Marti Gobel News

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Madison Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Madison Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

Violet--The color and time of day named in T.S. Eliot's 1922 epic poem The Waste Land. This color permeates Renaissance Theaterworks (RTW) season ending production figuratively and literally in the Studio Theatre titled The Violet Hour. Directed by Artistic Director Suzan Fete, the comedy infused with a surrealist happening sets a scene in 1919, a few years after World War I and before the Great Depression. The story tantalizes audiences with the question that is prophecy, knowing the future, a gift or a curse? Richard Greenberg's 2003 Broadway play explores this dilemma and models the period's hope and optimism after "a war to end all wars," on characters referencing Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald and chanteuse Josephine Baker. All celebrities who reached a zenith in their careers, and then ended their lives in some despair. When the audience sits in the theater watching from the 2017 perspective, what do they make of these questions, lives and future?

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) announces its 43rd season, centered on 'The Mysteries of Life.'

'The course of true love never did run smooth'...so quotes William Shakespeare in his popular comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Door Shakespeare heightens that famous line in this rousing, high energy romp at Bjorklunden Garden in Baileys Harbor this summer. Former Milwaukee Rep Artistic Director and Door County resident Joseph Hanreddy personally stamps Shakespeare's forest fairies and lover's magic with an inventive blend of mayhem that includes some countryfied music for the audience's pleasure.

While William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar dramatically retells history through rich verse, Door Shakespeare at Baileys Harbor's Bjorklunden gives the play a fiercely human touch in this intimate garden setting. Here a serene rose garden might be enjoyed before the show, directly accessible from the bleacher theater seating. While Director and Milwaukee Rep Artistic Associate James Pickering focuses Shakespeare's political tragedy on the personal relationships between Brutus and Caesar, Cassius and Brutus or Brutus and Portia, Marc Anthony weaves between these relationships before laying rest to the murdered dictator in his famous, 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen' oration... In the lush garden on this moonlit stage, the tragic drama acquires a highly intimate and personal interpretation between the litany of interconnections crossing the moral lines between friends and foes, honor and honesty.

A new series of professionally shot web videos promoting Chicago's neighborhood theater scene is debuting online today, the work of a new non-profit named Friends of Chicago's Neighborhood Theatres. The group's plan is to release one You Tube video every two to three months as part of a new viral marketing campaign promoting Chicago theater titled 'A City of Stories.'

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. 

Renaissance Theaterworks (RTW) inhabits the Studio Theater at the Broadway Theatre Center and presents a true ballad--a dramatic narrative told over generations often set to music and dance--where this powerful tale recounts the life of 14 year-old Emmett Till. Over the thrid October weekend, Ifa Bayeza's The Ballad of Emmett TIll visiblly moved Milwaukee audiences using an evocative stage designed by Madelyn Yee, ghost like in representing a church sanctuary centered on a coffin-like altar where a circular window, an archtectural rose window, a wheel from a cotton gin or perhaps star, was placed above the 'altar.' Arches, like skeletons of stained glass windows, framed both sides of the backdrop The innventive set combined with a dream cast imaginatively directed by Marti Gobel breathes life into this young boy's ballad.

In a fitting finale to their grand six years of acting, directing, educating and producing together, Uprooted Theatre staged Tennessee Williams' riveting Suddenly Last Summer at Next Act Theatre under the direction of company Co-Founder Dennis F. Johnson. Marti Gobel, also a Co-Founder, appeared playing the playwright's New Orleans society woman Violet Venable while also creating backstage as costume, set and scenic designer. A formidable challenge for any actor cast as Williams's commanding matriarch grieving from the death of her son, Sebastian.

A dynamic feminine duo illuminates Next Act Theatre this winter. The company's Midwest Premiere of Nilaja Sun's No Child transports the audience to the Bronx, New York under tjhe direction of Mary MacDonald Kerr and inspired by actor Marti Gobel. Inside the 'high risk' Malcolm X High School, teaching artist Sun attempts to resurrect her students' live and their futures.. Students 'who need a miracle a day,' she tries to encourage success by enciing them to produce and act in a historical play about convicts, Our Country's Good, all to be accomplished in a mere six weeks.

This December, Milwaukee Repertory Theater relives a 39-year old tradition in the beautiful Pabst Theater: Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. In this recent adaptation by Joseph Hanreddy and Edward Morgan, familiar English carols and melodies echo through the theater so the audience believes they might be standing on the streets of London, Christmas Eve, mid-1800's. Director Aaron Posner returns to inspire another Ebenezer Scrooge, Milwaukee's own Jonathan Smoots.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater brings its uplifting production of Charles Dickens' beloved holiday classic A Christmas Carol to The Pabst Theater this December. Filled with beautiful music, stunning costumes, and joyous dancing, Dickens' masterpiece celebrates its 39th year as Wisconsin's favorite family holiday tradition. Audiences will be enthralled as miserly Ebenezer Scrooge takes a fantastical journey through Christmas Past, Present, and Future and is then transformed into a man of generosity and good will. Adapted by Joseph Hanreddyand Edward Morgan, Dickens' A Christmas Carol brightens the holiday season with its timeless message of hope, peace, and love, capturing the true spirit of the season. Proudly sponsored again by Wells Fargo, A Christmas Carol runs at The Pabst Theater through December 24. Check out a first look at the production below!

Milwaukee Repertory Theater brings its uplifting production of Charles Dickens' beloved holiday classic A Christmas Carol to The Pabst Theater this December.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater brings its uplifting production of Charles Dickens' beloved holiday classic A Christmas Carol to The Pabst Theater this December.

Nineteenth century London comes to life when Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit and Ebenezer Scrooge go on a fantastical journey thorough Christmas Past, Present and Future. Filled with beautiful music, stunning costumes and joyous dancing, Dickens' classic masterpiece celebrates its 38th year at Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Proudly sponsored this year by Wells Fargo, this beloved holiday tradition has delighted families for generations at the historic Pabst Theater. Adapted by Joseph Hanreddy and Edward Morgan, Dickens' A Christmas Carol brightens the holiday season with its timeless message of hope, peace and love and the true meaning of the holidays. Check out a first look below!

Nineteenth century London comes to life when Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit and Ebenezer Scrooge go on a fantastical journey thorough Christmas Past, Present and Future. Filled with beautiful music, stunning costumes and joyous dancing, Dickens' classic masterpiece celebrates its 38th year at Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Proudly sponsored this year by Wells Fargo, this beloved holiday tradition has delighted families for generations at the historic Pabst Theater. Adapted by Joseph Hanreddy and Edward Morgan, Dickens' A Christmas Carol brightens the holiday season with its timeless message of hope, peace and love and the true meaning of the holidays.

Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) closes its 2012-2013 season with the eagerly anticipated Arizona premiere of Bruce Norris' multi-award-winning, provocative new comedy, "Clybourne Park." Performances will be held at The Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix May 2 through May 19, 2013. ATC season sponsors are I. Michael and Beth Kasser. Phoenix production sponsor is Zazu Pannee Park Regent.

Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, London's Olivier Award for Best Play and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play, Clybourne Park is a wickedly funny and fiercely provocative new play about the volatile combination of race and real estate. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below.

Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, London's Olivier Award for Best Play and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play, Clybourne Park is a wickedly funny and fiercely provocative new play about the volatile combination of race and real estate. Clybourne Park runs in The Rep's Quadracci Powerhouse from tonight, January 29, 2013 - February 24 , 2013 and opens on Friday, February 1, 2013.