“Mad World,” winner of Ball State's first Discovery New Musical Theatre Festival, will gain a greater audience as one of five featured productions advancing to the Region III Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in January.

“We’re overjoyed by the news,” said Eva Patton, associate professor of theater. “This is such a wonderful opportunity for the musical’s writers and student cast and crew to share their work with the more than 1,500 theater artists representing college theater programs in our region.”
Written by Los Angeles-based artists Cristian Guerrero, Chandler Patton and Steven Schmidt, “Mad World” centers on the creation by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) of “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass” and his obsession with the young heroine, Alice Liddell, who inspired a global phenomenon.

As winner of the inaugural Discovery New Musical Theatre Festival, a national competition created by the Department of Theatre and Dance, the musical made its debut at University Theatre this fall under Patton’s direction, with musical direction by Johnna Tavianini, and featuring Ball State students as cast, designers and crew.

Participating productions at the Region III Kennedy Center festival:

  • Ball State University: “Mad World.” Book by Cristian Guerrero and Chandler Patton; lyrics by Cristian Guerrero, Chandler Patton and Steven Schmidt; music by Steven Schmidt
  • Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin: “Afghanistan/Wisconsin” by Laurel McKenzie
  • Lansing Community College in Michigan: “Never Swim Alone” by Daniel MacIvor
  • Marquette University, Milwaukee: “To Kill a Mockingbird,” adapted for the stage by Christopher Sergel
  • Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan: “Equus” by Peter Shaffer

To help students attend the regional festival, the department will host a benefit performance of “Mad World” at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 3 in University Theatre. Tickets are on sale at the University Theatre box office, with all proceeds benefitting students traveling to the Jan. 5-9 event in Milwaukee.
Patton said the trajectory of “Mad World” is a perfect example of the department’s efforts to develop new works. “Getting a new play or musical workshopped and fully produced are two of the greatest challenges for writers, and both are essential steps in the developmental process so that they can see what’s working and what isn’t.

“If we can provide a safe haven and give them that opportunity,” she said, “while giving our students the extraordinary experience of working on a new play and having a real part in its developmental process — well, entrepreneurial learning doesn’t get any better than that.”

The inclusion of “Mad World” in the regional festival follows a similar ascent toward professional production as Ball State's 2010 student-created musical “The Circus in Winter.” It was produced in 2014 by Goodspeed Musicals, which has launched “Annie” and other Broadway shows.

The more “Mad World” gains an audience, the more attention also gets paid to the Discovery festival, Patton said. This year it will again seek out new musicals. Then Discovery will begin a rotation of workshopping a play in odd-numbered years and a musical in even-numbered years.

If “Mad World” performs well in Milwaukee, it could be selected for the national Kennedy Center festival in April. Patton said the writers plan to incorporate feedback from Milwaukee to the version of the musical they’ll submit to the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Annual Festival of New Musicals this year in New York City.

“If the show does go on to a professional venue — as ‘The Circus in Winter’ did at Goodspeed — then those who saw it along the way at Ball State or the regional festival have a sense of ownership in the piece, like they were a part of something special in its beginning stages.”

Tickets for the “Mad World” benefit performance are $10 to $15 and may be ordered online or purchased at University Theatre box office from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. the day of the Jan. 3 show.