BWW Previews: Sturgeon Bay's Stage Door Theatre Company Presents Exceptional Summer Season Ahead

This winter to spring, Third Avenue Playhouse (TAP) at Stage Door Theatre Company brought award-winning playwright David Mamet's Oleanna to Sturgeon Bay. A provocative, mercurial three act, no intermission play premiering in 1992, Mamet portrays two unlikely opponents in a battle over their futures--a struggling college student Carol trying to make the honor role to gain admitance into graduate school who asks for help from a professor seeking tenure after multiple years of serving the university, John.

Two outstanding actors under the savvy direction of Co-Artistic Director Robert Boles recreate Mamet's compelling cat and mouse evening. The luminous Madeline Bunke, a recent theater graduate and actor to watch, transforms Carol's reticent, self-deprecating student to a hard-edged, no holds barred, penetrating feminine activist in 80 plus minutes. When the tables are turned on a semi-pompous, hoping-for-some-security in life professor, Alan Kopischke believably uncovers John's insecurities and resultant anger towards a student he thought he tried to help.

In Mamet's play through TAP's compelling production, the actors provide an exploration of higher education, the assumed meaning of politically charged words, and a disturbing misunderstanding between the sexes. Seemingly simple questions or events can spiral out of control without clarity to the underlying issues, more questions than answers provided by these characters and Mamet in his Oleanna, a name defined by an old folk song as meaning a somewhat Utopian society that eventually failed. Could Mamet's "Oleanna" infer contemporary legal systems, the university structure or the sexual issues still plaguing present day society? Perhaps the truest words spoken throughout the entire play, a critical key to interpersonal relationships, comes from John when he says, "We're all only human, imperfect."

If people would remember anyone and everyone can make mistakes, become upset when their future is threatened, and instead offer grace, mercy or forgiveness in place of retribution, the lines of communication can remain open or be restored. What was interesting is that Mamet representatives sent a "Cease and Desist" order to Milwaukee's Alchemist Theatre in 2014 when they substituted a male actor in the role of Carol to address the current same sex harassment issues, which could have been thought provoking when viewed under Mamet's piercing light of Oleanna. While Mamet intentionally created a controversial play pitting heterosexuals and their respective futures against each other, these few words, "imperfect human", might hold the compassion necessary to override escalating circumstances, no matter which sexual orientation is viewed and with other relationships the audience might encounter in their personal lives.

Olenna's dramatically amazing performances lead into a final production of the winter season with the romantic comedy Maid to Marry, which opens May 14. A production adapted and directed by James Valcq, who won a regional Broadway World award for his world premiere musical Anatole at Milwaukee's First Stage. Afterwards, the summer season begins with a World Premiere on June 18, Methuselah's Guide to On-Line Dating, a piece exploring the phenomena of the over-50 set in the world of Tinder and Our Time. Beginning July 9, the two actor Educating Rita brings the outstanding Drew Brhel back to Door County along with artist-in residence Katherine Duffy. Next for the season, Syllvia, a humorous story of man's best friend, arrives on August 30 while coming September 17, a music medley of more than 50 timeless melodies takes to the stage in Iriving Berlin's I Love a Piano.

If somehow Oleanna was missed during the March run, take the opportunity to attend one of these incredible upcoming productions this summer. Now in a fourth season at the Third Avenue playhouse, Stage Door's Co-Artistic Directors Robert Boles and James Valcq, along with the assistance of Education Director Ryan Patrick Shaw, have presented Door County with a year-round, accomplished, intimate professional theater company, a valuable diamond in the performing arts being polished to sparkling clarity Their admirable work with StageKids, a youth theater company, brings another dimension to Thornton Wilder's Our Town on stage on May 1-3. Support this rare theatrical gem just beginning to shine with brillance for their annual fundraiser, June 6 at the Sturgeon Bay Yacht Club, a worthwhile event to celebrate their success and Door County performing arts in every season.

Third Avenue Playhouse presents Stage Door Theatre Company on Historic Third Avenue (239 North 3rd Avenue) in Sturgeon Bay. For tickets or information on any of the above events, reservations for the fundraiser, or any upcoming productions, please call 920.743.1760 or visit www.thirdavenueplayhouse.com

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