Larry Lott News

Next up for First Stage’s Young Company, the Theater Academy’s award-winning training program for advanced high school actors, will be MACBETH, Shakespeare!s darkest tragedy, infamously known as the cursed Scottish play. The play will be performed in the newly renovated, theater-in-the round Goodman Mainstage Hall at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. Directed by First Stage Young Company faculty member Marcella Kearns, with fight and intimacy direction by Christopher Elst, MACBETH is filled with ferocious battles, supernatural horrors, famously gorgeous poetry and some of the Bard's most vivid characters.

Next up for First Stage's Young Company, the Theater Academy's award-winning training program for advanced high school actors, will be MACBETH, Shakespeare's darkest tragedy, infamously known as the cursed Scottish play.

First Stage Young Company presents its Utah Shakespearean Festival Showcase. Streaming now through October 24, 2020 on YouTube.

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.'

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.

Last weekend the 37th annual Shakespeare Competition, hosted by the Utah Shakespeare Festival and Southern Utah University, gave out dozens of awards and scholarships to drama, dance and music students. The competition is the largest scholastic Shakespeare competition in the country, and this was a record-breaking year with over 3,000 students from 118 schools. Students came from junior high and high schools in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin, and California.

First Stage Theater Academy's Young Company presents a musical version of the Louisa May Alcott classic LITTLE WOMEN, Friday March 4 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, March 5 at 3:30 and 7 p.m. at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. in Milwaukee.

First Stage Theater Academy's Young Company presents a musical version of the Louisa May Alcott classic LITTLE WOMEN, Friday March 4 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, March 5 at 3:30 and 7 p.m. at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. in Milwaukee.

First Stage Theater Academy's Young Company presents William Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR, Friday December 3 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, December 4 at 3:30 and 7 p.m. at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut Street in Milwaukee.

First Stage Theater Academy's Young Company presents William Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR, Friday December 3 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, December 4 at 3:30 and 7 p.m. at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut Street in Milwaukee.

Central High School; Gretchen Mahkorn and Kira Gaudynski, both seniors at Pius IX High School; Garrett Hanson, a junior at Nicolet High School; Emmy Tisdel and Anna Wolfe, both seniors at Shorewood High School; Laura Troshynski, a junior at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School; Allie Babich, a senior at Arrowhead High School; Kelly Venable, a junior at University School of Milwaukee and Kelley Annesley, Kieran Kane, and Kyle Connor, all seniors at Wauwatosa East High School.