pressure? Audiences came together at the cinema to see their anxiety and paranoia reflected in Film Noir or they watched screwball comedies to float for a time above those same anxieties while society’s rigid social norms were skewered with fast talking repartee and farcical situations.

Moonlight and Magnolias show logo
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MIKE AT THE MARQUEE: Movie-Making Mayhem in “Moonlight and Magnolias”

Gone with the Wind is, arguably, the most famous movie ever made in “old” Hollywood. The 1939 MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) production was adapted from Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, and it went on to set records for box office take and Academy Awards. It grossed hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when most films were considered hits if they scored revenues in the seven figures, and it received an unprecedented 10 Oscars (from 13 nominations) – a record haul that has since been eclipsed by Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) with 11 each.

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Summer Youth Acting Class starts July 13th!

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