Marti Gobel
Lower East Side New Yorker Nilaja Sun is an Obie Award-winning actress, playwright and teaching artist well known for her nationally-recognized one-woman show No Child, which makes its Milwaukee premiere at Next Act Theatre Jan. 29. This powerful piece is based on Sun’s own teaching experiences within the New York City public school system. Next Act’s performance features Marti Gobel as Ms. Sun and 15 additional characters including students, principal, custodian and teachers. “This show is really a great look at how public education has deteriorated to such a point that it is a national problem. It represents public schools and what they’ve come to: overcrowded, littered, noisy and filled with constant mayhem,” says Gobel. Director Mary MacDonald Kerr describes the show as funny, touching and well written. “It’s a story all based on one person’s real-life experiences, not a Hollywood take on it,” says Kerr. “The state of public education is something that’s hopefully on people’s minds and we hope this play offers another way to look at a problem on the radar with more humor than just screaming at each other.”
In the play, teaching artist Ms. Sun leads a class with some of the most challenging students. She asks them to produce a play and, though they fight her on every corner, the unique power of art perseveres and ultimately wins the day. “We watch the journey that these people take together in the building, how outside experiences are brought into the school and how each person in the education system—from janitors to bus drivers to security guards to librarians—has the equal potential to lift education or stop education,” Gobel says. “Using arts integration is so incredibly valuable for our children. The reality of what our wonderful and truly underappreciated teachers struggle through is reflected on stage. I love Next Act and David Cecsarini for bringing this piece to Milwaukee.” Kerr adds, “It’s great to have somebody from the community performing it. I think people are really going to dig it.”
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No Child runs Jan. 29-Feb. 22 at 255 S. Water St. For tickets, call 414-278-0765 or visit nextact.org.
Theatre Happenings:
■ As part of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center Winter Theatre series, Third Avenue Playhouse presents Souvenir by Stephen Temperley. The show, featuring Claire Morkin and James Valcq, is a story about Florence Foster Jenkins—who believed she was a great soprano when in fact she couldn’t hold a tune—through the eyes of her accompanist and admiring friend, Cosme McMoon. Show runs Jan. 29-30 at 7:30 p.m., and Jan. 31 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at JMKAC, 608 New York Ave., Sheboygan. Tickets can be purchased at jmkacstore.org.
■ Bill Theisen directs Skylight Music Theatre’s upcoming performance Once On This Island, a one-act fable based on the 1985 novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy with themes inspired by The Little Mermaid and Romeo & Juliet. Set on an island in the French Antilles, social prejudices divide the people into two communities—the peasants with skin “black as night” and the wealthier, lighter-skinned descendants of French planters. We follow the story of Ti Moune and Daniel, who come from opposite sides of the island, and witness the powerful capabilities of love. Show runs Jan. 30-Feb. 22 at 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit skylightmusictheatre.org.
■ First Stage has extended the run of its First Step Series show Goldilocks and the Three Bears through March 1. This familiar fairy tale is bound to entertain the entire family in an engaging and thoughtful way. For tickets, call 414-267-2961 or visit firststage.org.
