Little Women @ SummerStage in Delafield June 8-24 as part of Wisconsin Road Trip Theater
Locally, Shakespeare’s at center stage: Off the Wall bloodies the stage floor with Titus Andronicus and Boozy Bard becomes embroiled in a Comedy of Errors. Meanwhile, several out-of-town plays and musical take place in Fish Creek, Spring Green and Delafield.
THEATRE:
American Players Theatre Opens an Ambitious Season
Nestled amid the meadowlands and forests of southwestern Wisconsin near Frank Lloyd Wright’s sprawling studio-home, Taliesin, is a 1,088-seat outdoor amphitheater and a 201-seat indoor theater. This scenic, hilly, 110-acre location is where the American Players Theatre does its work. It all kicks off this month: An ambitious nine-play season that runs through October.
Opening June 10 is William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by John Langs. This play, quite aptly, is the first to appear on APT’s newly renovated Hill Theatre; it’s the same play that opened their very first season in 1980. Directed by David Frank, Georges Feydeau’s farcical A Flea in Her Ear opens June 16. The Unexpected Man by Yasmina Reza, a play that shows her innate sense of human behavior, opens June 17. Directed by James Devita, Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac opens June 23. Finally, June 27 is the first show of The Maids by Jean Genet—intriguingly described by APT as “mesmerizing and provocative; even terrifying at times.”
American Players Theatre is located at 5950 Golf Course Road in Spring Green. For tickets to any of their productions, visit tickets.americanplayers.org or call 608-588-2361.
Titus Andronicus
Many tend to put William Shakespeare on such a lofty, polished pedestal that they can’t possibly imagine him bowing to popular tastes. But that is what he did with Titus Andronicus, by all accounts his most violent work. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though! In fact, it’s rather titillating to read how Off the Wall Theatre describes some of the characters in this play: the “ravaged and mutilated daughter,” “a sensual, sexual man-monster,” “two sadistic, morally twisted sons.” You get the idea. Dale Gutzman directs and stars as the eponymous Roman army general.
June 14-25, Off the Wall Theatre, 127 E. Wells St. For tickets, call 414-484-8874 or visit zivacat.com/offthewalltheatre.
Wisconsin Road-Trip Theater
If you don’t mind traveling a bit for your theatrical experience, three venues easily within day-trip range offer some exciting and interesting shows this month. SummerStage in Delafield (W329 N846 County Highway C) presents a dramatized adaptation of Louisa Alcott’s classic novel, Little Women June 8-24. In Door County, Fish Creek boasts two companies with new productions. The Peninsula Players (4351 Peninsula Players Road) present The Actuary June 13-July 2—a world premiere comedy-drama by Steven Peterson. And Northern Sky Theater (10169 Shore Road) presents four light-hearted shows that all open this month: Oklahoma in Wisconsin (June 14-Aug. 25); Doctor! Doctor! (June 19-Aug. 24); Victory Farm (June 20-Aug. 26); and Lumberjacks in Love (June 15-Aug. 24).
For SummerStage tickets, call 262-337-1560 or visit summerstageofdelafield.org. For Peninsula Players tickets, visit tickets.peninsulaplayers.com. For Northern Sky tickets, call 920-854-6117 or visit northernskytheater.com/tickets.
Comedy of Errors
“Doing Shakespeare the way it was meant to be done: drunken and vastly unprepared.” That’s how Boozy Bard Productions describes their vision (perhaps a blurry one) of performing plays of William Shakespeare. This month, they take on The Bard’s Comedy of Errors, which is perfectly suited to Boozy’s idiosyncratic vision. It’s both his tersest as well as most farcical work, replete with such sit-com fare as mistaken identity, slapstick humor, puns and wordplay.
June 12-14, Boozy Bard Productions, Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery, 901 W. Juneau Ave. For tickets and more information, visit facebook.com/boozybard and click the “Shakespeare Raw: Comedy of Errors” link.
