Keeping with the company’s mission of embracing and celebrating the individual, First Stage is mounting Y York’s adaptation of Jerry Spinelli’s novel Stargirl. This moving story explores the beauties and challenges of being the new kid at school and making friends while also retaining one’s unique personality and avoiding peer pressure to act the same to “fit in.” The title character, Stargirl, meets Leo Borlock at a public high school in Arizona and we watch the relationships between the two of them and between them and their classmates unfold.
“The play’s about two people who are incredibly different, and also incredibly similar, trying to find common ground. Which is what most of us are doing most of the time,” says Stargirl’s director John Maclay. “Y is a playwright who trusts smart actors to find the layers and subtext in the characters. The language of her work is always beautiful and there is always rich, deeper meaning to be found underneath. There isn’t any filler in this adaptation; every scene has substance and is moving us along.”
Featuring five teenagers and one adult (Richard Ganoung) in each cast, Stargirl runs Jan. 16-Feb. 15 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts’ Todd Wehr Theater. It is recommended for ages 10 and up. For more information and tickets, call 414-267-2961 or visit firststage.org.
Theater Happenings
■ Shakespeare’s Macbeth will be presented by Soulstice Theatre with all parts played by female actors and each role presented as a female. This groundbreaking production features Amy Hansmann as Macbeth and Alicia Rice as Lady Macbeth and is set just after World War I. Readers can support the show by donating at indiegogo.com; a portion of the show’s proceeds will be donated to a local charity. Macbeth runs Jan. 15-31 at 3770 S. Pennsylvania Ave., Suite 2, St. Francis. For tickets, call 414-481-2800 or visit soulsticetheatre.org.
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■ When estranged brothers Austin and Lee in Sam Shepard’s True West see each other for the first time in five years, confrontation about screenplays and heated arguments concerning each other’s decisions and plans ensue. Alchemist Theatre presents this widely successful play (since its 1980 debut, it’s featured actors Tommy Lee Jones, Peter Boyle, John Malkovich, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bruce Willis to name a few) Jan. 15-31 at 2569 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. For tickets, email the.alchemist.theatre@gmail.com or visit thealchemisttheatre.com.
■ Inspired by true life events, standup comedian/actor Lewis Black’s farce One Slight Hitch is about Courtney and her perfect wedding day that gets thrown for a loop at the arrival of her vagabond ex-boyfriend. The show runs Jan. 16-Feb. 1 at Racine Theatre Guild, 2519 Northwestern Ave., Racine. For tickets, call 262-633-4218 or visit racinetheatre.org.
■ Neil Haven is currently the playwright du jour of Greater Milwaukee and his popular play Stuck will kick off the New Year at Bay Players. Get to know Ella, an agoraphobic elevator operator, in this screwball comedy that runs Jan. 16-24 at Whitefish Bay High School’s auditorium, 1200 E. Fairmont Ave. For tickets, call 414-299-9040 or visit thebayplayers.com.
