‘King Lear’ Opens UWM’s Mainstage Season

UW-Milwaukee Theatre opens its Mainstage Theatre season with The Tragedy of King Lear. The production, in collaboration with Shakespeare & Company, features an interesting mix of professional and student talent.

UWM faculty member Rebecca Holderness will direct the production, which is set in 1906 in Russia. The turmoil of that time fits the chaos in the heart of Lear, so this should be fun.

Dennis Krausnick, co-founder of the Massachusetts-based Shakespeare & Company, stars as Lear, a role he has inhabited before. The cast includes some great talent from UWM faculty as well. Jim Tasse plays Kent, and Bill Watson portrays Gloucester. These two men helped to make In Tandem Theatre's production of The Chosen one of last season’s best dramas.

Given the mix of professional talent and up-and-coming students in one of the state’s best theater programs, this production should be of interest to Milwaukee audiences.

UWM Theatre and Shakespeare & Company's production of The Tragedy of King Lear runs Nov. 14-18 at the Peck School of the Arts’ Mainstage Theatre, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd. For ticket reservations, call 414-229-4308.

Theater Happenings

• Racine Theatre Guild continues its season with Phil Olson's A Nice Family Gathering. The Thanksgiving-based family comedy runs Oct. 26-Nov. 11. For ticket reservations, call 262-633-4218.

• Pink Banana Theatre will soon open a production of Harold Pinter's The Hothouse. The darkly comic look at government bureaucracy is set in an institution and staged in the basement of a mall—specifically, at the Arcade Theatre in the Underground Collaborative, 161 W. Wisconsin Ave., at the Shops of Grand Avenue. The Hothouse runs Nov. 1-17. For more information, visit www.pinkbananatheatre.com.