Theater
The 2007-2008 Fine Arts Season Preview
By Russ Bickerstaff and Evan Solochek Having survived the uncertainties of a Milwaukee winter, things settle down as our performing arts groups begin to look forward to next season. As usual, 2007-08 events closest to the present happen to also be the furthest from Milwaukee, as spring pushes performances further away from the theatre district for the summer. West of Madison, The American Players Theatre in Spring Green is one of the most consistently satisfying theatre companies in the state. The outdoor repertory group starts its season this June with a production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, which may have a difficult time topping Milwaukee Shakespeare’s outstanding production of the same play earlier this season. With a talented APT cast including Michael Gotch and James DeVita, it’s definitely going to be good. Along with the usual Shakespearian bits, the APT will be performing Shaw’s Misalliance and Tennessee Williams’ Night of the Iguana. To the north and east, The American Folklore Theatre in Fish Creek starts its season in June as well with the world premiere of A Cabin With A View. It’s a musical romantic comedy based on E.M. Forster’s novel of the same name, with the AFT’s usual touches of Wisconsin charm. AFT’s season also includes reprisals of two of its biggest hits: Belgians in Heaven and the irrepressible Guys On Ice. Further in the future but closer to home, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre opens its season in August with a production of Ron Hutchinson’s comedy Moonlight and Magnolias. The impressive cast of Michael Herold, Marcy Kearns, Daniel Mooney and Gerard Neugent relate the story of those strange hours that passed as the script for Gone With The Wind was written. The Chamber’s season also includes performances of short monologues (with Talking Heads, which opens in October) and a play based on the very, very long Dostoyevsky novel Crime and Punishment. The Boulevard Theatre opens its 2007-2008 season in August with David Mamet’s brilliant dramatic tribute to the art of the sale with Glengarry Glen Ross. The Boulevard’s freshly announced season features some clever choices for its tiny space, including the holocaust drama The Last Letter, a play about Clarence Darrow, a romantic French farce and Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well. Shakespeare continues to catch the stage in rather unexpected places as The Milwaukee Ballet’s upcoming season features graceful interpretations of both Hamlet (in November) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (in April). In keeping with the production standards of the Ballet, set and costuming for April’s show should be every bit as impressive as the performance itself. In addition to the familiar standards of the Nutcracker and the annual trip to the Pabst, the Milwaukee Ballet’s season also includes what should prove to be a lavish production of La Bayadere, a sumptuous tale of love and jealousy. And now to raise the curtain on the coming season…. ACACIA THEATRE COMPANY Integrating art and faith, Acacia provides occasion for all to consider their lives in relation to God. Season […]
Apr 1st, 2007 by Russ Bickerstaff
Trudy Blue
By Jill Gilmer “Can I speak to them?” Ginger Andrews asks, referring to her family as she watches them weep at Ginger’s funeral. She poses the question to a fellow angel who is watching the funeral with her from their heavenly perch. “No,” the other angel replies. “That is what your life was for.” Talk to the people you love while you are still alive. This is the simple yet provocative message of Trudy Blue, a play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marcia Norman presented by the Dramatists Theatre. The play is based on Ms. Norman’s personal journey after she learns that she has two months to live. Like Ms. Norman, lead character Ginger Andrews, a novelist, later learns that her doctor’s diagnosis of lung cancer is wrong. Thus, she will have to continue living her dreary life, a fate more devastating to Ginger than the death prediction. The play takes place nearly entirely in Ginger’s mind as she contemplates conversations with her family and with Trudy Blue, a character from one of her novels who also represents Ginger’s alter ego. The play mingles these “real conversations with imaginary people and imaginary conversations with real people” interchangeably, an intriguing technique that is at times confusing to the audience. Despite the erratic effectiveness of this dramatic technique, the play succeeds in illustrating the results that ensue when a writer channels painful thoughts and feelings into fictitious characters and stories instead of sharing them with the people involved. As a series of surprising revelations unfold over the course of the play, the audience witnesses the potential damage to relationships when a person conceals their true persona from the people they love. It’s a dynamic that is likely experienced by introverts and artists of many types. The Dramatists Theatre’s production of Trudy Blue is a commendable adaptation of a difficult story. Unfortunately, its overall impact is diminished by an inexperienced cast, which offers the audience minimal assistance in understanding or caring about the two central characters, Ginger and her alter-ego, Trudy Blue. A tedious first act may lose some audience members while the stage is set for the more compelling second half. This notwithstanding, a play of this complexity is an impressive accomplishment for a theatre company in its second season, operating on a shoe-string budget. (The actors were not paid, and artistic director Marjorie Shoemann also manned the box office and snack bar.)VS Trudy Blue is the second installment in the Dramatists Theatre’s series of plays by Marcia Norman. Each season, the company showcases the work of a single playwright. Trudy Blue runs through Saturday, November 18 at the Marian Center for Non-Profits, 3211 S. Lake Drive. Tickets are $16. For reservations, please call 414-243-9168.
Nov 15th, 2006 by Vital Archives
