According to a recent U.N. report robots will soon replace 2/3 of all the jobs on the third world. The share of jobs that are going to be lost in the coming years to our plastic pals will be heavier in developing countries and parts of our own country that very much feel like the third world. There’s hope for employment, though. Elon Musk recently suggested human/robot mergers. So we’re all going to have to start to get intimate with our synthetic brothers. It’s all well and good to look into the screen of your phone for some kind of connection, but that’s not terribly social is it? How about encountering a robot in a theatrical setting to help lift some of the tension? The first weekend in June finds a couple of opportunities to cuddle-up to robots on local stages.
Robots and burlesque go together like...robots and burlesque. And really, what could possibly be more sexy than a Dalek? The first weekend of June finds Dainty Rogues asking that very question as the locally-based group presents an all-original Dr. Who fan fiction for the stage. Dr. Who Or: How I Learned to Stop Time and Love the Dalek is a 13-chapter burlesque sci-fi story that runs a little shorter than an old Dalek serial from the original series. (90 minutes with intermission.) Life-sized replicas of the murderous, little trashcans can be found amidst a group of 20 burlesque dancers courtesy of Dalek Asylum Milwaukee. I understand there will be an opportunity to snuggle-up to one for a picture in the lobby.
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Dr. Who Or: How I Learned to Stop Time and Love the Dalek runs Jun. 2-4 at the Next Act Theatre on 255 S. Water St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Next Act online.
Perhaps you’re not quite ready for actually embracing a robot (or even exactly seeing one onstage) just yet. There’s nothing that serves to ease one into a relationship quite like comedy. Musical improv comedy returns to Milwaukee in June with Big Hot Robot. It might not be big. It might not be hot. It might not even be a robot, but if you can learn to associate the name with live humor by your fellow fleshlings, then maybe that’ll help bring you that much closer to being able to accept the equality that we’re all going to have to embrace with synthetics if Elon Musk is right about the whole “cyborg or die” thing. Robby McGhee, veteran of TIM: The Improvised Musical is joined by musical director Alison Bekolay and fellow improvers Sam Burns, Jo Montana, and Olivia Shircel. They’ll improvise a whole musical based on audience suggestions. It may not have anything to do with robots exactly, but it might be a fun date for you and your Roomba as you try to get better acquainted. It’s going to be awkward learning how to relate to these things in the future. Local theater is here to help.
Big Hot Robot takes the stage of the Urban Harvest Brewing Company on 1024 S. 5th St. on Jun. 3. For more information, visit Brown Paper Tickets online.
