Next Act's Almost, Maine
Maybe there was something about growing up in Slinger, 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee. Earlier this year when meeting with Next Act Theatre, Slinger-born Karen Estrada proposed directing Almost, Maine for the company’s holiday show. But then again, as Estrada quickly points out, Slinger is a commuter town with easy access to Milwaukee. By contrast, the fictional village of Almost, ME, is truly remote. “It’s on the same latitude as far northern Wisconsin with gorgeous trees and snowbanks in winter,” she says. There’s no big city to drive to. Almost, ME is almost off the map.
Playwright John Cariani’s Almost, Maine has become popular and much performed across the U.S. since its 2004 debut. It’s a story in nine vignettes whose setting Estrada compares to television’s “Northern Exposure.” “It’s a romantic comedy, but it’s not fluff, it’s not a sitcom. It’s comforting and joyful and speaks to something we know to be true—and sometimes need to hear.”
Estrada is a familiar name to Milwaukee theatergoers. Her connection to the city began in middle school when she enrolled in the predecessor of First Stage’s Young Company, taking the bus to the city on Saturdays for lessons in acting. After graduating from the UW-Stevens Point theater program and a short sojourn in Minneapolis, she returned to Milwaukee where she found steady acting jobs with First Stage, Skylight Music Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Milwaukee Opera Theatre and other companies. Directing came later.
“What I love about Milwaukee is that I get to go home and have dinner with my husband—and the opportunities that are available!” she says. “If I’d moved to New York, I’d have been typed as ‘the sassy best friend.’ I’d have been the sassy best friend on stages forever. In Milwaukee, people are interested in other people’s many skills. You can build an artistic path with the help of the kind of thoughtful, lovely people who looked at me and said, ‘You can be a director, too!’”
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She was allowed to shadow local theater directors and meet with stage designers and managers, stepping in gradually before directing her first fully costumed production, First Stage’s On the Wings of Mariposa in 2019.
When meeting this summer with Next Act’s artistic director, Cody Estle, Almost, Maine was among Estrada’s suggestions for the holiday season. “Cody had never read it before, but after he did, he agreed that it’s a sweetheart of a play. It’s so dear, so earnest, and so not saccharine. It’s just a little gem,” she says.
As the Northern Lights put on their show in the heavens, something magic happens to the residents of Almost, ME. “A window opens, and the characters are offered opportunities to connect in ways they might not have thought possible,” Estrada explains. “Whether or not they all experience conventional happy endings is irrelevant. The fact that they can honestly connect is the profound point of each vignette.”
So is Almost, Maine a statement on our inability to connect with others? Estrada flips that interpretation around, insisting, “There is no cynicism in this play. Almost, Maine reminds us that it is always possible—it’s not about our inability but about how we retain that ability to connect. It’s about how we can allow the people in our lives to change—and change us.”
