Next Act Theatre has opened its 2026-27 season with the Wisconsin premiere of TRAYF, a play following two Orthodox Jewish teenage best friends in 1990s New York City who drive a Mitzvah Tank van through the city streets until one of them gets pulled toward the secular world of rock and roll. The production runs through October 4 at the company's home in Milwaukee's Walker's Point district, and it opens with a story that's as much about friendship under strain as it is about faith.
The show, written by playwright Lindsay Joelle, was inspired by her own life after she moved to New York City in 2001 and befriended a former Chabad-Lubavitch Hasid who had left the community in his twenties, according to a Next Act Theatre newsletter. Joelle reportedly did hands-on research for the script, interviewing rabbis in Crown Heights, visiting tefillin shops, and even boarding an actual Mitzvah Tank to understand the outreach vehicle at the center of her story. That real-world grounding matters, since the Mitzvah Tank isn't just a stage prop — the movement introduced the vehicles in 1974 as standard vans, later replacing them with mobile homes, as part of its mission to bring mitzvot to Jews, per Chabad.org.
Cast members A.J. Magoon and Lucas Prizant joined director Elyse Edelman on CBS 58 on Wednesday, Sept. 23, to talk about bringing the show to Milwaukee audiences, according to CBS58. The production includes cast members Magoon and Prizant.
A Director With Deep Milwaukee Roots
The Production's Director Edelman directs the production.
That attention to cultural specificity extends to the play's title itself. The Yiddish word trayf refers to what is not kosher, and it functions as a central theme as the characters navigate non-kosher contraband, forbidden secular interests, and the emotional friction between traditional faith and personal desire, as the St. Louis Jewish Light has explained.
From D.C. Premiere to the Geffen to Milwaukee
TRAYF isn't a brand-new script. It received its world premiere in 2018 at Theater J in Washington, D.C., before undergoing revisions ahead of its 2022 West Coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, according to BroadwayWorld. After a staged reading in Milwaukee in December 2025, the play now receives its full staging at 255 S. Water St.
Next Act Theatre's 2026-27 season opens with TRAYF.
Accessibility Options for Every Performance
For this production specifically, offerings include closed captioning, open captioning, ASL interpretation, audio description, and touch tours at select performances.
Tickets for TRAYF, which runs through October 4, are available through the Next Act Ticket Office at (414) 278-0765, in person at 255 S. Water St. in Milwaukee, or online through Next Act.
