Peggy Sue Dunigan - Page 6

n an evening to honor women and their contributions to the arts, Milwaukee's Renaissance Theaterworks (RTW) announced their 25th anniversary season while Support Women in the Arts Now, or SWAN, on Monday, March 27, immediately after a Milwaukee weekend dedicated to women in the arts. The month and date's significance mattered. Saturday, March 25 celebrated the 10th International SWAN holiday, and since the organization's inception, over 1500 SWAN events have been held in more than 36 countries. As the www.womensart.org website claims, the ultimate purpose of these SWAN events 'showcases the power and diversity of women's creativity.'

Actor Frank Ferrante begins on Milwaukee's Stackner Cabaret's stage by walking over to a small table, sitting down, and then placing the iconic thick black mustache and eyebrows defining the indomitable comedian Groucho Marx. In the The Milwaukee Repertory Theater's superb production An Evening With Groucho written by Ferrante and directed by Dreya Weber, the transformation from actor to classic comic spirt engages the audience in a collusion of laughter and humor for all audiences.

First Stage invites a recent Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts production to Milwaukee for a Midwest premiere: Mockingbird (mok'ing burd). The National Book Award WinnerYoung Adult novel by Katherine Ersking and adapted by Julie Jensen presents the story of Caitlin-a 12 year old challenged by autism. To add to the young girl's life, Caitlin recently lost her brother Devin. This leaves only her father and she to deal with their grief and moving forward in the compelling and poignant production. 

At the intimate theater in downtown Anoka, Minnesota, Lyric Arts presents an absolutely 'pee-popping' version of the 2001 Broadway hit Urinetown; The Musical. When the musical was first proposed, producers initially rejected the comic/tragic satire (A 'sad' musical as the character Little Sally names the production), yet numerous Urinetown performances captured Drama Desk and Tony Awards through 2001 and 2002. The multi-layered musical featured at Lyric Arts presents an equally multi-talented cast who can act, dance and sing, triple threats in theater, with thrilling results. Director Matt McNabb amps up the productions to a hyper realistic state, perfect for todays political scenarios into an entertaining and enlightening theatrical evening.

The Milwaukee Repertory Theater's multi-award winning play Grounded, grounds a pregnant woman fighter pilot while also grounding the audiences in the intimate Stiemke Studio's compelling and complex production. George Brant's contemporary 2013 play demonstrates how drones have transformed both fighter pilots and the 'games of global war' because in the 21st century, drones hover over the skies of foreign countries similar to space ships in a violent video game. Either movement controlled by one person in a solitary cubicle or sitting in front of a tiny screen. Instead of B-15 bombers that fly into the blue manned by pilots, men and women, presently sit in front of huge screens sequestered in silence waiting and watching for any movement so drones may attack from across the world in the name of 'reducing the loss of human life.'

In the inviting ambiance of Plymouth Church, Boulevard Theater's endearing Taking Shakespeare resonates with the heartbeats and sorrow inherent in classic literature, especially William Shakespeare's Othello. John Murrell's recent play presents a new perspective on this iconic tragedy in the church's Graham Chapel, a perfect backdrop for an old apartment where a tenured professor lived for more than thirty years. When she's asked to tutor a new college student, the two character production match wits between the young Murph, Jake Konrath, alongside a women English professor, Amy Callahan.

Enjoy an adventurous trip with First Stage and their singing Troubadour through the 14th century Sherwood Forest. In a collaboration with playwrights Joe Foust and John Maclay, Jeff Frank directs the world premiere Robin Hood--- complete with thrilling stage combat from the legendary anti-hero. This courageous Robin Hood 'asked for donations' from the English Elite at the point of his sword, collected and then contributed to the poor surrounding him in England. Among Robin's following where those, merry men and women who wanted to participate in as Maclay says, 'a rebellion against greed and corruption' in an attempt to right the wrongs in their world. Frank, Foust and Maclay turn the stage into Robin Hood's playground through Jody Sekas' stage design and Melissa Torchia's costume design, which allows an extremely fluid and fast paced production. Geoffrey, a young performer Jeff Burns from the Sherwood Forest cast, sings and strums Musical Director Jeff Schaetzke's original ballads playing the roving troubadour. His idiosyncratic lyrics make the audience laugh, as does the often contemporary, tongue in cheek humor throughout the play-often hilarious. While actor Dominique Worsley embodies a fierce, yet sympathetic Robin, Maclay's Sheriff of Nottingham and Foust's incomparable Archbishop of York stir their own brand of extraordinary humor and strength trying to capture 'the Hood.'

In a play more than 2000 years old written by Euripides titled The Trojan Women, Dale Gutzman's Off the Wall Theater (OTW) reimagines their Women of Troy set in the 1920's. Gutzman worked several years to adapt the play inspired by a Don Taylor translation revealing the aftermath of the infamous Trojan War through a women's eyes, the prisoners and refugees shipped to another city. These were the women who survived when their brothers, fathers, husbands and sons were slaughtered by the Athenians, after the legendary Trojan horse 'birthed blood' that flowed into Troy's streets.

For any two young adults, caring for an infant can be a daunting responsibility. For Karlie and Peter, a young couple trying to kick a meth addiction, an infant can be overwhelming and sometimes forgotten in light of their personal circumstances. Renaissance Theaterworks presents Rebecca Gilman's provocative play LUNA GALE, which relates how the tiny baby Luna Gale is removed from Karlie and Peter's home because of neglect, despite the fact they love each other and their child. On stage in the Studio Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center, LUNA GALE asks veteran social worker Caroline to give this couple who want to raise their child another chance while Caroline temporarily places Luna Gale in 'kin care,' a type of foster care that relies on a relative.

Marquette University, Milwaukee and Al McQuire became synonymous during the coach's tenure with Men's Basketball during the 1970's. To celebrate the illustrious legacy,  Milwaukee Repertory Theater captivates the audience's enthusiasm and excitement in the Stackner Cabaret. After the university hired McGuire in 1964, the showman coach propelled the men's Basketball team to a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship. Now on stage to begin the 2017 winter season, McQuire's endearing story returns to the city and university that made him famous in their intimate, stellar one man production directed by Brent Hazelton and featuring multiple award-winning actor Anthony Crivello. 

A cozy, celebratory dinner party in a cosmopolitan New York penthouse ignites irreversible damage between friends in Ayad Ahktar's 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning play Disgraced now on stage at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's Quadracci Powerhouse. Eventually, each character in the no intermission production will somehow be disgraced-sometimes by their personal identity, religion or culture and determined through their own specific actions or reactions to another person. The Rep becomes the third theater company to mount Disgraced in a co-production with Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater and New Jersey's McCarter Theatre in what has become the most produced play in 2016. One only needs to attend to understand why this potent combination of contemporary dilemmas facing Americans personally and politically drew the country's theatrical attention.

While the snow fell outside the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, snow feel on stage in The Milwaukee Ballet's enchanting The Nutcracker. The irresistible holiday tradition continues under Artistic Director Michael Pink dazzling costumes, set designs, and magical lighting by David Grill. The MKE Ballet orchestra accompanies the production conducted by Pasquale Laurino, where exquisite harps and marimbas punctuate Pyotr Ilyiich Tchaikovsky's iconic score, along with the voices of the Milwaukee Children's Choir. Audiences thrill to one entire evening admiring dance and music in the name of this classical art.

Black Arts MKE presents their joyous and triumphant 2nd annual version of Langston Hughes' Black Nativity first produced in 1961. Numerous theaters throughout America remount the production every year to celebrate the holiday season with an all African American cast. At Wilson Theater in Vogel Hall, Malkia Stampley directs an all star cast of 18 members including charming children and professional actors accompanied by live musicians under the music direction of Antoine Reynolds, along with drummer Taurus Adams and bass player Afton Johnson, while they dance to  Marvette Knight's rousing choreography.

A late night, New York lobby, courtesy of Scenic Designer Stephen Hudson-Mairet, features one security guard and his captain supervisor who delve into current moral dilemmas during Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's Lobby Hero. Director C. Michael Wright challenges his audience through witty humor and gender controversy from Kenneth Lonergan's play underscoring a women cop working in a man's world--and a male cop working the system and also trying to achieve heroic glory.

What could be a better holiday gift to Milwaukee than a World Premiere adaptation of Dickens' beloved A Christmas Carol? On Friday night, Artistic Director Mark Clements opened his resplendent adaptation for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater in the gorgeous Pabst Theatre. In this innovative adaptation by Clements in collaboration with a stunning artistic team, the production renewed holiday magic in the company's 41st year for the city that Clements and The Rep call home.

Aspiring young performers from across the country challenge Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of his death (April. 2016) in a national festival this past fall. To do so, First Stage's Young Company, Milwaukee's pre-professional training program for young actors, recently traveled to the Utah Shakespeare Festival with Associate Artistic Director John Maclay and Teaching Artist Marcella Kearns to compete with literally 100's of schools and theaters from across the country on how Shakespeare inspires young audiences. While eleven members competed in the 2016 Young Company, two identical twins, Alex and Sydney Salter both participated in the festival competition and play the twin Dromios in the Company's upcoming Comedy of Errors, As First Stage celebrates 30 years, Young Company begins this 13th season. Maclay comments on the program when he says, '[Young Company] It's about challenging these fantastic young artists with difficult material and working to inspire an ethic of excellence.'

When Dickens wrote his timeless Christmas story about mid 19th century London audiences often push aside, especially at the holidays, he wanted his audiences to be transformed into seeing their world  in a new way. In 2016, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater produces their 41st incarnation of Charles Dickens' beloved A Christmas Carol beginning on opening night, December 2. The historical Pabst Theater houses Dickens' story, first published in 1843, with a innovative adaptation conceived by Artistic Director Mark Clements and begins a journey with Ebenezer Scrooge into his past, present and future.

Written 30 plus years ago in 1985, the late Milwaukee playwright Larry Shue's award winning Foreigner first debuted at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. After playing Broadway in the 80's, and reprised by numerous theaters across the country on an annual basis, Foreigner returns to the Quadracci Powerhous for the holiday season. Directed by the inimitable Laura Gordon who understands Shue's incomparable blend of humor, relevance and warm heartedness, could re-envision this scenario in a rural Georgia bed and breakfast inn. At the Georgia inn, a British Sergeant, Froggy, rescues his low spirited and shy friend Charlie for a weekend's stay Here Charlie meets the winsome inn owner, Betty, a conspiring reverend, David Marshall Lee, his fiance Catherine, her younger brother, Ellard, and a rapscallion homegrown Georgian, Owen. Throw in Catherine and Ellard's recent inheritance, and the invisible white empire on a starry night, and Shue created a hilarious farce, even when seen several times.

What defines a family--those people who love by sacrificing their own life for someone else? In a lavish production where Chris March's luscious costumes touch the senses, Skylight Music Theater stages the 1983 Broadway musical La Cage Aux Folles. Scenic Designer Liliana Duque Piñeiro complements March's fabulous costumes by hanging a serpentine curtain of reflective silver strips across the stage that sparkles when Lighting Designer Noele Stollmack illuminates the fluid curtain with a rainbow of colors throughout the production Originally written by Harvey Fierstein with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, this musical based on a French play by Jean Poirot, won multiple awards in its production year and also in several later revivals. 

This season Milwaukee Repertory Theater's Stackner Cabaret warms the holidays with the Great American Songbook: A tribute to the incomparable composer Irving Berlin in the musical revue I Love A Piano. When an old forlorn piano with one broken note magically reveals the instrument's history during the performance, Berlin's lyrics and melodies that defined the country's multiple generations play on. In this mesmerizing production filled with more than 50 Berlin songs, the cabaret regales America's 1910's to post World War II eras that stirs memories in the audience's heart and soul.