“THE BRAIN is a commodity used to fertilize ideas.” — Elbert Hubbard

The mind is run by the brain through an extraordinarily complex series of bioelectric reactions. Much like local arts groups, the brain does remarkable things with profoundly few resources. The brain runs an individual’s body and arguably everything abstract going on in his/her mind on very little quantifiable physical energy.

If, for instance, a waiter (who we’ll refer to here as Mark) decides to become the artistic director of a new theatre company, he can find a space in Bay View and start the Boulevard Theatre. The brain in its near-infinite complexity allows this individual to adjust to the new role. If, years later, this same individual and his theatre company are pushed out of a season-opening production of playwright David Mamet’s very modern and ridiculously acclaimed Glengarry Glen Ross by a larger theatre company, said individual will adapt to the situation (through a dizzying set of neurological interactions) by planning a production of David and Amy Sedaris’ irreverent comedy The Book Of Liz. Leaping from Mamet’s serious and deeply engaging glance into the heart of human motivation to a comedy that briefly involves a person in a Mr. Peanut costume by the side of the road seems a bit nonlinear, and as the process of adaptation took its course The Book of Liz was rescheduled. The new season-opening work finally rendered was Will Eno’s Thom Paine (Based on Nothing), which opened last month. While the Sedaris’ piece is no longer the Boulevard’s replacement for Mamet’s brilliant drama (it may have never, in fact, ever really been intended for this purpose), it remains on the Boulevard’s season schedule this September. The comedy tells the story of a woman living in a fictitious, secluded religious commune who makes the cheese balls for which the commune is so well known by the outside world. Featuring some pretty deft dialogue, Thom Paine is a brilliant fusion of the distinctive comedic voices of both writers. Thus, thanks to the process of adaptation, Milwaukee theatre is host to the comedy AND the drama of both Eno and Mamet.

The adaptability offered through the constantly changing architecture of the human brain can produce astonishing versatility within a single individual as well. For instance: say a young man from New Jersey (we’ll call him Jim) gets a job on a fishing boat. He dreams of being a captain of his own boat, so he graduates from high school and goes to the local community college to perfect the math skills he will need for navigation. If, in the process of going to said college, he finds himself in a theatre watching someone onstage and thinks, “I want to do that,” neurological adaptation at a cellular level kicks in, allowing him to travel across the country to Wisconsin and attend UWM’s professional theater training program. Years later he’s a successful actor/playwright/author.

This year, Jim DeVita has a tremendous amount going on, thanks to the basic fundamentals of neurologically-fueled human adaptation. The fall arrives as DeVita’s summer season as an actor with the American Players Theatre winds down, finally ending on October 7th with his final bow as Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing in Spring Green. Then in December, DeVita’s skills as a playwright are displayed onstage in Madison with The Madison Rep’s production of Dickens In America. The critically acclaimed play, starring James Ridge as the beloved British author, plays briefly as another DeVita-penned play hits the Marcus Center with First Stage Children’s Theatre. Based on a true story, 12 Days: A Milwaukee Christmas follows the story of a World War II-era teacher who faces difficulties in her job. Several weeks after the First Stage play opens, Sunset Playhouse in Elm Grove opens its production of DeVita’s Arthur, The Boy Who Would Be King – a play based on the legend of King Arthur. In it, Merlin takes Arthur back to his childhood to remind him of how things were before he became king. On the other side of January, DeVita takes the stage as an actor once more to play Ricky Roma, the hugely successful real estate salesman in the Milwaukee Rep’s production of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross.