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THEATRE PREVIEWS
Our Town
The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s closing play of their season in the Quadracci Powerhouse “brings together some of Wisconsin’s greatest theater talent on one stage to create an Our Town for our town,” according to the Rep’s Frances White. The 1938 play by Madison, Wis.-born Thornton Wilder won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Set in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners between 1901 and 1913, it follows the lives of ordinary, small-town people and their everyday lives, principally focusing on two families—the Gibbses and the Webbs—as well as their friends and neighbors.
The Rep has assembled a fine cast of seasoned local talent and relative newcomers to the local stage for this production. The cast includes Cher Desiree Alvarez, James Craven, Di’Monte Henning, Carrie Hitchcock, Jamie Rezanour, Jonathan Smoots, Jonathan Wainwright, James Pickering and others. They’re joined by a host of the Rep’s 2017-’18 Emerging Professional Residents and child actors in various supporting roles. “With humor, wit and exceptionally powerful storytelling,” White says, “Wilder delivers universal truths about what it means to be human and encourages us to live life to its fullest.” (John Jahn)
April 10-May 13 in the Quadracci Powerhouse, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets, call 414-224-9490 or visit milwaukeerep.com.
I and You
“This brilliant theatrical gem focuses upon two young people yearning for connection,” says Next Act Theatre’s David Cecsarini about the upcoming production of Lauren Gunderson’s I and You (for which Cecsarini serves as director and sound designer). “Gunderson hits home with clarifying insight into the lives of teens.” Atlanta-born Lauren Gunderson is the most-produced living playwright in the U.S. today. Her output thus far totals some 20 works; I and You debuted in 2014, winning that year’s Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award.
The play centers on two teens, Anthony (to be played by Ibraheem Farmer in his Next Act debut) and Caroline (Cristina Panfilio, who was last seen in Next Act’s The Other Place). Together, the teens work on a humdrum poetry project at the latter’s home, but there turns out to be much more than just schoolmates collaborating on a homework assignment here. “The final minutes will make your heart sing and break all at once,” says Cecsarini. (John Jahn)
April 5-29 at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. For tickets, call 414-278-0765 or visit nextact.org.
THEATRE MORE-TO-DO
The House of Bernarda Alba
“So few plays of Spanish or Hispanic origin find their way to our Milwaukee stages,” says Inspiration Studios founder Erico Ortiz. “Which was one of my challenges in terms of getting permission from Village Playhouse to produce this great play, but it has been well worth it.” Ortiz speaks here of Federico Garcia-Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, which Ortiz has translated into English for this showing. The all-female cast includes Sandra Hollander, Mary Lynn Ferwerda, Anne Gorski, Donna McMaster and Bividiana Murguia. April 6-22 at Inspiration Studios, 1500 S. 73rd St., West Allis. For tickets, call 414-207-4879 or visit vpbernardaalba.brownpapertickets.com.
The Boxcar Children
“Orphaned and in danger of going to different foster homes, Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny Alden run away and make an abandoned railroad boxcar their home,” says Racine Theatre Guild’s Joycelyn Fish about the main characters in the company’s upcoming production of Barbara Field’s stage adaptation of The Boxcar Children, a book by Gertrude Chandler Warner. “Their strength, ingenuity and bravery are challenged, but their resolve to stay together as a family defies all odds.” April 6-15 at Racine Theatre Guild, 2519 Northwestern Ave., Racine. For tickets, call 262-633-4218 or visit racinetheatre.org.
Bakersfield Mist
Maude, an unemployed bartender living in a trailer park, buys a painting from a local thrift store as a gag gift; to her, the worthless piece of “art,” however, is actually a lost work by the famous abstract expressionist American painter Jackson Pollock. Inspired by true events, this comedic drama boasts edgy dialogue and biting humor. Bakersfield Mist (2012) is the most recent work by American stage director and playwright Stephen Sachs (b. 1959). April 6-21 at Over Our Head Players’ Sixth Street Theatre, 318 Sixth St., Racine. For tickets, call 262-632-6802 or visit overourheadplayers.org.
The Illusionists
“This show is one of the most engaging, entertaining and exciting programs I’ve seen,” says the Wisconsin Center District’s president and CEO, Marty Brooks about The Illusionists-Live from Broadway. “What better way to wrap up your weekend than to make an escape from everyday realities in our gorgeous Downtown venue!” Brooks speaks of the upcoming show featuring five famous men who commix comedy, thought reading, magic and stunt performance in their show. Sunday, April 8, at the Miller High Life Theatre, 500 W. Kilbourn Ave. For tickets, visit millerhighlifetheatre.com.
CLASSICAL MUSIC PREVIEW
The Association of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestras’ 2018 Workshop
Though the Association of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestras (AWSO) is based in the tiny village of Ephraim in Door County, for classical-orchestral music lovers in Southeastern Wisconsin, the trip to the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee for their one-day workshop will be much shorter. This workshop is open to anyone associated with a non-profit arts organization in Wisconsin, whether or not they are members of the AWSO, itself.
The AWSO, which serves as a resource for the growth and appreciation of orchestral music throughout the state of Wisconsin, promotes and facilitates the exchange of ideas among the various state orchestras and their affiliate organizations by holding periodic educational conferences and by providing a structured network. The workshop will feature presentations on tax law changes affecting charitable contributions (with the goal of helping donors to maximize tax deductions), using social media to maximum advantage and so-called “legacy giving.”
As always, a workshop highlight will be the presentation of the AWSO’s “Service to Music Award.” In order to be eligible to win this award, organizations must have made a sustained regional or state-wide positive impact on community music organizations over a period of years, as well as in multiple areas such as education and community outreach. The 2018 award will be given to Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR). (John Jahn)
Friday, Apr. 27, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, 1584 N. Prospect Ave. For more information and to register to attend the workshop, visit wisconsinorchestras.org.
Die Already!
Opera is an art form replete with scenes of murder, suicide, vengeance and generally malignant human behavior. These exist alongside those of ardent love and uproarious humor. Perhaps no country produced more dramatic (and melodramatic!) operatic scenes depicting the extremes of human emotion than Italy. In the upcoming performance featuring some of opera’s greatest, goriest hits, Die Already!, staged and directed by UW-Milwaukee faculty and Milwaukee Opera Theatre artists, audiences will experience some of Italian opera’s most gripping moments of last gasps and final moments of life.
In what other form of art, after all, do you see that when someone has been mortally wounded, instead of simply dying, they sing? Die Already! is evocatively subtitled Scenes of Death and Vengeance from 1607-1918. The operatic oeuvre’s offerings of offings here are variously defined as “heartfelt,” “moving,” “intense” and “passionate,” but also “ridiculous,” “extravagant” and “theatrical.” “La commedia è finita!” indeed. (John Jahn)
April 6 and 7 in the UWM Peck School of the Arts Recital Hall, Room 175, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd. For tickets, call 414-229-4308 or visit uwm.edu/arts/box-office.
CLASSICAL MUSIC MORE-TO-DO
Beethoven: Five Piano Concertos, One Pianist
The title of this concert pretty much says it all, but we should point out that the “one pianist”—Carthage College faculty member Wael Farouk—won’t be performing every note of Ludwig van Beethoven’s five piano concertos! This is part of the Chamber Music Series and is the first of three where Farouk and the New Philharmonic Orchestra (based in DuPage, Ill., and conducted by Kirk Muspratt) will exhibit the evolution of Beethoven’s piano concertos. Beethoven composed his first such work in 1797 and his final such work, the Emperor, 13 years thereafter. Friday, April 6, in A.F. Siebert Chapel, 2001 Alford Park Drive, Kenosha. For tickets, call 262-551-6661 or visit carthage.edu/tickets.
Inspirational Women-Inspirational Music
The Wisconsin Philharmonic presents a concert featuring a work by a female composer and a performance by a female pianist. The composer is Delaware-born Elizabeth Brown (Libby) Larsen. The orchestra will be playing her Symphony No. 1, Water Music, from 1985; Maestra Larsen will be in attendance at this concert, as well. The pianist is Lucille Chung, who will perform music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, György Ligeti, Alexander Scriabin and Astor Piazzolla (the latter a piano duo with Chung’s husband, Alessio Bax). A special women’s networking event precedes the concert. Tuesday, April 10, at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, 19805 W. Capitol Drive, Brookfield. For tickets, call 262-547-1858 or visit wisphil.org/event-tickets.
