Northern Fort Playhouse | Northern State University

The Northern Fort Playhouse is a summer repertory stock company that delights regional audiences with performances in the historic south barracks building of Fort Sisseton State Park. Northern students lend their talents to every production.

Opening letter from the director:

The 2025 Northern Fort Playhouse season is shaping up to be double the fun! This year we’ll keep your toes tapping with TWO musicals!! You may know that I welcomed a little girl, Liza, last summer and am finding it impossible to squeeze rehearsals for 2 shows into my schedule this summer. So, we’re delighted to announce that one of our productions will be student directed!

Northern Fort Playhouse’s own Carmen Huber directed “Vanities: The Musical” at Northern State University this year and will remount her version with the Playhouse this summer. Vanities follows three Texas high school cheerleaders, Joanne, Kathy, and Mary as they navigate life from their teenage years through adulthood, exploring their evolving friendships and personal journeys over three decades, from 1963 to 1990.

Our other musical this summer will be the family friendly favorite, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” directed by myself. The fort produced a production of Charlie Brown in its early years but it’s time for a comeback! In this show, Charlie Brown and the entire Peanuts gang explore life’s great questions as they play baseball, struggle with homework, sing songs, swoon over their crushes and celebrate the joy of friendship.

I’m thrilled to be entering my third year as Artistic Director of the Northern Fort Playhouse and I’m grateful to have found someone to take on directing one of the shows this year so the time commitment is more manageable with my 11-month-old in tow. I’ll still advise Carmen on her production of Vanities but I have total faith in her ability to deliver a show we’ll all enjoy. See you at the Fort!!

Kate Wismer

Artistic Director