Four things I’ve been meaning to tell you

1. Next Act Theatre’s Vigil: Morris Panych’s play turns on one brilliant, surprise joke that I won’t give away here. That joke alone makes the play worth seeing. Without it? I’m not so sure.

This odd-couple play pits the fastidious Kemp against the elderly, mute Grace. Mark Ulrich, as Kemp, sweeps into the life of Ruth Schudson’s Grace, under Mary MacDonald Kerr’s direction. He (and we) assumes that she is on her deathbed. She reacts with wary curiosity as he natters on about his ghastly upbringing. He blames Grace, whom he remembers as a glamorous and exotic aunt, for failing to rescue him from that situation and his subsequent maladjustment.

The death watch goes on to unexpected length. Days and then months pass. Kemp serves meals, writes a new will leaving everything to him, and attends to the old girl in every way. Kemp observes and comments on the passing seasons and holidays through the second-story bedroom window.

Panych wrote and Ulrich plays Kemp as the stereotypical gay man we all know from sit-coms. He’s theatrical, witty, catty and bitchy, with a carefully maintained jade patina of cynicism. Schudson, largely confined to bed, reacts to his revelations with an amazing and amusing array of facial expressions. Since she never answers even his direct questions, we assume that Grace can no longer speak.

Turns out she can, and that’s the beginning of this play’s plausibility issues. Another is that Kemp turns out to be not gay — at least not exactly gay. Another has to do with the playwright’s ending every scene with zingers that sound more and more contrived. (Wait for it; aaannnnd go:  “I’m concerned about your health these days. It seems to be improving.” Ba-dump-bump.) Plausibility issues even undermine that priceless joke, which is hilarious but founded on the loose sand of our heroic suspension of disbelief.

By the way, Vigil opened Feb. 3. I saw it on Feb. 8, but a crush of other duties kept me from commenting until now. Sorry. At least it has another weekend to run, through Feb. 26. For tickets and further information, call the Next Act box office, 414 278-0765, or visit the company’s website.

2. The long-shuttered Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design will be reborn as the Eisner Creative Foundation. Details are forthcoming, but

the organization intends to announce, at an event on Feb. 23,  its “first round of funding designed to support organizations ready to create and manage ‘Turning Point’ programs that will inspire young people to a life of creativity and productivity.”

3. The Pfister Hotel seeks its fourth writer in residence, known as the Pfister Narrator.

It’s such a sweet deal, I would apply if I weren’t up to my eyeballs in TCD. The narrator works a minimum of 10 hours per week over the course of a six-month period and will publish a minimum of two blog posts per week. In return he or she will choose a $1,000 monthly stipend, a scholarship for continuing education or a donation to a charity of his or her choice in his or her honor, in addition to complimentary parking and meals in the hotel’s cafeteria. The Narrator’s blog posts will be published and become a part of the narrator book series.

The book by the first narrator, Julie Ferris, is published and available in the hotel’s gift shop.

Applicants must email an application form, current resume, 2-3 recent writing samples, a cover letter and two professional letters of recommendation to pfisternarratorapps@thepfisterhotel.com. Six finalists will be asked to write two sample blog entries and participate in a video interview. Deadline for submissions is March 1, 2012. The Pfister narrator will take over the post the week of May 1, 2012, and will remain the hotel’s storyteller through October. A review panel will evaluate the applications and ultimately choose the Pfister Narrator.

Download the application form and find out more at the Pfister’s website.

4. The Lynden Sculpture Garden is working with UWM and the Milwaukee Art Museum in a major show and conference about Haitian arts. The conference, Haiti: Dreams and Reality, is set for March 5-9. Events will celebrate contemporary Haitian art, cinema and literature. The presenters include six prominent, award-winning Haitian filmmakers, artists, writers and journalists living in Haiti or in exile.

Milwaukee was chosen to host this event in order to highlight the exceptional Haitian art collection at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The Lynden Sculpture Garden is presenting a simultaneous exhibition of work by a Midwestern businessman and largely self-taught painter whose work was influenced by his exposure to Haiti in the 1950s.

Partners and Sponsors: L’Institut Français à Paris, Les Services Culturels du Consulat Général de France à Chicago et à New York., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Marquette University, Milwaukee Art Museum, Lynden Sculpture Garden, Alliance Française de Milwaukee et de Chicago, David Barnett Gallery, and Milwaukee Peace Corps Association.

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