By Door County Pulse, Peninsula Pulse — January 29th, 2026

Third Avenue PlayWorks. File photo.

Third Avenue PlayWorks (TAP) has announced the lineup for the 11th-annual WinterWorks play reading series.

Four contemporary plays will run each Saturday in February at 7:30 pm at TAP’s Steve and Jackie Kane Theatre, 239 N. 3rd Ave. in Sturgeon Bay.

Topher Payne’s The Perfect Arrangement, directed by Ray Jivoff, starts the series on Feb. 7. The show follows Bob and Norma, two U.S. State Department employees in 1950 tasked with identifying sexual deviants within their ranks. There’s just one problem: both employees are gay, and have married each other’s partners as a carefully constructed cover.

Up next on Feb. 14 is Tate Hanyok’s Dog Mom, directed by Mallory Metoxen. It follows Liz, a tough-as-nails New Yorker whose life is rapidly falling apart before a scruffy stray dog shows up on her stoop and she reluctantly agrees to foster it.

The following Saturday, Feb. 21, brings Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon’s The Shark is Broken, directed by Jacob Janssen. The show dives deep into the making of a major motion picture with feuding costars, unpredictable weather and a shark prop whose constant breakdowns look like an omen for the movie’s future. 

Closing out the series on Feb. 28 is Donald Margulies’s Lunar Eclipse, directed by Sophie Widman. As a lunar eclipse unfolds above their shared farm, married couple George and Em reflect on their decades-long relationship, looking for answers in the stars to find meaning on earth.

The play readings are free, but donations are welcome. Doors open at 6:30 pm, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Concessions will be available before each reading.

For more information, visit thirdavenueplayworks.org/winterworks.