Weekly Highlights from 6/16-6/22
Closet Land, Alchemist Theatre, 6/17/-7/4
A young woman is taken by force to an interrogation by a single male who is seemingly a government investigator. She is accused of hiding subversive messages from some unnamed underground working against the government in her children’s book, Closet Land. The questioning becomes more brutal and she mentally withdraws to an imagined world of fictional characters that she developed as a child to escape physical abuse. A Nicholl-Fellowship Award winning script performed for the first time in Wisconsin.
Tickets $15. Showtime 7:30 p.m. with an additional 10 p.m. show on June 26th. Visit Alchemist or call 414-426-4169.
Love Letters by A.R. Gurney, SummerStage, Lapham Peak State Park, 6/17-27
Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner had an enduring bond that carried them from second grade to middle age, weathering adolescence, mariage, divorce, mistakes and triumphs. Join them for an evening at Summerstage as they share their stories and their bond, forged by a lifetime of Love Letters.
Tickets $5-$15. Showtime 7:30 p.m. Visit SummerStage or call 262-337-1560.
The Tempest, Optimist Theatre, Alverno College, 6/18-27
This drama is one of the great comedy plays by William Shakespeare. King Alonso of Naples and his entourage sail home for Italy after attending his daughter’s wedding in Tunis, Africa. They encounter a violent storm, or Tempest. Everyone jumps overboard and are washed ashore on a strange island inhabited by the magician Prospero who has deliberately conjured up the storm. Prospero and Miranda live in a cave on the island which is also inhabited by Ariel, a sprite who carries out the bidding of Prospero, and the ugly, half human Caliban.
This show is free and open to the public, but reservations are advised. Visit Optimist Theatre or call 262-498-5777.
All’s Well That Ends Well, American Players Theatre, Up-the-Hill Theatre, 6/19-10/1
Some relationships are tricky, and The Bard sets out to remind us of that inconvenient truth via one of theater’s most unconventional heroines, Helena. Fiercely determined to get what she wants (in this case, the almost equally enigmatic Bertram), Helena has quite the bag of tricks, entrapment not least among them. The play deals in the complex currency of life and love. If that’s problematic, so too then is it funny, beautiful, even outrageous.
Tickets $51-$64. Visit American Players Theatre or call 608-588-2361.
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Composer Du Yun. Photo courtesy of website.
Luc Vanier’s Love’s Fodder uses images of sexual intimacy, meditation, and common ideas about tantric practices as a road map toward transcendent love. Sex is a physical experience to which many people connect both intimately and addictively. In Love’s Fodder, the dancers explore awareness and intimacy beyond their comfort level. The dance is about the entanglement of our minds and bodies in the heat of relationships and how we can endure to find balance in the openness of love. Also featured are Electronic Cabaret, Chinese zither, dancer Kelly Anderson, composer Du Yun, and composer Chris Burns.
Tickets $9.99-$19.99. Concerts at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Visit Present Music or call 414-271-0711.
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For more arts/culture coverage or events leads, check out the TCD Calendar.
