The summer begins to draw to a close this weekend as a number of smaller shows close. This weekend hosts a last chance to see a number of shows before they disappear:
SPINNING INTO BUTTER
Pink Banana Theatre’s staging of the compelling Rebecca Gillman social drama closes this Saturday (the 26th) at the 10th Street Theatre. This is one of several that I feel awful about missing this year. Since the beginning of last August, I have seen some 103 shows. Once per season there’s a show that I can’t avoid missing and end up really regretting my absence from. This year, SPINNING INTO BUTTER is that show.
Pink Banana is doing a two for one ticket thing for the last remaining performances. That’s a $15 date. With parking and drinks, this is really affordable. Think about it.
WAIT UNTIL DARK
Spiral closes its production of the Frederick Knott thriller this Saturday (the 26th.) Thought I’d have to miss this one, but it looks like I’ll be able to make it after all. The choice between this and the Pink Banana show was tough, but I’ve had difficulty making it a number of Spiral shows this season, so I’ve decided on this one. Spiral’s next show doesn’t open until September. Something of a roving company, Spiral Theatre has performed in the basement of the Brumder Mansion, in its own space on National Avenue and at Bucketworks … all in the same year. Spiral’s September show will be staged at yet another venue and it sounds interesting. A few may remember Brian Vaughn starring in a Milwaukee Rep production of the John Patrick Shanley drama Doubt this past season. The drama focuses on a Catholic schoolteacher who is accused of “interfering” with the school’s first black student. The Spiral production will be staged at the Plymouth Church on the East Side near UWMa truly interesting setting given the nature of the play.
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THE DESERT QUEEN
Not really a “closing” as such, as the APT’s premiere of the DeVita drama only had two performances, but it’s worth checking out if you don’t mind the drive to Spring Green. The preview piece I did goes into more detail about it, but I bring it up here because it has been brought to my attention that I’d stated playwright James DeVita was a founding member of APT. Though he’s been deeply involved with the group for years, DeVita did NOT help found the group. My apologies for my error.
FROGS
Dale Gutzman’s Off The Wall Theatre wraps up its production of the Stephen Sondheim musical this weekend. David Flores and Karl Miller lead the usual suspects at Off The Wall for a rather strange tale which brings an old story by ancient Greek Aristophanes into the realm of the contemporary American musical. Weird.
PAINT THE TOWN
Insurgent closes the Tracy Doyle-directed Rex Winsome piece Sunday the 27th at the Alchemist Theatre, after which the show begins its tour east. The first tour date listed on Insurgent’s website is “Milwaukee” on August 15th . . . then “Somewhere in Indiana” the very next day. After that, Winsome and company don’t return to Milwaukee until the end of the month.
SYSTEMS
Insurgent also closes the Peter Woods piece on the 27th, after which it goes on to the Minnesota Fringe Festival, where it will run August 4 – 9. It will be performed at the University of Minnesota’s Rarig Centera not altgether un-squarish looking building designed by an architect named Ralph Rapson who seemed to be quite fond of cubes. The guy was off-kilter enough to design a cubical vacation home for himself almost entirely out of glass in Amery, Wisconsin. The Rarig Center is a reasonably more conservative architectural affair that looks rather like something you might find on the campus of UWM. It is here that Tracy Doyle and Cynthia Kmak will don the strange glasses and dresses five more times over the course of the week to breathe life into Woods’ deconstruction.
As for the two companion pieces to Woods’ Systemsthey will close with the Alchemist run of the show on July 27th.
John Manno’s This is Entitled: This Is Entitled is a bit of a strange one that nonetheless has some very lucid moments. It’s probably one of the few comedies to be staged in a long time featuring open references to quantum mechanics. Clever stuff. As I recall, Eric Westphal wasn’t listed in the program because of where he starts out at the beginning of the play. I have it on pretty good authority that the gentleman in question WAS Mr. Westphal and not a prop.
And then there’s my piece . . . which ended up being way too much fun for me considering I wrote the thing. Please Wait Ten Minutes was a great deal of fun to write, and judging from the performance I saw, I great deal of fun to perform in and see performed. Kirk Thompson and Peterson Kuyk-White did a brilliant job of performing a script I didn’t think would actually work off the page. It’s one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had seeing my own stuff staged.
