On Stage

The storyline sounds familiar: Joey, a 17-year-old kid, runs away from home and moves in with the grandparents he hardly knows, since they have long been estranged from his parents.

But we haven’t quite seen this story before, because the grandparents are a gay couple, Donald and Patrick – yes, “Grandma” is a man. And Joey is a gay kid who has had enough of the bullying he’s suffered and of the insensitivity of his own parents, Gene and Corrine.

When actor Greg Vinkler dons drag and plays Lady Bracknell in Peninsula Players’ production of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” he will be participating in one more grand theater tradition. This tradition, however, is not very old.

Since Wilde’s “trivial comedy for serious people” premiered in 1895, it has featured a long line of actresses portraying the Lady Bracknell role, including Dame Edith Evans and Stockard Channing. But beginning about 1975, male actors also have played the character, says Vinkler, who also serves as artistic director for the summer stock company based in the Door County community of Fish Creek. Brian Bedford played Bracknell in Roundabout Theatre Co.’s revival of the play on Broadway earlier this year, earning a Tony Award nomination in the process.

Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” is considered to be the iconic gay American playwright’s most autobiographical work. The drama of the Wingfield family and its dashed dreams, crystallized in a collection of small glass animals, opens American Players Theatre’s summer season at Touchstone, the intimate 201-seat indoor theater on the company’s Spring Green campus.

“The Glass Menagerie” is only APT’s second foray into Williams’ work. “The Night of the Iguana” was performed Up the Hill at APT’s outdoor amphitheater in 2007. But “Menagerie” marks a step forward for the company both in terms of intimacy and in exploring some of Williams’ most poignant themes, according to director Aaron Posner.

Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, the summer classical music ensemble in Madison that performs “chamber music with a bang,” opens its 20th season on June 10 by giving the New Harvest Foundation a boost in its fundraising efforts for LGBT causes.

BDDS’s opening concert at the Stoughton Opera House is preceded by cocktails and appetizers at 5:30 p.m., with a cake reception immediately following the 7:30 p.m. show. The after-show fundraiser takes place at the home of former New Harvest board member John Beutel. A $50 ticket purchases admission to the show and reception, while $35 gains admission to the concert only.