Photo credit: Peter Wochniak
Dael Orlandersmith in Until the Flood
This week’s theatrical openings in the greater Milwaukee area are highlighted by Dael Orlandersmith’s one-woman show, Until the Flood, and Off the Wall Theatre’s modern interpretation of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.
Until the Flood
Renowned writer and actor Dael Orlandersmith was born in a public housing unit in New York City’s East Harlem in 1959. Her docudrama Until the Flood is her 13th stage work, and in it, she created a remarkable depiction of the people of St. Louis—with particular emphasis on their reactions to and reflections upon the significant degree of social unrest that hit the city in the immediate wake of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
Until the Flood, which was commissioned by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, premiered there in late 2016. Orlandersmith’s penetrating and moving play began with hundreds of interviews with community members from all walks of life. She then boiled them down to eight characters and, from them, created this powerful, one-woman show. Orlandersmith, herself, is that woman in this Milwaukee Repertory Theater production.
March 13-April 22 in the Stiemke Studio, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets, call 414-224-9490 or visit milwaukeerep.com.
The Star-Spangled Girl
This comedic play, penned by the great American playwright Neil Simon, is set in San Francisco in the mid-’60s. It began its initial run on Broadway in December 1966 and ran there through August the following year—a total of 261 performances. It boasts Simon’s lively comic style (as can be enjoyed in Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple), but, because it was viewed by critics as not quite up to the stratospheric level of those plays, it never quite became one of his enduring “greatest hits.” That said, it remains a light-hearted love triangle with politics thrown in for good measure.
As Simon himself once put it, The Star-Spangled Girl was inspired by a “spirited political conversation [I] overheard between author Paddy Chayefsky and the wife of an astronaut.” The triangular love story involves two radical liberals trying to make a living through their magazine, Fallout, and an all-American Southern belle who moves in next door. Its story of love and political gaps between people as wide as the Grand Canyon certainly has relevance for modern audiences. This is a production by the Christian-based Company of Strangers Theater.
March 9-17 in the Underground Collaborative, 161 W. Wisconsin Ave. For tickets, visit thecompanyofstrangerstheater.com/shows.
The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus
Christopher Marlowe’s Elizabethan tragedy (more commonly and easily remembered as Dr. Faustus or simply Faust) is legendary for having spawned numerous other theatrical, operatic and symphonic works over the hundreds of years since it was written. Its plot, based on German legends about the title character and his dealings with the devil, has proven to be irresistible. It’s so full of colorful characters and scenes that Faustus can be molded into anything from light-hearted farce to somber tragedy.
For Off the Wall Theatre’s upcoming production, as director Dale Gutzman explains, he “has adapted this timeless classic for a modern audience” and “set the play in Germany in the 1920s and ’30s”—a time and place Gutzman explains reflect our own modern milieu. “Here is a true masterpiece of theater,” he says, “reimagined in an exciting and potent way.”
March 8-18 at Off the Wall Theatre, 127 E. Wells St. For tickets, call 414-484-8874 or visit zivacat.com/offthewalltheatre.
THEATER: MORE-TO-DO
Henry V
Boasting such memorable William Shakespeare lines as “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers” and “Once more unto the breach!” Henry V is one of The Bard’s enduring successes—an epic journey of heroism, humor, bravado and romance. “Our production will focus on the transformative powers of the actors and their use of language,” announces director Matt Daniels of this upcoming First Stage Young Company production. March 9-24 at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. For tickets, call 414-267-2961 or visit firststage.org.
Clue: The Musical
Waukesha Civic Theatre’s Ken Williams directs a stage musical adaptation of a boardgame (remember those?) so many of us grew up loving to play with family and friends. What results is, of course, a fine whodunit with familiar characters such as Mrs. Peacock and Col. Mustard, legendary weapons like the lead pipe and revolver and familiar venues like the conservatory and the billiard room. Justice for Mr. Boddy! March 9-25 at the Margaret Brate Bryant Civic Theatre Building, 264 Main St., Waukesha. For tickets, call 262-547-0708 or visit waukeshacivictheatre.org.
