Theatrical Tendencies in 2011-2012

I don't know that  I ever recall a new Milwaukee theatre company quite as well organized as Theatrical Tendencies. There's a correlation herethey also appear to be impressively well-funded. I missed their debut show Thrill MeThe Leopold & Loeb Story. I've seen pictures, though . . . judging from production pics, the show had a very stylishly rendered feel about it. And so I'm really looking forward to their production of Corpus Christi, which opens March 11^th. Theatrical Tendencies' President and Producing Director David Carter recently sent me a link to this promo video which features the rather large cast for the show introducing itself.

Charming. And earlier this week, I received an email announcing the theatre group's 2011-2012 season, thus issuing forth the first in a flurry of 2011-2012 season announcements. Here's a quick, initial look at what the group has planned on the other side of summer:

THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHEDOver seven months from now, Theatrical Tendencies opens its 2011-2012 season with a show by Douglas Carter Beanethe man behind the screenplay for the 1995 film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. I know him better as the guy who wrote As Bees In Honey Drowna show which the Boulevard Theatre produced in '09. There are parallels between that play (whuch was a bout a beautiful con artist taking advantage of an aspiring author,) and The Little Dog Laughed. Here we have Mitchell--an aspiring actor and his talent agent Diane, who concerns herself a great deal that his homosexuality may give his career some problems. While things have changed a few fractions of a bit since the play opened in 2006, this is a play as relevant as ever. Theatrical Tendencies' The Little Dog Laughed runs October 7^th – 22^nd at the Milwaukee Gay Art Center.

BEAUTIFUL THINGAnd a little over a year from now, the group closes out its two-show season with a production of Jonathan Harvey's 1996 play about the emotional difficulties of two teenaged boys falling in love in England. The British play was turned into a made-for-TV movie for Channel 4. And then, in kind of a weird move on either side of the Atlantic, the TV movie was such a success that they decided to release it in cinemas. As powerful a thing as romantic love is, straight-ahead love stories don't often make the local stage. With Beautiful Thing, it'll be fun to see two characters fall in love in a studio theatre space again. The fifteen year-old love story makes it to the stage of the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center March 2^nd – 17^th of 2012.