Arts & Culture
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
Off the Wall’s fundraiser mines with ‘Gold’
Broadway music often strikes memories in the mind, and it was this intent which played the audience's heartstrings in a four day special event at Off the Wall Theatre's staged fundraiser to support its upcoming 2009-2010 season which stages at the Black Box space on Wells Street in Milwaukee.
May 26th, 2009 by Peggy Sue Dunigan
MIAD, AmeriCorps & local youth collaborate
People who come to the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center on Milwaukee's south side will get a new kind of medicine these days. It's not through prescriptions or preventative treatment, but instead a vision of hope outside the building. It's art.
May 26th, 2009 by Hope Stolarski
May 26 – June 1
With spring awakening ancient feelings, Milwaukee's fine arts scene turns to a celebration of the spirit. We suspect many artists, actors, and musicians are oiling up their bikes for next weekend's Miller Lite Ride for the Arts (more on that in a feature article for TCD next week). But there are several programs for kids, by kids, and by up-and-comers featured this week.
May 26th, 2009 by Brian Jacobson
75 years of the Florentine Opera
The Florentine Opera, Wisconsin's oldest fully professional performing arts organization, hosts a special one-night-only Diamond Anniversary concert in celebration of their 75th year in the business. In tribute, enjoy this fabulous photo history from the Company's expansive archive.
May 21st, 2009 by Amy Elliott
Milwaukee Ballet does “Live and Kicking”
While the Milwaukee Ballet takes its act on the road in St. Louis this weekend for a kind of lollapalooza of dance companies called "Spring to Dance Festival", we look at the final 2008-09 season performance featuring the return of a popular but strange William Shatner-inspired piece.
May 19th, 2009 by Peggy Sue Dunigan
May 19 – 25
This week on ThirdCoast Digest's weekly look at highlights in the world of local stage and music:the opening of Skylight Opera's staging of Gilbert and Sullivan's best known comic opera, right before the Florentine Opera concludes a 75th Diamond Anniversary year with a huge concert celebration. Also, Stonefly Brewery plays host for one night to an unusual traveling comedy examing surrealism, and a international pop star of sorts is coming to the Milwaukee Theatre.
May 18th, 2009 by Brian Jacobson
Hamlisch, Ambassadors, and an ingenue enchant Milwaukee audience
From the minute Hamlisch stepped on stage, the program soared as the Emmy/Grammy/Oscar/Tony/Pulitzer Prize winning composer paid homage to audience member Mary Youth, who was celebrating her 101st birthday. When Hamlisch asked her to divulge the secret of long life, Youth emphatically stated, "I laughed my way through life."
May 11th, 2009 by Peggy Sue Dunigan
‘Romantic Fools’ at the Tenth Street Theater
Fools and their fantasies: Perhaps at one time or another every person plays a fool for love. Portraying both the foolish and the fantastical through the course of a loosely related romance, In Tandem Theatre Company closes its season with Rich Orloff’s comic revue Romantic Fools. Twelve short sketches travel down a wayward path between the first date and first walk down the aisle for one attractive couple, with bizarre twists and turns along the way. While much of the script runs through highly humorous material, it crosses some sexually explicit subjects with a kinky bent, somewhere between Saturday Night Live and a Dr. Laura therapy session. Playwright Orloff’s prolific one-act plays are often featured in the annual Best American Short Plays collections. Here the comedic elements are provided within the subtle format of a game show with the main contestants being Lori (Georgina McKee) and Andrew (Ryan Schabach) who, along with other assorted characters on this path to love, reveal an intensity and complete compatibility which gave credibility to the absurd situations on stage. Sometimes characters speak directly to the audience, eliciting smiles and giggles. Director Jane Flieller also keeps the skits fresh and flowing with minimal props on a red and gold stage reminiscent of television’s matchmaking games of the past – but here using only one door instead of three. Sometimes the situations and dialogue entice the audience into uncomfortable territory for conservative mindsets, leaving little romance but considerable foreplay. While several great scenes incorporate some very funny lines that anyone can relate to, one special sketch provides classic appeal. After her engagement, Lori tries to find a wedding planner. A guest appearance by the artistic director surprises everyone as a figure from the comics past. Smoking a large cigar with heavy eyebrows and a mustache, the planner promises Lori a perfect event from “married to buried,” and puns ensue in rapid succession. This Romantic Fools resists the overly sweet and sentimental moments of courtship by employing sexuality, a contemporary and open vision of dating and mating. These fantasies may appeal to mature audiences for an evening of pure delusional entertainment. While the theater company presents this play as “a comic collection of dating do’s and don’ts”, some fools for love may prefer observing more heartfelt emotion and less dysfunction. Still, InTandem successfully delivers a provocative night of fun.. InTandem Theatre Company presents Romantic Fools at Tenth Street Theatre until May 17. Also enjoy supporting an innovative mission for the promotion of theater arts in Milwaukee by attending their annual fundraiser, Bottoms Up – a casual evening of beer tasting on June 5. For more information and tickets for either the play or fundraiser: 414.271.171 or visit In Tandem’s website. For venue, tickets, showtimes and more, visit Footlights Milwaukee online.
May 4th, 2009 by Peggy Sue Dunigan
May 4-12, 2009
It's a splashy week in Milwaukee performing and visual arts: Marvin Hamlisch, old-time radio, The Great Divorce, Beauty and the Beast, 42nd Street, Willy Wonka, Mad Hot Ballroom, Cirque du Soleil and more.
May 3rd, 2009 by Brian Jacobson
‘Cabaret’ at Carte Blanche Studios
...many of the players have to deliver lines, sing, and kick kick twirl kick while in various stages of provocative wear only inches from the front row. A series of invisible doors and narrow entryways rush players onstage and props switch back and forth. With no abundance of space, every inch becomes amorphous and left to the audience to imagine further.
May 3rd, 2009 by Brian Jacobson
Carousel Resurrects the Slide Projector
Last Friday, on the hottest and most beautiful day of the year, it was difficult to stay indoors. But the promise of a quirky and intriguing slide show was tempting enough to bring me in. As I settled into my seat in the back room of Woodland Pattern, I didn't know what to expect from my first Carousel.
Apr 28th, 2009 by Erin Petersen
