Youngblood Brings ‘Cartoon’ to Life

Playwright Steve Yockey envisions oppression as a tyrannical child ruling her toys with an iron fist. The idea has some merit. Yockey’s story, titled Cartoon, receives a staging this month courtesy of Youngblood Theatre. The production runs Nov. 30-Dec. 15 at the Milwaukee Fortress.

Scenic designer Eric Schallhorn endeavors to bring a cartoon world to life, aided by costumer Eleanor Cotey. The show should prove to be a real challenge for Cotey, as it features characters as diverse and mixed as a teddy bear, a toy soldier, a puppet and a pair of anime girls.

Previous productions of Cartoon have apparently had difficulty reconciling the script’s vaguely disturbing element of complete chaos and disorder. Director Michael Cotey's challenge is to make a world featuring diverse characters from different commercial genres come together in a cohesive vision.

The cast includes the very reassuring talents of Youngblood co-founder Andrew Voss, Michael Traynor, Jordan Gwiazdowski, Alexandra Bonesho and Lindsey Gagliano. This is a well-chosen cast, as these actors have had experience in suitably surreal performances. This should be a really interesting journey.

Youngblood's production of Cartoon runs Nov. 30-Dec. 15 at the Milwaukee Fortress, 100 E. Pleasant St. For ticket reservations, visit youngbloodtheatre.com.

Theater Happenings

• Milwaukee Chamber Theatre features Sarah Day and Laura Frye in the roles of an accomplished author and a young protégé in Collected Stories. C. Michael Wright directs the Donald Margulies drama Nov. 21-Dec. 16 at the Broadway Theatre Center's Studio Theatre. For ticket reservations, call 414-291-7800.

• Next week, In Tandem Theatre returns to the holiday favorite A Cudahy Caroler Christmas. Chris Flieller stars as the humble Stasch, once more going to great pains to get the choir back together in time for a local TV special. The show runs Nov. 30-Jan. 5, 2013, at In Tandem’s Tenth Street Theatre, 628 N. 10th St. For ticket reservations, call 414-271-1371.