Learning about the four productions that compose the University Musical Society’s No Safety Net theater festival (happening January 17-February 3) will likely make you feel both excited and nervous.

But then, that’s the whole idea.

“I was seeing a lot of work … that was asking lots of really difficult questions, and work that was not afraid of making audiences feel uncomfortable or ‘provoked,’ to use a more old fashioned word,” said UMS Programming Director Michael Kondziolka. “Out of that grew a suite of plays … that felt like they had a kinship to each other. We decided to take them and place them on the calendar as a festival, instead of as a number of presentations over the course of a season. The energy of each one could build on the others and itself, providing a very different kind of experience for our audience.” READ THE REST HERE