As the lights dimmed at Madison College’s Truax Campus, playwright Charly Sparks sat in the audience holding back tears.
Her first full-length play premiered and she had one fear she couldn’t quite shake: what if nobody laughs?
“I was afraid that people weren’t going to laugh,” Sparks said during a post-show talkback.
She calls the play a dark comedy and stresses that laughing is part of the point. Her script, “Midwestern Goodbyes,” explores themes of humor and goodbye, which are woven together in her work.
Sparks, a Madison College alum, began writing the play as part of the college’s Honors Program. What started as an academic project grew into a fully staged production. The premiere represented more than a milestone for the script: it marked a return to the place that first gave the project structure, deadlines and an audience willing to take her work seriously.

Writing through change

Sparks said she was invited into the program and asked to write a play. The plan was for something shorter.
“But the idea kind of exploded,” she said.
It also became a long process, beginning with table reads, a staged reading and a workshop production. She collected feedback from actors and theater professionals and offered feedback along the way, helping Sparks refine the story and characters.
That structure shaped not just the writing process, but also her ability to move the project forward. Sparks said the support and feedback she gained in that setting marked a turning point in developing her work, closing one chapter and preparing her for the next.
One of the people guiding that process was her mentor, Karen Saari, communication and performing arts instructor, who later directed the Madison College production.

During the talkback, Saari told the audience that new plays develop over time, often changing after multiple productions. She framed the conversation as part of that development, telling the room their questions and reactions could help inform what Sparks chooses to do with the script next.
For Sparks, the connection to the material is deeply personal.
“When I wrote this, I was going through a difficult time. I was dealing with a lot of changes in my life and a lot of loss,” she said. “I needed to process how to say goodbye and how those feelings can be different based on the different relationships I have with people.”
During the talkback, Sparks described another piece of that origin. She wrote the first version shortly after a divorce, thinking about the kind of goodbye that happens when someone’s family, including children you have watched grow up, suddenly disappears from your daily life.

A Wisconsin story on purpose

Even the title came from real life.
Sparks told the audience the phrase “Midwestern goodbyes” existed before the play did. When she told her boyfriend she wanted to write a show about a funeral in Wisconsin, he joked, “Oh, so a Midwestern goodbye.”
She immediately knew it was the title. The Wisconsin setting was intentional.
“I’m from Wisconsin. I was raised here,” Sparks said. Pulaski is her hometown.
Wisconsin’s tone and mannerisms reflect the play’s central theme: the tension and humor found during goodbyes, even in serious moments.

Choosing what not to explain

Sparks’s approach to the story also shows restraint, especially in what she chooses to share.
During the talkback, an audience member asked whether the script says how the main character died. Sparks said it does not.
“It does not say in the script how she died,” Sparks said, explaining that it’s not important to the plot.
Instead, the play focuses on the meaning and process of saying goodbye, and how stories change when the person at the center cannot share their own truth.

“Please laugh”

Before the premiere, Sparks said she wanted audiences to laugh, feel connected and leave reflecting on their own experiences with saying goodbye.
The talkback suggested the comedy landed, sometimes in the uneasy way grief comedy often does. One audience member said they felt guilty laughing because the setting is a funeral.
Spark reassured them.
“I consider it a dark comedy,” she said. “It’s encouraged to laugh. Please laugh.”

Where she is now, what comes next

Sparks has since transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where she is continuing her studies. She still sees Madison College as an important road in her journey.
“Madison College is my home,” she said. “This is my favorite place to be. I love their program they have here and I’m excited to continue to be a part of it even though I’m not a student anymore.”
In the end, Sparks’ premiere week reflected her journey through change, highlighting goodbyes and new beginnings. The play’s title suggests finality, but the ongoing process — like Sparks’ own path — mirrors the complex, often humorous nature of saying goodbye.