Topdog/Underdog

Translations

By Russ Bickerstaff Language rarely gets the center stage in any major theatrical production. Even in the best scripts, language is far too busy conveying meaning to call much attention to itself. With Translations, Irish playwright Brian Friel (Dancing at Lughnasa) has deftly coaxed language into the spotlight with charm and passion in a story of love and loss in the slow fade out of a culture in decline. The Milwaukee Rep continues its 2006-2007 season with a powerful production of the drama on its main stage. The play is set in a meticulously detailed Hedge School in County Donegal of rural Ireland in 1833. As the lights rise to illuminate the beginning of the first act, Manus (Jonathan Gillard Daly) is working with a woman named Sarah (Colleen Madden). She has great difficulty speaking. With great struggle, she manages to whisper her name and where she’s from. Madden doesn’t speak much in the role, but she’s always saying something. Subtle glances and movements convey a great deal in an excellent performance by Madden. From humble beginnings between student and teacher, the play broadens rather quickly into a large ensemble play. A particularly sharp Torrey Hanson plays educated Irish native Owen who has moved away to England. He has returned to County Donegal with British soldiers to help them rename the geography so that it can be spoken in clear British English. As a native Irishman, he is assisting British Lieutenant Yolland (talented Chicago actor John Hoogenakker) in the job. Yolland is quite taken with Ireland’s charm, which contrasts against the more progressively minded Owen. Irishman-turned-Brit plays against the Brit-becoming-Irish in an interesting thematic dynamic. When it becomes clear that Yolland is falling in love with local woman Maire (Leah Curney), things get considerably more complicated for everyone involved. The Irish in County Donegal all speak Gaelic, so Owen is acting as translator. Friel wouldn’t have much of an audience for the play if most of it was spoken in a dying language, so everyone speaks English. This has the strange effect of making it seem like the British and the native Irish could understand each other in the play if they’d just stop and listen. It’s a casual absurdity that keeps conversations between British and Irish accents interesting for the entire length of the play. A talented cast plays out the intricate interplay between many different shades of character as one culture takes over another. James Pickering is strong as a highly educated Irishman named Hugh who teaches at the school and spends much of his spare time drunk. There’s quite a bit in this play spoken in Latin and he’s usually he one instigating it. His students include a weaselly farmer named Doalty (a clever Jonathan Wainwright), a clever girl named Bridget (Sarah Sokolovic, back from New York for the role) and, of course, the highly progressive Maire. As all struggle to be able to recite Latin etymological derivations on a moment’s notice for their shrewd teacher, Maire […]

They Came From Way Out There

By Russ Bickerstaff With all the many different themes and subjects floating around local stages these past few years, it’s surprising that the paranormal hasn’t received much attention. The Milwaukee Rep rectifies this with a production of Jahnna Beecham and Malcom Hillgartner’s cabaret musical They Came From Way Out There. Authors of last year’s acclaimed cabaret show Chaps!, Beecham and Hillgartner have put together another enjoyable evening of song and dance for the Rep’s Stackner Cabaret. The show is set at a meeting of a fictitious paranormal society. The performers each play a candidate for the Society’s next president. Every major different aspect of the paranormal is represented in the cast. Michael Herold plays the Society’s founder – a man who had a close encounter in the Nevada desert half a decade ago. Jill Marie Anderson plays his wife, who he met during an out of body experience. (Their meeting is illustrated in a clever country-western-inspired musical number entitled “You Stepped Out Of Your Body and Into My Life.” ) Anderson’s character is a prim, Christian New-Age type cleverly offset by the pseudo-neo-pagan New Ager played by Katherine Strohmaier. In a clever turn for the character’s archetype, she sings a sweet love song to a Bigfoot that manages a brilliant end rhyme with the word “Yetti.” Lenny Banovez plays the stereotypical young, paranoid conspiracy nut. Banovez cuts a pleasantly erratic figure onstage, performing the same song in both rock and hip-hop styles before performing a tender duet with Strohmaier near the end of the show. Chip DuFord rounds out the cast as a scientist who had worked for NASA, privy to strange government secrets about the paranormal. In one of the production’s best moments, DuFord discovers evidence of mysterious home furnishings appearing in the skies all over the country. He is confronted by a hyper-intelligent recliner who offers to answer any question he asks. Michael Herold plays the recliner in what has to be the single most brilliant costume to appear on a local stage in a very long time. It’s amazing. The show’s pacing is wild and irreverent, including some surprisingly offbeat experimental stuff for The Rep. There’s an entire skit involving a rampaging bunny shadow puppet that may not be particularly funny (or really have much entertainment value, to be perfectly honest) but it shows a staggeringly edgy spirit for a mainstream show. Much of the rest of the fringe elements inherent in They Came From Way Out There are relegated to minor asides and obscure references that don’t detract from the overall experience. For all of its strange asides, this really is a mainstream show that will appeal to a relatively wide audience. Its weaker moments keep it from being completely enjoyable, firmly grounding it in the commercial end of the spectrum. The many different skits and songs provide an opportunity for the actors to perform a wide range of different characters. DuFord’s straight-laced scientist is accompanied by multiple performances as burnt-out drunks. Strohmaier is sweet as […]

Pan’s Labyrinth

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Yeah, we’re five

By Jon Anne Willow + Mehrdad J. Dalamie From Mehrdad: February 2007 marks the beginning of the sixth year of VITAL Source. As I look back, I cannot help but wonder if we would have survived doing it any differently. By that I mean that all the ambition in the world would not have meant anything without all the sacrifices we made; running two businesses, virtually hundreds of hours a week; sleep deprivation, zero financial resources and so much uncharted territory could and would push any normal person out of the rat race in which we found ourselves. I’m not sure what other forces were behind us but a few are certain. The love and desire to be an alternate voice within Milwaukee’s established media brought us here in the first place. And more importantly, the desire by the public, you, to hear what we had to say has kept us going. I started VITAL, but the second year brought a fresh breath and perspective, an intelligence that transcended all that previous, and like rocket fuel propelled us forward: Jon Anne Willow, my partner in my madness, to whom everything is indebted. We are celebrating our fifth anniversary on February 24th and we’d like you to join us. It would not be possible without your support. Thank you, Mehrdad J Dalamie Co-Publisher Dear Readers, Mehrdad is too nice. He’s been the water all along, holding up the boat so it doesn’t sink. All the wind in the world doesn’t matter if you’re dry-docked, and VITAL would be if not for him. He does all manner of unglamorous, sometimes seemingly unrelated work at all hours of the day and night to make sure our little ship of enterprise sails; he is the unsung force behind our continued existence. So next time you run into him behind the bar at Bremen Café, shoveling the sidewalk or delivering copies of the magazine, see him as a man who understands what it means to do whatever it takes to make dreams come true. He is that man, and I am grateful to know him. And as he said, it’s our birthday this month. How cool is that? This year has marked the launch of our new website (complete with blogs and all the modern bells and whistles), an increase in circulation and distribution, growth in advertising sales and most importantly, a spike in something intangible – access and awareness within the community. You’re telling us about stories that need to be told, inviting us to your events, coming to ours, writing us letters, visiting our website, being our myspace “friends” and generally showing us that you like VITAL (really, really). And that’s incredibly cool. So this issue is full of presents for you in the form of puzzles and games. Dwellephant’s maze opens the section and Brian Jacobson did one called Silent Sentinels which is all photos of local statues where you guess where they are and what they represent. Some of them are […]

Volver

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Living the dream

By Amy Elliott + Photo by Kate Engeriser “Everybody knows about these people,” the boy mutters. “It’s been drummed into their heads about 15,000 times.” He is a young student with a simple assignment: write a two-page essay about an African-American hero. But he is plagued by a classical academic anxiety: hasn’t it all been said before? Crushed by the pressure of history against his attempts to think and work creatively, he resigns and hangs his head. And then he is visited by the spectre of Harriet Tubman leading a chorus of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” The boy’s encounter with the legendary abolitionist is only the first in a long parade of dreamers, leaders, thinkers and changers. This is We Are The Dream, the story of history revisited and myths refreshed. The performance is the work of the African-American Children’s Theater (AACT), a nonprofit organization that has been providing arts education and mounting productions in the community since 1989. This is the first year that AACT has been able to expand its activities to include a resident company of eight to fourteen-year-old actors with exceptional talent, drive and commitment. The company members focus on perfecting their stagecraft in major collaborative roles both on and off the stage. For We Are The Dream, the small company researched, wrote and directed the play together. “I learned about people I never heard of before,” says resident Jakayla Dills. “Everybody knows about Martin Luther King, but I never learned anything about Barbara Jordan.” Jakayla plays Jordan, a former Texas state senator and the first southern black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Jakayla also appears as writer and civil rights activist Mary Church, one of the first black women to earn a college degree. When she is not in front of the audience, she is behind the scenes, mastering the skills of stage manager. Mahdi Gransbury, who stars as the plagued schoolboy, doubles as the assistant director for the play. “We work within our group,” says Constance Clark, founder and executive director of AACT, who is helping Mahdi learn about technical theater in hopes that he will be able to take over light, sound and stage design soon. “Ultimately,” she says, “he plans to take over everything.” Mahdi smirks and deviously laces his fingers. AACT’s team spirit befits the group’s goals, which extend far beyond the desire to put on a good show. Theater is a discipline; it enhances confidence, sharpens listening skills, fosters active participation and encourages healthy expression. Before each rehearsal, the kids spend some time talking to each other, sharing their ideas and anxieties. Then they channel their energy into their craft. “Art expresses all your feelings,” says resident Ashante Alfred. “If you’re having a bad day, it just makes you feel happier.” Working through a play can be rigorous, but when the curtain falls, the children go home with a certain artistic wisdom better learned by practice than by books. Some of the actors find that the challenge […]