It’s true: Everyone has a mom. Whether you grew up with your birth mom or a surrogate mother/father figure, we all have narratives to share about our interactions with our parents. On the flip side, mom and dad have parallel recollections and their own stories about the experience of rearing you. Parenthood is a wonderful, uniquely challenging journey for all parties involved, and Next Act Theatre gives thanks to moms specifically with its Milwaukee premiere of Motherhood Out Loud.
“The show is an exploration of motherhood from a lot of different perspectives. The funny, frustrating, exasperating, heartbreaking, uplifting stories from giving birth to sending grownup kids off into the world,” says Director Laura Gordon. “This play will certainly speak to the mothers in the audience, but it will also speak to everyone else. We may not be mothers ourselves, but we are all daughters or sons; we’re fathers, sisters, aunts, uncles, stepmothers, godmothers. Every audience member will have a way into this material.”
Motherhood Out Loud is a compilation of 20 vignettes written by 14 different playwrights. “It’s precisely the fact that these stories come from 14 different playwrights that I find so powerful,” says Gordon. All three women in the cast—local powerhouse actresses Deborah Staples, Tami Workentin and Michelle Lopez-Rios—are mothers. As Gordon says, “Their personal experience is everything; it’s been incredibly helpful to have them share their own unique stories and opinions on being a mom.” Jason Fassl has designed the set and lighting in a way that helps define the location or the emotional landscape of the individual pieces.
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“If you can, call your mom,” concludes Gordon.
Motherhood Out Loud runs April 7-May 7 at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. For tickets, call 414-278-0765 or visit nextact.org.
Theater Happenings
The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts has two upcoming shows: Once, a new musical based on the 2007 Academy Award-winning film about an Irish musician and a Czech immigrant drawn together by their shared love of music, running April 5-10; and Flipside: The Patti Page Story, running April 8-10, a musical celebration of Patti Page featuring 28 of her greatest hits, including “Tennessee Waltz,” “(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window,” and “Mockingbird Hill.” For tickets and more information, call 414-273-7206 or visit marcuscenter.org.
UW-Milwaukee’s Theatre Department presents Orphan Train, a new piece that follows the real stories of 14 individuals who rode on the Orphan Train’s journey west. See it at UWM’s Kenilworth Studio 508 (1925 E. Kenilworth Place), April 6-10. For tickets, call 414-229-4308 or visit www4.uwm.edu.
The musical comedy Cinderella’s Fella, by Mark Cage and The ACAP Players, comes to Waukesha Civic Theatre, April 7-10. For tickets to see the tale of Cinderella and her prince in their search for true love, call 262-547-0708 or visit waukeshacivictheatre.org.
Alverno Presents welcomes the return of The Hinterlands and the fruits of their two-year-long investigation exploring radical art, politics and extremist beliefs in American culture: The Radicalization Process. For tickets to the show at the Pitman Theatre (3431 S. 39th St.) on April 8-9, call 414-382-6044 or visit alvernopresents.alverno.edu.
First Stage Young Company presents Jean Anouilh’s 20th-century adaptation of the Greek play Antigone April 8-17 at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. For tickets, call 414-267-2961 or visit firststage.org/antigone.
Claudio Parrone Jr. and David Sapiro star in Alchemist Theatre’s upcoming comedy The Dumb Waiter, a show about two men in a basement who receive orders from a dumbwaiter. The show runs April 7-23 at 2569 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. For tickets, visit thealchemisttheatre.com.
