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Quasimondo Milwaukee Physical Theatre’s Cofounders Brian Rott and Jessi Miller launch the company’s fourth season with their original piece Children of Pac-Men, a “retro-spectacle on the future of gameplay.”
“Children of Pac-Men is about progress on systems passed down from one generation to the next and the conflicts that emerge from innovation,” says Artistic Director Rott. “One aim we had in creating this show was to create a new world—one informed by the past and present that plays with a future. For me, this dramatic territory is rife with cliché, and it’s been an ongoing challenge to push past popular visions of the future to find stories unique to us.”
Rott shares that video games have always been a part of his life and that it’s exciting to examine the impact games have on culture and via versa. “From Space Invaders to first-person shooters to the massive online games that we have today, video games are a direct reflection of societal fears and desires. Like many, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with video games. I’ve spent hours sitting alone, completely immersed, attempting to achieve goals that have no value in the real world. The experience is emotional and rewarding, but at the same time empty and alienating. The show explores that tension and the power of virtual realities to stratify and unify. We’ve been operating under the notion that everything repeats and reinvents itself and retro gaming has proved fertile territory to explore contemporary issues.”
Sound Designer Therese Goode has created a hyperactive mixtape of sound clips, pop music and eight-bit beats for the show. Additionally, games and multimedia will be projected and black light puppets crafted by Michael Pettit will help create memorable elements from classic games. “It’s a very strange show. It’s the opening of our fourth season, for which we’ve decided to make all tickets to all shows pay-what-you-can,” says Rott. “We’re creating new work and we want to make it accessible to audiences.”
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Children of Pac-Men runs Nov. 20-Dec. 6 at Studio G in the Shops of Grand Avenue Mall, 161 W. Wisconsin Ave. Tickets to all shows during Quasimondo’s current season are pay-what-you-can, however reservations are recommended. For more information, call 717-34-Quasi, email brianrott@thequasimondo.com or visit thequasimondo.com.
Theatre Happenings:
n Renaissance Theaterworks presents a free production of Lucky Numbers at the Broadway Theatre Center on Friday, Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m. This 15-minute piece by Gwendolyn Rice was one of 12 finalists in the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival. For more information, call 414-291-7800 or visit
n Agatha Christie’s murder mystery The Mousetrap comes to The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Quadracci Powerhouse, 108 E. Wells St. Show runs Nov. 17-Dec. 20. For tickets, call 414-224-9490 or visit milwaukeerep.com.
n UW-Milwaukee Theatre presents the Tony Award-winning musical Damn Yankees Nov 18-22 at the UWM Mainstage Theatre, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd. For tickets, call 414-229-4308 or visit arts.uwm.edu/tickets.
n Milwaukee Public Theatre’s Stories from the Medicine Wheel is an original production featuring adapted traditional seasonal tales and characters from the Potawatomi, Oneida, Ojibwa, Menominee and Ho-Chunk Nations. Performances are Thursday, Nov. 19 at the Milwaukee Public Museum at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., and Tuesday, Nov. 24 at Indian Community School (10405 W. St. Martins Road, Franklin) at 2 p.m. For additional information, call 414-347-1685 or visit milwaukeepublictheatre.org.
n Skylight Music Theatre presents My Fair Lady Nov. 20-Dec. 27 at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Cabot Theatre, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit skylightmusictheatre.org.
n David Mamet’s American Buffalo is a fast-paced, gritty drama and comes to Over Our Heads Players (318 Sixth St., Racine) Nov. 20-Dec. 6. For tickets, call 262-632-6802 or visit overourheadplayers.org.
n Carroll Players presents Sondheim’s Women, a musical celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s strongest female characters, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 21 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Otteson Theatre, 238 N. East Ave., Waukesha. Admission is free and seats can be reserved at tickets.carrollu.edu. For more information, call 262-524-7302 or visit carrollplayers.weebly.com.
