About the show

In 1920s rural Wisconsin, a traveling impresario arrives to stage a “Womanless Wedding” — a popular community fundraiser in which the men of the town dress as women and perform a mock ceremony. What begins as small-town comedy becomes something stranger and more tender as the participants discover that the roles they’re playing fit better than the ones they live in every day.

The show draws on the real history of womanless weddings, a widespread American folk tradition that persisted well into the mid-20th century. Beneath the laughter: questions about gender, performance, identity, and the distance between who we pretend to be and who we are.

A collaboration with book writer Peter Welkin, developed through the NMI “First Draft” program.