​Theatrical Tendencies explores some of the intricate and challenging complexities of love and acceptance in its production of The Cake. Paula Garcia stars as a baker living in North Carolina. She’s on the verge of becoming quite popular as she has been invited to compete on television in an American version of The Great British Bake Off. She’s under a lot of stress. Things get considerably more stressful when the daughter of her best friend drops by to ask her to make a cake for her wedding...to another woman. 


Jaleesa Joy conjures a captivatingly sophisticated energy to the stage a Macy--a visiting New Yorker who turns out to be one of the women in question. Tawnie Thompson strikes a particularly complex dramatic figure in the role of her fiancee Jen a local who has found herself in two worlds, having moved-off to New York. Thompson allows a southern drawl to gradually move in around the edges of her voice as Jen finds herself returning to her childhood home. The dynamic between Thompson and Joy serves as a firm emotional center to the dramatic comedy.


Ralph Garcia rounds-out the on-stage cast in the role of Della’s husband Tim. Tim’s a conservative plumber who feels particularly uncomfortable wit the whole situation--particularly when it becomes apparent that Della is actually considering the possibility of making the cake. It's a rather complicated situation for everyone involved. It would be all too easy to turn this into something a little bit lighter than it is. Then it would be all too easy to turn it into something that is considerably darker and more heavy-handed. Thankfully, a balance is managed in and within the cast and the script that allows for an engaging sophisticated night at the small stage.


Playwright Bekah Brustetter allows each character, his or her own inner complexities. This makes for a really interesting and sophisticated sort of a dynamic for just about everybody on stage. Director Jillian Smith has fostered an environment in which everybody seems to be able to explore the intricacies of the drama. This is quite an accomplishment given how relatively elaborate the set is. There's a lot to be moved around between each scene and the fact that it's able to move as fluidly as it does across the stage is actually pretty impressive. The intimate proximity of a small stage really amplify some of the more nuanced complexities of the drama. And there's just a really powerful visceral element to it that feels that much more immediate in such a small environment. Particularly of note is a moment in which a cake is actually being eaten on stage. It's easier to overlook something as simple as that. However, the visceral experience of that can be felt straight through the entire theater. It's easier to overlook, but that sort of thing adds a great deal to the experience of the show.


Theatrical Tendencies’ production of The Cake runs through March 15th at Inspiration Studios on 1500 South 73rd Street. For ticket reservations, visit Theatrical Tendencies online.

A conservative North Carolina baker is asked by her best friend’s daughter to make a cake for her wedding...to another woman. Theatrical Tendencies stages a production of the comedy as the month begins. Jillian Smith directs a cast including Paula Garcia, Jaleesa Joy and Tawnie Thompson. The show runs March 6 - 15 at Inspiration Studios on 1500 South 73rd St, in West Allis. For more information, visit Theatrical Tendencies online.

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Milwaukee Opera Theatre returns to an exquisitely clever opera for babies and toddlers as it presents Camille’s Rainbow. The baby opera experience includes projected lights and colors to engage the newest, little adorable neurosystems. It takes a special kind of ambition to guide the very VERY youngest theatergoers into their first brush with opera. Jill Anna Ponasik directs the latest forwway into the rainbow. Julianne Perkins stars as Camille in a 45-minute performance featuring music by Thomas Cabaniss and Saskia Lane, lyrics by Zoë Palmer and projections by Dan Scully. The show runs Mar. 19 -23 at 790 N. Milwaukee St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Milwaukee Opera Theatre online. ​

Neil Simon’s 1963 romantic comedy Barefoot in the Park was one of his biggest hits. The story of a young married couple living in a brownstone in New York finds another local staging the month courtesy of Renaissance Theaterworks. Director Susan Fete is working with an impressive cast for the production includinglocal theater veteran Jenny Wanasek, Emily Vitrano and Reese Madigan. The show runs March 22nd - April 12th at 255 S. Water St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Renaissance online. 

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Life is a series of injuries punctuated by love. As messed-up as it sounds, it’s actually a really sweet sentiment. And it just might describe the central energy of playwright Rajiv Joseph’s stage drama Gruesome Playground Injuries. Memories of an old production with the long-defunct Youngblood Theatre Company still lingers in the shadows many, many years later. The Milwaukee-area small stage gets another long-overdue brush with the drama in a production Schmitz ’n’ Giggles at Inspiration Studios in West Allis. 


Patrick Schmitz directs a two-person show involving two people who periodically meet over the course of their lives. Josh Decker has a pleasantly guileless innocence as a guy named Doug who tends to get into a lot of accidents. Karah Minelli is enchantingly vulnerable as Kayleen--a girl he first meets in the nurse’s office of the grade school they both attend. She’s haunted by inner demons that she’s reluctant to share with anyone. He’s haunted by his own folly. The pair gradually get closer and closer in a series of moments scatters across the decades which play-out in a nonlinear order that seems to match the inner chaos of both characters. 


Decker’s plays a pure and earnest love that speaks to a fearlessness that would be very, very difficult to articulate for any actor. Decker has a solid grasp of the affectionate altruism needed to make the character of Doug believable. Minelli summons a crushingly endearing emotional mystery to the stage as Kayleen. Minelli is fairly brilliant in allowing the inner complexities of Kayleen to gradually reveal themselves without over-amplifying her inner struggle. There’s a profoudn exhaustion about Kayleen that would be frustrating for any actor to live through given just how much is going on below her largely. cam emotional surface. Minelli allows the inner realities of the character to reveal themselves organically in the course of the conversation with Doug rather than attempting to project them all across the stage with every movement and syllable. It’s an appelaingly haunting performance. 


The scenes scattered across a few decades. Schmitz wisely limits the stage elements to just a few things here and there...allowing the characters to breathe through the substance of theri connection in a somewhat acrobatic series of rapid movements from grade school tto adulthood and back to high school. The pair of actors do a fairly good job of moving with the moments and allowing the moods. modes and mannerisms of. different ages to present themselves in the course of a deeply enjoyable romantic drama with pleasant shades and shadows of dark comedy. 


Schmitz ’n’ Giggles production of Gruesome Playground Injuries runs through Feb. 28 at Inspiration Studios on 1500 S 73d St. in West Allis. 

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Set in a rural, Wisconsin town, Swing State explores what happens when people from out-of-town begin buying-up land. A mysterious theft alerts the authorities. Things get complicated. Tensions rise between the locals in a show that debuted in Chicago nearly half a decade ago. And it’s a comedy, so it should be a great deal of fun. Next Act Theatre presents the Wisconsin debut of a play...set in Wisconsin. Cody Estle directs a talented cast including Tami Workentin and Elyse Edelman. The show runs Feb. 11 - Mar. 8. For ticket reservations and more, visit Next Act Online.

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When I first saw this show advertised, vivid memories came back to me. I’d seen a Youngblood production of this two-person drama at Kenilworth. Checking my notes, that was actually like...fifteen years ago. So Milwaukee is well overdue for another staging of this profoundly interesting drama. 2-person drama of this sort can be SO powerful on the small stage. Patrick Schmitz directs a pair of talented actors:   Karah Minelli and Josh Decker. It’s a nonlinear plot that follows emotional connections between two people in a remarkably vivid inner journey onstage. Truly remarkable stuff comes to Inspiration Studios Feb. 19 - 21. For more information, visit S&G online.
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Todd Denning plays Captain Hook in a production that also features David Flores and Sherrick Robinson. Peter Pan and Wendy is a condensed adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s classic that should end the winter well for some of the smallest local theatergoers. This looks like a lot of fun. The title characters are being played in alternation by a couple of different pairs of students from First Stage Children’s Theatre. The fantastic production design that First Stage brings to a production should serve the fantasy quite well. Veteran Milwaukee Director Jef Frank brings the magic to the stage of the Todd Wehr Theater Feb. 20 - Mar. 22.  
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The classic adult-oriented puppet musical Avenue Q is a bit of a strange piece of stage history that continues to get a bit weirder and weirder as it ages. The Sesame Street spoof covers some very sophisticated themes from an angle that would only really work with puppets. The 2003 musical makes its way to another local production as Bombshell Studio Theatre presents the show Feb. 26- Mar. 15. Eric Welch directs a cast of young actor/puppeteers in an intimate, little studio theatre production of the offbeat classic. For more information, visit Bombshell online.

11 years ago, Britsh novelist Paula Hawkins  wrote a novel of shifting realities in which an unreliable narrator questions what is and isn’t actually in the past. Less than 2 years after it was realeased, it became a rather successful, little indie film for DrewmWorks featuring Emily Blunt and music by Danny Elfman. Now it’s being presented as a stage play...the latest production of which makes it to Racine Theatre Guild Feb. 27 - Mar. 15. The captivating Drea Roedel-Schroeder plays the female lead in a show that I hope to be able to make it to somewhoe. For more information, visit RTG online. 

A pair of young women share an intimate moment with a tape recorder. A stranger enters. Drama unfolds on the small stage as Renaissance Theaterworks presents playwright Hansol Jung’s Cardboard Piano. Talented director Elyse Edelman conducts a cast of great emotional depth in a story of love, tragedy and so much more. Tyler Cruz and Rebecca Kent are deeply engaging as a pair of women who have fallen in love in war-torn Uganda. They have decided to marry on New Year’s Eve, 1999. 

Cruz and Kent have developed a strong connection through the long and winding embrace of Jung’s script. There’s a beautifully radiant inquisitiveness about Cruz in the role of Adiel. The framing of the script requires her to render a deeply complicated and emotionally engaging character in a very brief period of time onstage. Cruz navigates gracefully through the nuanced and textured romance with great poise. Kent is given a bit more freedom to explore that full complexity of Chris--the woman she is in love with who is also in love with her. Kent moves through a witty tenderness in the role of Chris. 
The script requires her to carry a great amount of weight beyond the dialogue that suggests a very deep emotional center. That’s not easy to do without over-amplifying everything, but Kent does a brilliant job of making everything connect onstage between Adiel and Chris and the wounded soldier who happens in on the two of them with the tape recorder. 

Ethan Hightire conjures an intriguingly calm desperation about him in the role of Pika--the wounded soldier who finds himself in the company of the two women on the night in question. Pika’s quite forthcoming about the reason why he’s there. He is overcome with guilt over those things that the military has made hime doe. Hightire acquires a very textured emotional gravity as Pika navigates the strange circumstantial presence of those strangers. 

Some of the strongest magic that a small stage can offer is an exploration into the connection between two people. In Cardboard Piano, those people are dealing with a great deal of complexity on the edge of the 1990s as the world beyond them continues to evolve. The sudden appearance of the soldier introduces a powerful contrast to their love in the form of someone lost in societal cycles of evidently eternal aggression. It’s very powerful drama for the dawn of a whole new year as things continue to look more and more progressively bleak every day in the news. Somewhere in the midst of it all, there’s a glimmer of hope that makes Cardboard Piano strikingly powerful.

Dimonte Henning makes a notably complex appearance in the role of a pastor named Paul. He's quite charming in the role at first. Then certain revelations hit and the real complexity of the role becomes apparent. There's a tremendous weight about his performance that reveals a profound complexity resting at the heart of a very satisfying and provocative drama.

Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of Cardboard Piano runs Jan. 11 - Feb. 1 at the theatre on 255 S, Water St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Renaissance online.
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A Broadway producer realizes that he makes more money with commercial failures than he does with modest successes...and endeavors to stage the very worst musical in Broadway history. It’s a fun look at the nature of success and failure that continues to satnd-up decades after it debuted as a non-musical Hollywood comedy. It’s clever stuff. Mel Brooks’ classic The Producers gets another local staging to open the year as Outskirts Theatre Company presents the beloved musical Jan. 9 - 18 at the Waukesha Civic Theatre on 264 W Main St. in Waukesha. For more information, visit Outskirts Online.

A couple of teenage girls attempt a secret wedding in a Ugandan church. It’s romantic. They’re recording their wedding vows ino a tape recroder. Then a child soldier arrives: a 13 year-old named Pika. He’s on the run from his overseer. The two teens look after the runaway solider. It’s a tense beginning to a very deep drama that debuted nearly ten years ago. Playwright Hansol Jung’s Cardboard Piano is a remarkably deep 2-act play that makes its way to the local small stage courtesy of Renaissaince Theaterworks. Elyse Edelman  directs. The show runs Jan. 11 - Feb. 1. For ticket reservaions and more, visit Renaissance Theaterworks ​

The story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf is one of the more fascinating tales of survival. to be popularized out of WWII Germany. The life of a woman who worked to try to preserve cultural artifaccts that would have othewise been destroyed by the Nazis is a compelling one on a whole bunch of different levels. Her story makes it to the stage this month as playwright Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife makes it to the stage once more. This time around it’s being staged by Milwaukee Chamer Theatre in a one man show featuring talented, young actor Jonathan Ryker. The show runs Jan. 23 - Feb. 8. For ticket reservations and mre, isit Milwaukee Chamber Theater online. 

I laughed when I saw who was playing Mozart. I’d been aware of Skylight Music Theatre’s January offering for months. Guess I didn’t really think about who would be playing the title role in Amadeus. It’s SO cool that Zach Thomas Woods is playing the mai title role in the production. Few people have the right kind of charisma and energy to play the genius te way he was written in Peter Shaffer’s clever and witty script. Woods would be reason enough to see SKylight’s production....but thecase is remarkalbe...Matt Daniels as Salieri...Joel Kopischke...Samantha Sosatrich, Ben Goerge, Doug Clemons. Wow. This one’s going to be amazing. The Skylight’s Amadeus runs Jan. 23. Feb. 8 at the Broadway Theater Center studio theatre. For more information, visit the Skylight online.

Vanguard Milwaukee returns to the front this month with another production of All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914. Director Jill Anna Ponasik works with a large ensemble of actors to tell the story of a Christmas when British and German forces laid down their arms, exchanged gifts and plays a game of soccer. The ensemble engages in a cappella songs that would have been sung by soldiers of the era in addition to traditional holiday tunes in a bittersweet moment between the brutality of the war. 


This year’s production feels just a bit more intense than previous productions have felt. It’s difficult to determine quite what it might have been able to hit a stronger note than past productions. Regardless of what that might have been. the show remains a very moving portrait of the people who are thrust into war and the lives that they lead. 


There's a kind of a deeply resident clarity about the emotion that's being brought to the stage. It's just voices. This voice is reverberating through a beautiful space on West Wisconsin. There's a purity of emotion there that rests outside of traditional musical theatre productions with all of the costuming, scenic design and instrumental accompaniment.


Ponasik has a talent for bringing together some very moving moments onstage. With so much of the drama being delivered in simple monologue, that involves a great deal of allowing some very, very talented actors to march out to their moment onstage, make their mark and move out of the center for the next guy. It helps that Vanguard has a stellar cast for the production. Joe Pichetti and Seth K. Hale make notable contributions. Zach Thomas Woods makes a stand-out performance as a Scotsman who joins the rest of the lads on the front. In addition to established talants like Pichetti, Hale and Woods, there are some relatively new faces that make a powerful impact onstage. Hugo Dums  brings a youthful presence that feels a bit shocking--bringing home just how young soldiers can be...how quickly they can be cut down in the line of duty. 


With no scenic design, the atmosphere of the show is brought almost entirely to the stage by the actors themselves...but there’s more here than that. Cassie Gherardini’s costume designe feels more or less perfect. The lighting design work of AntiShadows Theatrical Designs is jaw-droppingly gorgeous...rendering a powerful emotion that amplifies the work of the ensemble considerably. The site itself does qute a bit of work of delivering the atmosphere as well. Built in 1870, Calvary Presbyterian Church has the feel of a place that would have been somewhere in the periphery of a European battlefield in the early days of the 20th century. There’s an inescapable beauty of it all that serves as a powerful reminder of everything that gets lost in the cold conflict of seemingly endless war.


Vanguard Milwaukee's staging of All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 continues through Dec. 22 at Calvary Presbyterian Church on 628 N. 10th. St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Vanguard online. 

​Local playwright/musical theatre-maker Matt Zembrowski and director Amanda J. Hull present a classy, old time holiday radio experience to open up December with Bing Crosby Christmas on the Air.  It’s the first of a couple of notable old time radio-inspired holiday shows to hit local stages this month. The talented Luke Hahn stars as Crosby in a show also featuring Don Lobacz, Liv Held and more. The Andrews Sisters also make an appearance in the form of a trio of talented actresses:  Megan Kaminsky, Anita Pena and Brittany Roux.  The show is presented by Greendale Community Theatre at Greendale High School Auditorium one weekend only December 4 - 6.

Bombshell Theatre celebrates the work of Irving Berlin in a production of the stage adaptation of Holiday Inn. The 2014 stage adaptation of the 1942 Paramount musical comes to life with a cozy, little cast that includes Eric Welch (who also directs the show), Delania Kuzelka, Bryce Giammo, Kendall Yorkey and more. Welch and company appear to have chosen the perfect show for the perfect venue with the perfect cast. The entire runs of the show is completely sold-out in advance...and this is a show that, as you can see above, runs Dec. 4 - 21. Wow. Anyone in Milwaukee theatre would kill to have a show that runs for that long entirely sold-out in advance. For more information and to get on the ticket waiting list, visit Bombshell online.

Back in 1914, British and German troops on the front line of WWI stopped fighting for a single day. They met-up somewhere in the middle of the battlefield, laid-down their arms, played a game of soccer and just sort of...hung out with each other. It’s such a shockingly human moment between soldiers in the middle of a brutal, brutal war. Vanguard Theatre Company returns to that night once more with another staging of All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce. of 1914. Directed by Jill Anna Ponasik, the show runs Dec. 11 - 22 at Calvary Presbyterian Church on 628 N. 10th St. For more information, visit Vanguard online.
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Robert Zimmerman plays Kristoffer Van Lisberg: a man hired to be a department store Santa in Forte Theatre Company’s production Miracle on 34th Street: A Live Radio Play. The stage adaptation is based on an actual radio script for Lux Radio Theatre. The classic move was released in June of 1947. Lux did a radio adaptation of the beloved movie abour. year and a half later in 1948. The stage adaptation of the script includes a live foley artist doing sound effects, the look and feel of an old-time radio studio live onstage and a warm, vintage feel. The show runs Dec. 13-21 at Martin Luther High School Auditorium on 5201 S. 76th St. For more information, visit Forte online.
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Next Act Theatre closes-out Autumn this year with a celebration of friendship and the distinctive charms of Scotland as it presents playwright Marie Kohler’s Boswell. Josh Krause holds a youthful energy about him onstage in the title role of Boswell--an 18th-century Scottish writer who has been honored with a trip to London. Though he loves his homeland, he is quite taken with the wonders of London...which turn out to involve meeting the legendary author Samuel Johnson. Brian Mani conjures a powerful intellectual gravity to the stage in the role of th legendary author. Boswell and Johnson hit it off as friends after a fairly shaky start. Johnson is no great fan of Scotland or its people. He slowly warms to the charms of Boswell, eventually agreeing to accompany him on a trip to his homeland, which turns out to be quite a transformation for both men.


Mirroring the drama between Boswell and Johnson is a similar contemporary friendship between Joan--a 1950s graduate student of English literature and the landowning wife of an aristocrat. Madeline Calais-King has a stern energy about her as the graduate student who finds her focus on her studies pulled away by the writings of Boswell. Heidi Armbruster is cleverly poised as the aristocrat who is aiding her in her studies. 


There is some impressive work being done around the edges of the ensemble by a couple of casually dazzling talents. Local stage veteran David Cecsarini makes quite an impression in a variety of roles from taxi driver to Professor to David Hume. Captivating, young actor Sarah Zapiain makes a welcome appearance in a number of different roles as well. She manages to charm in a variety of distinctively different ways as Boswell’s wife, some of the women he cheated on her with and the painter Joshua Reynolds. 


Contemporary intellectual pursuits between the two 20th-century women are mirrored in similar pursuits by the 18th-century men. Director Laura Gordon has done an admirable job of keeping the two different ends of the play distinct while ensuring that the energy from the one friendship flows freely into the other and back again.  Kohler’s script holds comedy and drama lightly and firmly with a rather deft sense of nuance. The production design on the show strikes quite the right balance as well. Scenic/properties designer Jody Sekas has found just the right balance between realistic detail and open space on the set. Costume Designer Misti Bradford has done a brilliant job of making everything look totally lived-in and completely functional while appearing to be period-perfect AND easy to swim in and out of backstage for those actors laying multiple roles. 


Above all, Boswell is n expression of love for Scotland and a deep appreciation of the connections people make between each other. While neither of the friendships being explored here are totally unlikely, there IS a great deal of tolerance and openns that’s required for the two pairs to truly make the connections they need to make. It’s a testament to the importance intellectual openness in an era when it’s so easy to shut-out the voices that aren’t easy to listen to. 


Next Act Theatre’s production of Boswell runs through Dec. 14 at Next Act’s space on 255 S. Water Street. For ticket reservations and more, visit Next Act online.