On Golden Pond comes to Summerstage of Delafield, and Acacia Theatre Company presents the inspirational play The Endurance of Light.
Theater
On Golden Pond
On Golden Pond is a 1979 play by Ernest Thompson focusing on an aging couple who spend each summer at their lake home where they are visited by their daughter and her fiancé, as well as the latter’s young son. Poignantly, On Golden Pond explores the turbulent relationship between father and daughter, as well as the difficulties faced by a couple in the twilight years of a long marriage.
Perhaps most famously, the play was adapted for the big screen by Thompson in 1981, starring Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn and Jane Fonda. It was an enormous success as was the original play, which ran for 126 performances on Broadway and won several prizess, including a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award. Summerstage of Delafield’s production will be directed by Kelly Goeller. (John Jahn)
July 18-Aug. 3 in Summerstage’s Lapham Peak unit, W329 N846 County Highway C, Delafield. For tickets, call 262-337-1560 or visit summerstageofdelafield.org.
The Endurance of Light
Erin Nicole Eggers directs a whimsical story about a woman searching for answers in Amanda Petefish-Schrag’s The Endurance of Light. The central character of the play is a scientist and professor who has suffered multiple miscarriages. Struggling with her lot in life, she refuses to leave her home, where she steadily digests books by Hildegard von Bingen, Albert Einstein and Ernest Shackleton. She begins to imagine conversations with all three, from whom she gains some sense of hope.
Bryant Mason, who plays Shackleton, explains that the play “tells of loss, grief, faith and love. It tells the struggle between science and faith to explain the unexplainable or to alleviate suffering. It is about letting go and moving on, and the human capacity to endure. It is smart and tender, humorous when it needs to be, powerful and direct when it needs to be, seductive and beautiful when it needs to be. I think the journey of the central protagonist is rendered with great humanity and soul—relatable, touching, moving and truthful to the human spirit in all its colors and range of emotions.” (John Jahn)
July 19-28 at Acacia Theatre Company, 12800 N. Lake Shore Drive, Mequon. For tickets, visit acaciatheatre.com.
Dance
Nō Studios’ Inaugural Dance Fest Kick-Off
The Dance Fest itself is completely sold out, but the prior evening’s kick-off on Friday, July 19, is free and open to the public. Enjoy live interviews with the six very different Milwaukee dance companies that will perform in the Fest: Danceworks Performance Company, Ton Ko-Thi Children’s Performing Ensemble, The Milwaukee Irish Dance Performance Company, Signature Dance Company, Water Street Dance Milwaukee and WoLF Studios—along with live music and a special appearance by the Fest’s special guests, the Ailey II Company of New York’s famed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. It’s also a chance to check out Nō Studios, the appealing multi-arts complex at 1037 W. McKinley Ave. (John Schneider)
The event begins at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, July 19. For more information, visit nostudios.com.
Dancemakers
Each summer, the nationally respected UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts Dance Program presents a concert of new works by its MFA students. These serious choreographers come from across the U.S. and sometimes further. Often, they’ve worked professionally but now want to further their studies. They’re encouraged to make the most of the opportunity this concert offers, to take chances, to show what they’re thinking and who they now are as artists. It makes for a good dance concert, and it’s also an exciting opportunity to catch a glimpse of what’s happening in the field in a broad sense.
There are eight choreographers this year. Daniel Burkholder—now a UWM faculty member and a tirelessly innovative independent Milwaukee choreographer—is the artistic director. I saw him first in a beautiful dance theatre piece he made for the Dancemakers concert when he was a grad student some summers back. This year’s concert features “an eclectic blend of choreography, including tap and body percussion, concert dance and postmodern experimentation—something for everyone,” Burkholder says. (John Schneider)
July 19-20 at UWM’s Mitchell Hall Studio 254, 3203 N. Downer. Visit uwm.edu/arts/events for more information.
More To Do
Jekyll & Hyde, The Musical
Jekyll & Hyde is an evocative tale of two men who are enveloped in the same body: one a passionate and romantic doctor; the other a terrifying madman. Dr. Henry Jekyll (Eric Bergendahl) is a devoted man of science, the epitome of goodness and driven to find a chemical breakthrough that can solve some of humanity’s most challenging medical dilemmas. Rebuffed by the powers that be, he decides to make himself the subject of his own experiments, accidentally unleashing his inner demons and the man the world would come to know as Mr. Hyde. Based on the classic story by Robert Louis Stevenson and featuring a score by Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse, this West Allis Players’ production of Jekyll & Hyde runs July 19-28 at the West Allis Central Auditorium, 8516 W. Lincoln Ave. For tickets, call 414-604-4900 or visit westallisplayers.org.
Mamma Mia!
On the eve of her wedding, Sophie reveals that she has secretly invited three men from her mother’s past to her wedding on the Greek island they all visited 20 years ago in a quest to discover the true identity of her father. Sophie’s mother’s friends and former bandmates from her old girl group, “Donna and the Dynamos,” also arrive on the island to celebrate and reminisce. Big personalities and surprises paired with the energy of the beloved music of Swedish supergroup ABBA make for an unforgettable trip down the aisle. Greendale Community Theatre presents the ultimate feel-good musical, Mamma Mia!, July 18-21 and 25-27 in Greendale High School’s Reiman Family Arts Wing, 6801 Southway. For tickets, visit greendaletheater.org.
