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Four Seasons Theatre and Middleton Players Theatre presented Ragtime: The Musical August 11-20, 2005 at the Middleton Performing Arts Center. 

Ragtime tells the story of three families with different cultural backgrounds whose lives become intertwined at the turn of the century. Combining historical figures like J. P. Morgan, Harry Houdini, and Booker T. Washington with fictional characters, Ragtime explores life in the early 20th Century. Ford and Morgan embody the riches of the Industrial Age while Jewish immigrants seeking the promise of the American Dream encounter discrimination. Emma Goldman leads a labor strike of blue collar workers while an African American woman works as maid in an upper class household. Much like today, the early 20th century was a time when America became increasingly more diverse in terms of race, class and ideology.

Producing Ragtime provided an avenue for civic dialogue and discussion of history, the human experience, and its relevance today. The performance of this work provided an opportunity to bring together scholars from many areas including Afro-American Studies, History, and Music as facilitators for this discussion. All lectures were free and open to the public and were co-sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for the Humanities. 

On August 9 Professor Sandra Adell, UW-Madison Department of Afro-American Studies, opened the lecture series with an historical overview of the turn of the century focusing on cultural and social issues which resulted from the Restoration, the Industrial Age, and waves of immigration.

On August 15 Professor Diane Lindstrom, UW-Madison History Department, focused on the Industrial Age, drawing parallels with the technology boom in the 1990s, and discussing the beginnings of the labor movement and fight for workers' rights.

On August 17 Professor Michael Leckrone, UW-Madison School of Music and Marching Band Director, focused on ragtime music and how it developed and changed as it was adopted by different groups.

This project was supported by the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission with additional funds from The Overture Foundation and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation. The Ragtime Orchestra was supported by a generous gift given in honor of Captain Paul O. Eckhardt Jr.