Red Light Winter On The Horizon

Youngblood Theatre  mentioned on Facebook this past Thursday that it was beginning rehearsals for its January show Red Light Winter. Written by Adam Rapp, the play is about a pair of young, American guys who share a “window prostitute,” in Amsterdam. The play has met with considerable acclaim, being nominated for a 2006 Pulitzer Prize.

Rapp insists the play is NOT autobiographical, though it was inspired by actual events. Back in ’97, Rapp was hanging out in Amsterdam with his best friend, who had just lost his girlfriend. Rapp thought it’d be good for his friend to get “back on the horse.” (Rapp’s words,  not mine.) He shopped the red light district for a prostitute, who he had a good time with. (Evidently a med school student.) And he paid her in advance for his friend to go and procure her services later on. After that, his friend had become obsessed with the prostitute. And thus was the non-autobiographical stage drama bornbut not until years later. (The play was written in 2003.)

The Youngblood post on the rehearsal has Andrew Voss and David Rothrock as the two gentlemen. Rothrock played Puck in UWM’s recent production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Judging from that performance, he’s a very talented young actor who is relly good with the physical end of a performance. Here he’s got an opportunity to show talent in a straight-ahead contemporary drama. Voss has  had a couple of really good performances recentlyas an Italian alpha male in Youngblood’s production of the bar drama  Savage In Limbo and more recently as the young drifter Hal Carter in Milwaukee Chamber’s Picnic. The prostitute will be played by Tess Cinpinski, who made an outstanding impression as the female lead in Youngblood’s production of David’s Redhaired Death.

Red Light Winter opens January 21st at the Alchemist Theatre.