Photo credit: Social Candy
Performing Arts Weekly highlights theater, dance and classical music performances taking place throughout Southeastern Wisconsin. This week, we preview King Lear (Optimist Theatre) and Ballet Beat (Milwaukee Ballet).
King Lear
“The script may be 400 years old, but the tale is timeless,” explains Lisa Gaye Dixon, director of Optimist Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park production of King Lear. In the story—which William Shakespeare fleshed out from tales of a legendary pre-Roman Celtic king of Britain—the title character gradually descends into madness after he has bequeathed his kingdom to his conniving and manipulative trio of daughters.
Lear’s plot “illustrates the human condition… [It’s] about love, tenderness, arrogance, foolhardiness, stubbornness and, finally, redemption,” Dixon says. Its “themes make us think about the loyalty of the few we sometimes overlook—family and friends—while seeking something else that’s ever out of reach.” She explains that her direction of King Lear “always looks for the relatable moments of lightness, from wry irony to downright slapstick,” in addition to nailing the work’s more serious themes. James Pickering, a legend of the Milwaukee theater stage and a founding company member of Milwaukee’s Shakespeare in the Park in 2010, appears in the title role. The sizeable cast also includes such local notables as J.T. Backes, Molly Corkins, David Sapiro and Jonathan Wainwright. (John Jahn)
July 5-21 at the Marcus Center’s Peck Pavilion, located on the corner of Kilbourn Avenue and Water Street on the Downtown Riverwalk. Admission is free. For a complete schedule, visit marcuscenter.org/show/optimist-theatre-king-lear.
Ballet Beat
Filling the month of July, Milwaukee Ballet presents Ballet Beat, an all-community program of surprise pop-up performances, family events, dance and fitness classes, and rehearsal viewings leading to a free grand finale performance at the Marcus Center’s Peck Pavilion at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 26. That performance will include classical and contemporary works and feature world premieres by company choreographers Garrett Glassman, Timothy O’Donnell and Petr Zahradnícek. The dancers are Randy Crespo, Marie Harrison-Collins, Joe Cook, Elizabeth Harrison, Itzel Hernandez and Luis Mondragon from the main company, along with Isaac Allen and Eliza Schwartz from the company’s professional training program, MBII.
“It’s running around town doing a million things,” says Alyson Chavez, Milwaukee Ballet’s community outreach director. “We get to be part of the fun of Milwaukee in summer, to show that we’re accessible and you can see us outside in your shorts. It’s technically hard dancing but also fun for the dancers. It highlights dancers that don’t always get the spotlight. It gives them opportunities to do things you won’t see on the main stage.”
There are child friendly “Ballet Storytime” sessions at public libraries and Discovery World, improvisation classes and movement games among the Marcus Center’s Kidz Days festivities, barre workouts using Milwaukee River railings, Pilates classes in the lobby of the 411 Building on Wisconsin Avenue and ballet classes at Bastille Days. There are pop-up performances at unexpected sites and a week of open rehearsals for the finale on the Peck stage. Visit milwaukeeballet.org for descriptions, locations and schedule. (John Schneider)
MORE TO DO
The Dutch Lover
This romantic comedy—full of crossdressing, mistaken identities, gender confusion, courageous sword-wielding women and cowardly, tearful men—stems from renowned Restoration playwright Aphra Behn, one of the first successful female authors of the British stage. The Dutch Lover—Behn’s third play—was likely first performed in 1673 (details are a bit shrouded in the mist of time). The source material was Don Fenise, a Spanish romance by Francisco De las-Coveras. Unlike her first two plays, The Dutch Lover is sans prologue. Instead, Behn included a prefatory epistle worth sharing here: “Good, sweet, honey and sugar-candied reader...” Monday, July 9, in the Charles Allis Art Museum’s Sarah Salon, 1801 N. Prospect Ave. Admission is free with a $10 suggested donation.
In Holes and Corners
UW-Milwaukee Dance Department alumnae Chelsey Becher and Kelsey Lee premiere an intimate—and I do mean intimate—performance art work that investigates ownership of the female sex organs through a series of biographical and autobiographical solos and duets. Perhaps somewhat a superfluidity to mention, In Holes and Corners contains mature themes and adult nudity. Friday, July 6, 7:30 p.m. at Company Brewing, 735 E. Center St. Admission is pay-what-you-can, with proceeds donated to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.
