Skip to content

The Vermont Farm Project

A cow is surrounded b y musical instrument and farm veggies

The Vermont Farm Project:

A Farm-to-Stage Musical

music & lyrics by TOMMY CRAWFORD
book by JESSICA KAHKOSKA
directed & developed by SARAH ELIZABETH WANSLEY

MAY 7 - 25, 2025

Kim and Glenn are wrestling with retirement from their multi-generational family farm. Matt and Kenza are juggling the needs of their vegetables, animals, and a growing family. Gabriela works long hours in the dairy and dreams of her family in Mexico. And summer farmhands Tara, Hunter and Mo are… just trying to make it to 4 o’clock. The Vermont Farm Project follows eight farmers from sunrise to sunset as they work on the land we call home. Inspired by three years of interviews and featuring a talented cast of actor-musicians, this world premiere indie-folk musical offers a heart-forward, toe-tapping look into the real stories, passions, and hopes of farmers across Vermont. 

Click HERE for the Original Cast Recording Album
Photo Illustration by Emily Cooper.

Please be advised that there will be straw in the building if you might have a sensitivity.
As a general rule, we encourage children ages 5 and up to attend the theater. For more information, please visit HERE.
  • Regular Tickets $34 - $74

    Prices vary based on seat location

  • Youth Tickets $24

    25 and under

  • Student Tickets $24

    For students of all ages

  • Pay-What-You-Can Previews (May. 7-8) $5+
Relaxed Matinee:
Saturday, May. 17 at 2:00PM
Running time is approximately 95 minutes with no intermission.
This show is recommended for ages 8 and up.
Click HERE for Tickets
OR Call the Box Office at 802-296-7000
All tickets are subject to a $3.00 processing fee.
We would love to invite the Spanish-speaking community to join us for the show! For The Vermont Farm Project, we will have Spanish synopsis and dramaturgical materials available upon request at the box office. For more information, please contact us at 802-296-7000 or boxoffice@northernstage.org.
¡Nos encantaría invitar a la comunidad hispanohablante a unirse a nosotros para el espectáculo! Para el Vermont Farm Project, tendremos el sinopsis y materiales dramaturgicos en español disponibles en la taquilla.

Music Preview

A first look at the music of THE VERMONT FARM PROJECT!

Special Events

Click on the events to learn more

SUNDAY, MAY. 11
Following the 5 PM Performance

Join us after the show for a conversation with director Sarah Elizabeth Wansley, Kate Duesterberg (Co-Founder, Cedar Circle Farm) and Danielle Allen (Owner, Root 5 Farm). Hear from them about the process of bringing our farm to stage musical to life, and the challenges and joys of farming now!

Admission is Free to the Public.

FRIDAY, MAY. 16
6:30 PM – 7:20 PM

Join fellow subscribers for complimentary drinks and snacks prior to the show!

RSVP recommended but not required. Admission is Free to all 2024-25 seasons subscribers.

SATURDAY, MAY. 17
2:00 PM Performance

A Relaxed Performance is an inclusive theatrical experience that offers accommodations for people who benefit from a more relaxed and comfortable environment. The artistic integrity of the piece remains unchanged, however modifications to the social and sensory environment may be made. A Relaxed Performance can also be beneficial for people who are neurodivergent, families with young children, and anyone who finds traditional performance protocols do not work for their needs.

Below are some of our Relaxed Performance accommodations. Please contact our box office for more information or requests.

  • Early entry to the theater & early seating
  • Dimmed house lights throughout the show
  • Designated quiet area & quiet room activities
  • Performance sensory advisory & Large-print playbill (available upon request)
  • Sensory toys, fidgets, ear muffs, and sunglasses (available upon request)


Please be advised that this is NOT a Sensory-Friendly performance.

Click HERE for tickets if you wish to attend the 2 PM Relaxed Matinee Performance.
Special Needs Chaperone ticket pricing available upon request. Please contact the box office at (802) 296-7000 for more information.

SATURDAY, MAY. 17
Following the 7:30 PM Performance

Join us after the 7:30 PM show for a conversation with The Vermont Farm Project company.

Admission is Free to the Public.

SUNDAY, MAY. 18
Following the 5:00 PM Performance

Dig that guitar or harmonica out from the back of your closet and come play some folk tunes with cast members from The Vermont Farm Project on Sunday, May 18 after the performance (around 6:45 PM). We’ll be on the front patio of the theater if it’s sunny, and inside the lobby if it starts to rain. No ticket purchase is necessary. All ages, instruments, and skill levels are invited to join in the jam!

Admission to the Hootenanny is FREE to the public.

Meet the Cast

Raquel Chavez (Gabriela/Mo)
Angel Lin (Kenza/Terra)
David M. Lutken (Glenn)
Emily Mikesell (Kim)
Rob Morrison (Matt/Hunter)

Meet the Creatives

Tommy Crawford

COMPOSER / Lyricist

TOMMY CRAWFORD is an actor, multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, songwriter, and Drama Desk Award-nominated composer. A Northern Stage favorite, Tommy has mostly recently been seen in roles such as Perks in The Railway Children and Paul McCartney in Only Yesterday (NYT Critics’ Pick: 59e59 Theaters; Northern Stage). As a composer and lyricist, recent productions include The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective (Shaker Bridge); Heisenberg (Northern Stage); Twelfth Night (Two River Theater); SeaWife (2016 Drama Desk Nomination, Outstanding Music in a Musical); From Cold Lake, an episodic radio play set in small-town Minnesota (The PIT); and The Burial at Thebes (UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse). As an arranger and music director, credits include SeaWife; Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, which Tommy and director Michael Moran re-imagined for UCSD’s MFA program at The La Jolla Playhouse and site-specific company Oakland Theater Project; The Tempest (Saratoga Shakespeare); and One Man, Two Guvnors and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (both with Chautauqua Theater Company).

Jessica Kahkoska

Playwright

JESSICA KAHKOSKA is a writer, producer, and researcher for theatre and television. She is most interested in work inspired by creative research and historical archive, the American West, and community collaboration. She is the 2023 recipient of the National Archive Foundation’s Cokie Roberts Fellowship in Women’s History and is developing projects in the scripted and documentary spaces about the American women who worked at the Nuremberg Trials. As a theatre writer, she has premiered/developed original new plays and musicals in New York and across the country— with New York Stage and Film, Roundabout Theatre Company, Goodspeed Musicals, Weston Theatre Company, and others. Her revisionist Western musical The Death of Desert Rose (with Elliah Heifetz) is under commercial option, and she is under new work commissions from Broadway Licensing (Concord) and the Alley Theatre. Other theatre projects include Wild Fire (Commissioned, World Premiere, & Colorado Tour by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, upcoming at ZSpace), Letters to the President (with Michael Bello, Goodspeed Musicals, NY Premiere at the Great Hall at Cooper Union), Agent 355 (with Preston Max Allen, Signature Theatre Company, Chautauqua Theater Company), Wild Home (Notch Theatre Company, NEA “ArtWorks” Grant recipient ), and Nia (World Premiere: UNC Chapel Hill).

Sarah Elizabeth Wansley

Director

SARAH ELIZABETH WANSLEY directs and develops new plays and musicals, as well as highly theatrical adaptations of classic works. She is in her 4th season as the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at Northern Stage and previously was the Artistic Producer at Chautauqua Theater Company and the inaugural recipient of the Cleveland Play House Artistic Directing Fellowship for Women. Recent directing projects include Constellations, Sweat, Spring Awakening and Heisenberg at Northern Stage, Steel Magnolias at Weston Theater Company, The Amish Project at PlayMakers Repertory Company and Egress at Cleveland Play House. She has directed new work at New York Stage and Film, The Flea Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, White Heron Theatre, and Pipeline Theatre Company. Sarah is a New Georges Affiliated Artist, a 2018 Drama League Resident Artist, a 2015 Drama League Directing Fellow, and a member of the 2011 Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. Sarah received her MFA in Directing from UCSD; from 2016-2020 she was a faculty member at Fordham University.

Costume Designer

Alicia J. Austin

Music Director

Maggie Hollinbeck

Choreographer

Tuan Malinowski

Sound Designer

Germán Martínez

Scenic Designer

Frank J. Oliva

Lighting Designer

Mary Ellen Stebbins

Production Stage Manager

Anthony Feola

Production
Sponsors

The Vermont Farm Project is sponsored in part by King Arthur Baking Company, Mascoma Bank, Ledyard National Bank, R.C. Brayshaw & Company, LLC, The WaterWheel Foundation, and Vermont Public.

The Vermont Farm Project is made possible in part by generous support from Gary and Sandra Johnson.

Series
Sponsors


Opening Nights are sponsored in part by Morgan Stanley | The Dubie Group.

Access For All performances are sponsored by Bar Harbor Bank and Novo Nordisk.