With things being as active as they are, I’m looking forward to a day when there are as many tiny, indie theatre companies as there are local bands. With a number of local theatre spaces providing reasonable rates to new and emerging companies, more are popping-up all the time. The possibility of Next Act opening up a new space all its own will likely add yet another stage the will likely be available in the summer months . . . that space will be added to a growing list of places like In Tandem’s Tenth Street Theatre, the Carte Blanche Studio Theatre and the highly active Alchemist Theatre. If there were thirty tiny indie theatre groups and they all did one show per summer, the “off season,” could rapidly become every bit as active as the regular theatre season.
Earlier this summer companies with relatively fresh names like Optimist Theatre, the World’s Stage Theatre Company staged one show each. On the weekend of July 9th, two new theatre companies open inaugural shows within roughly 24 hours of each other. Here’s a look:
at 7:30 pm on Thursday
Bad Example Productions presents its staging of the Ray Bradbury drama Fahrenheit 451. The script was actually written by Bradbury for a 2006 stage production in New York. The production celebrates the popular author’s impending 90th birthday this August. Featured in the cast are
Joanna Amos, Warren Anderson, Desiree Gibson, Donna Lobacz, Victoria Hudziak, Sarah Fennig and Doug Smedbron, with the M.U.T.E.S.’ Jeremy Eieinchner as fireman Guy Montag and Grace Liebenstein as Grace.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
This is the debut show for David Kaye’s Bad Example productions. The central goal behind the company is to stage productions that normally wouldn’t be found on Milwaukee stages. I’ll let him speak directly from the press release: “Keeping the company small allows us to select works we’re truly passionate about,” says director David Kaye. “Our shows will run the gamut from great literature to quirky musicals. I chose Fahrenheit 451 because Bradbury’s dystopian vision, where technology drowns out human contact and censorship runs rampant, resonates even more today than when it was first written.”
Fahrenheit 451 runs through July 24th at the Alchemist Theatre. Tickets are $15.
Then at 7:00pm the next day
Sparkling Orange Soda Productions debuts its production of The Wolf, The Princess and the Revolver at the Carte Blanche Studio Theatre. It’s a brand new comedy by Dominic Michael Lentz and Jackie Benka. The comedy features a meeting between Jack (of the beanstalk,) Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin and a fairy tale Wolf at a diner. They’re having a conversation—each one trying to prove the y have the worst story. Sounds like fun.
The Wolf, The Princess and the Revolver show runs through July 11th. Tickets are $15.
