Peggy Sue Dunigan - Page 14

Milwaukee's Next Act theater needs to be filled to overflowing and sold out each performance this winter for their new production: Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Artistic Director David Cecsarini co-directs the play with Jonathan Smoots in a compelling evening where 37 characters, individuals, appear on stage courtesy of a spectacular theatrical company  The six actors represent the diverse human milieu affected by the Rodney King beating, and then the subsequent looting and riots devastating Los Angeles in 1992. 

The heavens appear to open above the Minneapolis audience when a cloud filled sky hovers over the stage in the' Guthrie Theater's Wurtele Thrust Stage this winter. Artistic debuts abound in the company's glorious new production of William Shakespeare's Pericles, named one of the Washington Post's 2015 top ten productions in American theater. The production arrives in association with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and The Folger Theatre where incoming Artistic Director Joseph Haj transports the city to this ancient tale placed on and around the Mediterranean Sea where redemption washes like water over Shakespeare's heroes and heroines at the story's end.

Milwaukee Rep's Stackner Cabaret hosts a sultry, sensational evening featuring a brief biographical musical revue of blues star Bessie Smith. Their masterful production, The Devil's Music: The Life and Times of Bessie Smith, a Drama Desk nominated musical by Angela Parro, embraces the essence of the Empress of the Blues through the magnificent voice of Zonya Love, and Bessie's piano man, Pickle, who flashes his fingers on those ivories as DeMone, an actor making his Milwaukee Rep debut.

What designates a miracle in today's world---or in the realm of theological dogma? Artists might claim every time a concert, a dance, a live performance or visual picture appears constitutes a small creative miracle. Renaissance Theaterworks (RTW) presents numerous theatrical miracles in their transcendent production Agnes of God on stage this winter in the Studio Theater.

In a beautiful, breathtaking evening at Milwaukee Rep, Artistic Director Mark Clements reprises his critically acclaimed production Of Mice and Men. On stage, Todd Edward Ivins' elegant, grand set design creates a wooden bunkhouse where shadows flow onto the stage and complements Jesse Klug's sensual lighting. These technical elements elevate John Steinbeck's bindlestiffs and ranch hands set in 1935 California that represent humanity's great struggles to connect to another human being and achieve lofty if sometimes, unattainable dreams.

Dig, dig, dig--Digging five foot deep holes, five feet wide, in a barren desert is what the teenage boys at Camp Green Lake, Texas, do every day from sunrise to sunset. Louis Sachar's award-winning, beloved novel of two boys who learn to be friends in a detention camp comes to life at First Stage's entertaining production Holes in the Todd Wehr Theater through February 14. Directed by Jeff Frank on Rick Rasmussen's desolate stage territory, a place where rain has not touched the ground for over 100 years, Lyndsey Kuhlmann's orange detention suits provide the only color while Mary MacDonald Kerr's slick Warden suits often shine with rhinestones, a spark of the dark side at what will be a historic site for several camp members. 

To begin the new year, First Stage reprises Holes, a 1998 National Book Award Winner (for Young People's Literature) and 1999 Newbery Medal Award novel. Author Louis Sachar eventually transformed his novel into a Theater for Young Audience script, which retains much of the impressive language of the original text. Company Artistic Director Jeff Frank delights in returning the fantasy/mystery story to the Todd Wehr stage while also directing this new production. Originally produced by the company in 2004, HOLES captures themes resonating 11 years later as Frank believes, 'This compelling mystery story, a myth, reverberates over generations.'

No stranger to acclaimed success, the Sixth Season of Milwaukee Rep Lab produced a fabulous evening of eight short plays in the Stiemke Studio. Fifteen to twenty gifted Emerging Professional Residents (EPR) enraptured the audience with their primarily comic offerings interspersed with several poignant themed stories--and the audience responded with a standing ovation.

What a privilege to watch Young Company produce an all feminine All's Well That Ends Well. On Sunday night at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, Shakespeare's  coming of age romance unfolded under the direction of Marcella Kearns, who produced an amazing performance. Young Company's Director John Maclay acknowledged the beauty of the play, asking the audience to 'lean in and listen to the Bard's beautiful and evocative language.'

First Stage's prestigious Young Company, a troupe of advanced high school aged professionals-in-training, recently earned top honors in the Utah Shakespeare Festival/ Southern Utah University Shakespeare Competition this October. The 12-year old company of more than 50 youths sends a select group to compete in Utah and then tackles classical theater year round in Milwaukee that continually prepares them for these elite competitions. This December, under the direction of veteran Milwaukee actor Marcella Kearns (pictured) Young Company tweaks a challenging Shakespeare play with mature themes: All's Well That Ends Well.

In December, In Tandem Theatre presents their brand new 'alternative' holiday entertainment:A Twisted Carol. True to the title, Mondy Carter's (book and lyrics) accompanied by Nathan Wesselowski's music offers more than merely a 'twisted' version of Charles Dickens' beloved A Christmas Carol. This evening of laughs and slightly deranged literary characters  brightens the festive season with In Tandem's unique take on the classic tale.

Opening night at the Pabst Theatre this December celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Milwaukee Rep's A Christmas Carol. The city's mayor Tom Barrett was on hand with an executive from Wells Fargo, the production's corporate sponsor. Each man echoed that theater, especially this longstanding tradition of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, creates family memories that last a lifetime and brings the community together.

In the 50th anniversary year of the award winning, animated television special, the live production A Charlie Brown Christmas captured the imagination of Milwaukee audiences this past weekend. First Stage presents a theatrical interpretation of the beloved holiday classic, adapted by Eric Schaeffer and overflowing with young voices, which continues to light up the hearts and laughter in Peanuts' fans since 1965.

'I know of only one duty,' said George Bernard Shaw, 'And that is to love.' While Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) presents a trilogy of one acts titled Love Stories--- including Shaw's short, three-scene play titled 'Village Wooing'---next door to the Studio Theatre the Skylight Music Theatre features Shaw's My Fair Lady, a version of Shaw's 'Pygmalion,' both at the Broadway Theatre Center. Numerous themes echo through these separate shows regarding social class and male/female relationships, particularly those experienced in marriage. Actual life partners and actors Tami Workentin and James Pickering prove to be the genuine actors, true gems in this production, illustrating love inside and outside the theater to the delight of Milwaukee audiences.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater transports London's inimitable West End theater tradition to Milwaukee on their Quadracci Powerhouse stage. One of the theater's most successful playwrights, Agatha Christie, and her murder mystery The Mousetrap, haunt and humor theatergoers this November and December. The beguiling The Mousetrap production places several unusual characters in a guest house while snowbound in a small town near London. There's no where for anyone to escape after a seemingly unrelated murder occurs, and the audience applauds every moment as the nursery rhyme tune 'Three Blind Mice.' plays in the background several times during the performance while the guests figure out why they are all considered suspects.

Assembling an amazing array of talent appearing on the Cabot Theatre Stage, the Skylight Music Theatre's My Fair Lady lingers in the audience's mind long after their standing ovations.---just as Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's magnificent musical did when the production first opened on Broadway in 1956. Bloomin' with classic melodies, enduring and memorable, the acclaimed Dorothy Danner directs this brilliant cast with beautiful, fantastical costumes (especially hats) fashioned by Chris March.

In a backstage dressing room of New York's Metropolitan Opera, Enrico Caruso appears as David Cecsarini, Artistic Director of Next Act Theater. The company's perfectly paired production also features Christopher Tramantana as Caruso's faithful valet, Mario. In playwright William Luce's Bravo, Caruso!. the audiences recalls that even gifted performers face trials and tribulations. During this production, Caruso prepares for what will eventually be his final  performance, this time as the Rabbi Eleazar in the Met's La Juive on Christmas Eve, 1920, far away from where Caruso's heart desires to be, in Napoles, Italy, his homeland that he loves.

Every time Guys on Ice takes to the stage writer and lyricist Fred Alley's spirit soars again. Milwaukee Rep's Stackner Cabaret presents this unique musical for the holiday season directed by Northern Sky Theater Artistic Director Jeffrey Herbst and also Alley's boyhood friend. .Music Director and composer James Kaplan mans the keyboards along with Bo Johnson. Played out on the intimate cabaret stage, up close and personal for Miwlaukee audiences, Lloyd, Marvin and Ernie the Moocher revive the age old Northern Wisconsin tradition--Ice Fishing-- with several humorous and poignant 'twists.

Happiness and cheer come calling at First Stage with the debut of A Charlie Brown Christmas. The company's Artistic Director Jeff Frank had been writing this produciton on his own Christmas to-be-produced list in a continual effort to bring the1965 award-winning television special to the theater since he arrived in 1999. Only recently have the copyrights been released through Eric Schaeffer's stage adaptation, and Frank immediately seized the opportunity to warm Milwaukee's hearts and introduce a new generation to the world created by Charles Schulz. Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the Peanuts gang take over the Todd Wehr Theater beginning on Friday, November 27 for a superb holiday celebration.

Boulevard Ensemble Theatre opened their 30th season at the East Side Plymouth Church presenting an absolutley charming romance Handle with Care. Award-winning author and playwright Jason Odell Williams' wrote a heartwarming comedy and intertwines several religious traditions when a young Jewish woman, Ayelot, travels from Israel to America with her Grandmother Edna to rural Virginia, and tonight of all nights, Christmas Eve, they land in the small town of Goodview.