Two people, one park bench and a lifetime of stories form the narrative of Next Act Theatre’s premiere of “One Time,” by Chicago playwright Richard Lyons Conlon. It’s a story of secrets shared as two people meet again after years of separation and discover how past decisions affected their lives.
The production runs April 5-29 at Next Act’s new performance space, 255 S.Water St., Milwaukee.
Steven Brinberg as Streisand. - Photo: Mark Rupp
If Steven Brinberg ever has the chance to meet Barbra Streisand, the performer he’s been impersonating for nearly 20 years, his first question for the superstar would be about Chinese food.
“The Chosen,” playing through March 25 at the In Tandem Theatre Company, is an ambitious project.
A story of the 1940s friendship of two Jewish boys – the Hassidic Danny Saunders and the modern Orthodox Reuven Malter – might seem worlds away from most Milwaukeeans, including Jewish ones. Unlikely friends, their friendship is so profound that it helps them understand the turbulent times: the Holocaust murder of 6 million Jews, the creation of the state of Israel, and post-war America.
Gertrude ''Ma'' Rainey Pridgett. – Photo: Courtesy
"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," the first and best known of August Wilson's 10-play cycle about the African-American experience, opens the second half of the 2011-2012 season at UW-Madison's theater department. It also marks the University Theatre directorial debut of associate professor Patrick Sims, a native of Chicago's South Side with a strong affinity for Wilson.
Whether the relationship is same-sex or opposite-sex, the course of true love never runs smoothly. But can you laugh your way through the hardships?
Writer Jeff Kahn and actress/writer Annabelle Gurwitch originally took what Kahn says was a typical approach to couples counseling. The results were questionable.
Scene from the 2010 concert version.
In mounting its concert version of “Jesus Christ Superstar” later this month, In Tandem Theatre Company is seeking economic salvation. That’s what the Milwaukee theater troupe received in 2010 when it staged a successful fundraiser using the same material.
The Milwaukee Rep’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s “In the Next Room or the vibrator play” runs March 7-April 22 at the Stiemke Studio. For more, go to www.milwaukeerep.com.
Laura Gordon takes umbrage – albeit humorously – at the thought of the actors she directs in Milwaukee Repertory Theater productions simulating any aspect of their characters. This debate becomes even more, uh, penetrating when what we’re talking about are the actors’ orgasms that run throughout the Rep’s upcoming production of “In the Next Room or the vibrator play.”
In addition to being one of the most influential writers in history, Jane Austen was an accomplished pianist, albeit at an amateur level. She is said to have practiced her pianoforte every day, usually an hour before her household awoke for breakfast. She hoped no one would hear her then.
Two performers from the Peninsula Music Festival chamber music series are taking some of Austen's musical favorites to prime time this month. "The Music of Jane Austen," presented at 7 p.m. on Feb. 17, introduces Door County listeners to the music most beloved by the famous author. The presentation also features anecdotes about the more tuneful side of Austen's life.
Colleen Madden and Jim Ridge in Forward Theater Co.’s production of “Love Stories” runs April 12-29 at The Playhouse at Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts. For more information, visit www.forwardtheater.com.
Effective communication is the heartbeat of any relationship, and its absence can extinguish even the most passionate coupling. The connection among couples – and its lack – thread together the three one-act plays that comprise “Love Stories,” the final 2011-2012 seasonal offering of Madison’s Forward Theater Company. The three-plays-as-one runs April 12 to 29 in The Playhouse at Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts.
For years, evangelical pastor Ted Haggard preached against homosexuality and contributed to a climate of fear and intolerance in Colorado Springs, Colo. Then, in 2006, it was revealed that he’d bought sex and crystal methamphetamine from a male prostitute. Haggard almost immediately resigned from his New Life Church and entered counseling.
Sound like a good idea for musical theater?
Jervis Pendleton (Robert Adelman Hancock) and Jerusha Abbott (Megan McGinnis) in the Ventura, Calif., production of ''Daddy Long Legs,'' which Skylight Music Theatre is staging March 9 to April 1. – Photo: Courtesy
Playwright John Ciard wants to make one thing perfectly clear: "Daddy Long Legs," his musical adaptation of Jean Webster's 1912 young adult novel that opens March 9 at the Skylight Music Theatre, bears little resemblance to the 1955 Fred Astaire film of the same name.
Ruth Schudson and Mark Ulrich in Next Act Theater's ''Vigil.'' – Photo: Courtesy
Opinions differ, but actor Edmund Gwenn is generally attributed with the epithet, "Dying is easy; comedy is hard."
