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Photo credit: Alan Herzberg Jr.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
Local performing arts companies and museums are offering socially distanced or virtual events, so watch a play, enjoy a concert or even Milwaukee’s Holiday Lights.
All Month Long
Cactus Club’s Digital Dream (Saturday nights on Vimeo)
In an effort to keep providing Milwaukee with great local music, Cactus Club has shifted programming online in addition to regular carryout orders from their Bay View location. Digital Dream is an online streaming series featuring performances from Milwaukee artists on a weekly basis. The club streams four days per week on average right now, including concerts on the weekends and Reachout Radio DJ sets on Friday nights. You can get the full schedule of digital programming at cactusclubmilwaukee.com.
The Cooperage’s Covid Couch Series (Saturdays, 9 p.m. on Instagram Live)
The Cooperage is a staple of Milwaukee’s live scene, normally offering high-quality concerts of the local and touring variety out of their Walker’s Point location. The venue’s Covid Couch Series features a weekly at-home concert via Instagram Live, keeping Milwaukee’s local acts performing on a regular basis. The streams can be found on The Cooperage’s Instagram page: @cooperagemke.
Through Saturday, Nov. 28
“SEAMS: Contemporary Textile Artists” @ Portrait Society Gallery
In an online post during election season, gallery director Debra Brehmer spoke of the world “as a place that was unravelling.” Little wonder that she would gravitate toward “SEAMS,” a body of work by 17 artists in which everything is “stitched together in some way, with”—those missing elements in our nation’s leadership—“care, civility, dignity.” The quilts on display come in various sizes. Among the largest is Heidi Parkes’ I Know the Stars are There Beyond the Clouds (2016), a piece that strives to match its title by touching the ceiling and trailing onto the floor below. Portrait Society is open noon-5 p.m., Thursday through Saturday and by appointment.
Through Jan. 23, 2021
“Silhouette: Capturing the Human Form in Contemporary Prints and Art Jewelry” @ Racine Art Museum
The human form has interested artists since art began as prehistoric cave drawings. The idea of depicting the human form in the dark outlines of silhouettes became popular in the 19th century. The current exhibition at RAM draws from the museum’s permanent collection to explore the “human form as a compositional element, storytelling device or representation of an idea.” It’s a wide ambit to be sure, and it includes colorful textured figures in jewelry and fragmented figures in black and white prints. RAM is open Wednesday through Saturday, from noon to 4 p.m.
Streaming Wednesday, Nov. 11
DeWitt Clinton Zoom reading sponsored by Boswell Book Co.
In his latest poetry collection, By a Lake Near a Moon: Fishing with the Chinese Masters, Milwaukee’s DeWitt Clinton adapts verse from classical Chinese poets, respectful of their imagery and sense but with a contemporary word-pictures and sensibility. Tang dynasty poet Tu Fu (712-770) never referred to Fox News or the weather report or described the sound of car tires in the winter slush. Clinton isn’t the first American poet to look to China, but he took his lead not from Ezra Pound but Kenneth Rexroth’s 1971 collection One Hundred Poems from the Chinese. “I became quite enthralled with each one, and so I began writing ‘response’ poems to a few of his translations,” Clinton explains, “finding them engaging, tender, sublime… I became spellbound by them.” Sign up for the Zoom session here.
Streaming Nov. 22-Feb. 22, 2021
Present Music, “Thanksgiving: Wherein Lies the Good”
Present Music’s annual Thanksgiving concert has joined The Rep’s A Christmas Carol and the Milwaukee Ballet’s Nutcracker as the city’s seasonal hallmarks in performing arts. With the pandemic threat hanging over indoor events, Present Music swapped its usual Downtown setting in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist for a Zoom video. As always, the program strives for transforming what began as a WASP history lesson into an inclusive event representing the full spirit of giving thanks. This year’s concert includes Alex Weiser’s “and all the days were purple” sung in English and Yiddish by soprano Eliza Bagg; the world premiere of Mark Stewart’s “To Whom It May Concern, Thank You”; and work by Robin Holcomb and Michael Torke along with performances by the event’s annual mainstay, the Bucks Native American Singing and Drumming Group.
Nov. 19-Jan. 1, 2021
Photo credit: Alan Herzberg Jr.
Holiday Lights
Normally, there would be a kickoff extravaganza in Pere Marquette Park to mark the start of Holiday Lights, but what’s normal in 2020? This year, the performances will be broadcast by WISN 12 starting at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 19, as the bright lights switch on across Cathedral Square (“Community Spirit Park”), Pere Marquette (“Tinsel Town Express”) and Zeidler Union Square (“Plaza Powered by We Energies”). Instead of the usual Jingle Bus ferrying festivalgoers, a self-guided virtual tour with interactive map will be available. Pedestrians can check out window displays with the likenesses of famous Milwaukeeans on and around East Wisconsin Avenue. And Jingle Joy gift boxes can be purchased at a drive-through in Zeidler Union Square, 5:30-8:30p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, Dec. 3-9. For more, visit milwaukeeholidaylights.com.
Streaming Nov. 23-Dec. 13
Next Act Theatre, The Christians
Playwright Lucas Hnath takes us straight into a contemporary mega church of today, which features a congregation of thousands, a vestibule coffee shop and a baptismal font the size of a swimming pool. Quite a change for its pastor, Paul, who started out in a tiny storefront 20 years earlier. It’s finally mortgage burning day, but Pastor Paul will give a sermon that will “shock his flock” during the live church service and challenge their faith in this virtual production.
Saturday, Nov. 28
Photo credit: Getty Images
Small Business Saturday
The odds seem stacked against locally owned small businesses, pitted for attention against big box stores, shopping malls and—increasingly—internet sales. Small Business Saturday began in 2009 as a way of drawing attention back to the sort of shops that endow cities and neighborhoods with character by owners who know and care about their goods and services. “Supporting Small Business Saturday is equivalent to supporting your community,” says Rachel Taylor, executive director of the Brady Street BID. “With the many struggles of operating a business during the COVID pandemic, it’s more important than ever that people support the businesses in their community, so that the community can continue to be vibrant and strong.”
“Supporting local small businesses is more important than ever this year,” adds Missy Hughes, decretary and CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, the state’s leading economic development organization. “Small businesses employ nearly 90% of Wisconsin’s workers, so shopping with them is really an investment in our communities. Our Main Street Marketplace online shopping portal, mainstreetwi.com, makes it easy to shop the best Main Street retailers around the state—all in one day.” Think global, shop local!
Dec. 1-24
Photo credit: Getty Images
Milwaukee Rep, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol
While A Christmas Carol’s Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and those three ghosts socially distance from the stage this holiday season, The Rep gives us a glimpse into “the other side of the darkness” that is Jacob Marley’s soul. In an intimate, one-character presentation, veteran actor Lee E. Ernst shows us what happened to Scrooge’s partner in the afterlife in Tom Mula’s fascinating perspective of the infamous lost spirit seeking redemption. A team of medical and technical experts worked together to devise a safe and healthy plan for this live show.
Streaming Thursday, Dec. 3
Photo credit: Jewish Museum Milwaukee
“Art Under Communism: Unofficial Artists” @ Jewish Museum Milwaukee
Joseph Stalin called artists “the engineers of the human soul.” He put great stock in their work, respecting and fearing their influence to shape or undermine his vision for the world. Under the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern Europe, artists were regimented and censors were ready to pounce, albeit the rules loosened, tightened and shifted according to the changing dictates from the Kremlin. UW-Milwaukee Associate History Professor Christine Evans will discuss how dissenting artists such as Luba Lukova, currently featured at the museum, navigated the shoals of censorship. 7 p.m., jewishmuseummilwaukee.org.
Streaming Dec. 4-14
First Stage, The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Considered to be William Shakespeare’s first play, the comedy was also one of the first to explore the playwright’s later themes of actors reversing gender roles. As a First Stage Young Company performance project, the focus is actor-driven with minimal production values. The emphasis is all on the words and language, which for Shakespeare and First Stage fans provides all the entertainment needed to add some classic theater to your holiday viewing.
Dec. 4-13
Memories Dinner Theater, Another Night Before Christmas
Echoing upon the themes of cynicism versus belief first seen in the holiday classic, Miracle on 34th Street, this musical comedy brings us to more current times. Karol, a disillusioned social worker, meets an elderly man sitting alone on a park bench. Thinking he’s homeless, she offers him food and ends up with an uninvited “houseguest” due to a malfunctioning security system. Is this Kris Kringle or just a kindly old man? Find out as Karol confront her feelings about the true meaning of Christmas. Food safety and social distancing procedures are in place at this Port Washington venue.
Streaming Sunday, Dec. 6
Jim Brickman, “Comfort and Joy at Home!”
Ever the holiday trooper, Jim Brickman brings his Christmas classics back to the Marcus Center, virtually this time around, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6. The pianist will be playing a number of his own seasonal creations, such as “The Gift,” “Sending You A Little Christmas,” “Angel Eyes” and “If You Believe.” A portion of each ticket purchased will be donated to the Marcus Performing Arts Center. So, join in the holiday spirit and have yourself a “Merry Brickman Christmas” while helping out an arts organization.
