The first couple weeks of this month are a bit dry for theatre openings. I’m looking forward to the Boulevard’s new show tonight. Last night's opening for It’s Your Mother was sold-out, which sounds quite promising. And then tomorrow night there’s the new Next Act show with Robert Spencer that I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time. Next week Soulstice opens Steel Magnolias. The following week: five or six shows open locally. One of the bigger family shows opening that week is a big, fluffy Broadway musical. Though the stage is a little further away, Racine Theatre Guild’s production of Holes is quite a bit closer to home.
The production stars John Christensen as Stanley Yeltnats—a thoroughly unlucky kid who has been wrongly convicted of stealing a pair of shoes and even more wrongly sentenced to 18 months at the dreaded Camp Green Lake. The juvenile detention facility he finds himself in is watched over by a warden (played by Kathie Howski) who has inmates dig holes in the remote landscape in the interest of building character. Clearly, there is more going on here below the surface and whatever it is likely a lot more deep than the lighter family fare that is breezing through downtown that week.
The Racine Theatre Guild’s production of Holes runs April 16 -25. For reservations, call 262-633-4218 or order online.
