Arts & Culture
Noises Off! at the Sunset Playhouse is great summer fluff
A bit of British humor enlivens the stage at the Sunset Playhouse with the current production of Noises Off!. This award-winning play from 1983 was revived in 2001, and continues to challenge theater companies. Playwright Michael J. Frayn created a tightly wound laugh out loud farce that builds in tension throughout the three acts. Flapping doors, lost contact lenses, an axe and a disappearing plate of sardines occasionally steal a scene.
Jun 10th, 2009 by Peggy Sue Dunigan
Julia Magnasco of First Stage Children’s Theater
Mark talks to Julia Magnasco, Education Director of First Stage Children's Theater, about growing up with First Stage - her first kiss (on stage!), getting ready for prom in the dressing room - coming back to Milwaukee for the arts and the importance of teaching young people about theater.
Jun 10th, 2009 by Amy Elliott
Current Tendencies and There, There
These exhibitions are a bit like cross-town cousins; common traits link them in the family, but they each have distinctly individual characters. Current Tendencies is calm, composed, strait-laced and solid. There There is the wily one, admittedly more playful and mischevious, the prankster of the two. Both are affiliated with major universities in the city and offer up contemporary work from an array of artists.
Jun 10th, 2009 by Kat Murrell
Milwaukee Film rolls out first round of announcements for 2009 Festival
Here they are: the first five film announcements for the first-ever, breathlessly-anticipated 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival. Who knows what we can tell from five films out of what's likely to be more than 100, but this diverse and cosmopolitan selection of screenings: a supermarket comedy from Uruguay, a clandestine documentary about the 2007 uprising in Burma and an exciting frame-by-frame restoration of Akiro Kurosawa's Rashomon.
Jun 10th, 2009 by Amy Elliott
Twitter Art
Boris Ostrerov, a Milwaukee based multidisciplinary artist, is pleased to present his latest project titled, “Twitter Installation” at the Walkers Point Center for the Arts (WPCA) Annual Member’s Show on view from June 5th until July 2nd 2009. The “Twitter Installation” explores the phenomenon of Twitter, a micro-blogging service that is becoming an increasingly popular form of communication and sharing. In the “Twitter Installation,” Ostrerov is materializing virtual posts or status updates, known as “tweets” among the Twitter community, into a physical semitransparent mountain or puddle-like form. Utilizing the username “Installation1,” Ostrerov will compile all the tweets of his followers and print them on small translucent strips of paper, which he will bring to the gallery and drop in the same spot on the floor every day of the show. Starting from literally nothing on the first day of the show, the pile of tweets will grow, in size depending on the amount of followers the username “Installation1” gains and the amount of times each follower tweets. You too can contribute in the growth of the mountain of tweets by following the username Installation1 on Twitter.com and tweeting (www.twitter.com/Installation1). If enough people are involved, this installation can grow exponentially to a gigantic, yet sensuous form filling up so much space in the gallery that it encroaches on other artworks or blocks a walking path. At the end of the show Ostrerov will glue all the translucent strips of vellum paper into a sphere, solidifying countless conversations of a past moment in history.
Jun 5th, 2009 by Laura Heller
Nilson Studios at Beloit’s Fine Arts Incubator
Painted Beats reflects the apocalypse of inner city life through smoke and light, huge paintings that swallow the viewer in the dark shades of urban decay, and a soundtrack of beats mixed specifically for each piece. Stereos with several sets of Koss-donated headphones will be installed in front of each art work for take one step further into the landscape. Nilson says his viewer/listeners will be absorbed in "an Artist's Rapture."
Jun 4th, 2009 by Amy Elliott
UPAF & Miller Lite’s Ride for the Arts
After the wheels are done spinning and the kickstands go down Sunday morning, participants and supporters will enjoy select performances on the Summerfest grounds by some of the supprted performing arts groups in Milwaukee. A small donation will be asked for at the entrance -- and with attendance numbers that reach over 6,000, UPAF might see that $5 could add $30,000 to the final total. But will it be enough to save an opera, a kids theater workshop, or a Broadway showstopper?
Jun 4th, 2009 by Brian Jacobson
Visual arts happenings, June 3 – 10
Jason Rohlf at Tory Folliard, Charles Rohlf (no relation) and The Eight at Milwaukee Art Museum and the popular Annual Members Show at the Walker's Point Center for the Arts.
Jun 3rd, 2009 by Amy Elliott
“There’s No Place Like Home” for one Wisconsin native (and 12 munchkins from Waukesha)
Do you remember the first time you were serenaded by Judy Garland’s version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” or hoped little Toto would find his way home? This weekend, trip down a yellow-brick memory lane, live at the Milwaukee Theatre. A revamped, high-tech version based on the 1939 MGM classic The Wizard of Oz flies into town on its first national tour in more than a decade.
Jun 3rd, 2009 by Hope Stolarski
June 2 – 8
June is the definitive start of the off-season for stage, except if you're the venerable and fun American Players Theater. Well, it's for sure the time in which the city of festivals silences the horn section for some rowdier fare. Unless, of course, you're in the French Horn section sending maestro Andreas Delfs off in style. At least the streets will be safe, unless you happened to be standing in the way of a couple hundred bicyclists this weekend who have a big heart for the arts community in southeastern Wisconsin.
Jun 2nd, 2009 by Brian Jacobson
‘Henry V’ realized with more than just imaginary forces
It is the final play from William Shakespeare's historical tetraology of British kings, and the most oft-quoted. This Quasi Productions performance of Henry V grew not only out of a collective desire to make a worthy theatrical presentation, but from a grim sense of incompletion.
May 30th, 2009 by Michael Madden
Milwaukee Artist Resource Network’s new vision
In February, the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network announced its first full-time Executive Director, Melissa Musante, former Associate Director of Film Wisconsin, Peck School graduate and independent artist, musician and filmmaker. Mark Metcalf caught up with her to talk about the new MARN web project artinmilwaukee.com, why MARN is not just for visual artists and how the organization is ramping up their efforts in a dark economic time. Listen online now! Backstage with Mark Metcalf: MARN’s Melissa Musante Backstage with Mark Metcalf is produced with WMSE 91.7 FM at the beautiful downtown studio of the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Tell your friends!
May 29th, 2009 by Amy Elliott
