There’s something quite pure in a 15 minute dramatic comedy. It’s very, very difficult to get a single, isolated two-person piece live onstage. So often that sort of thing comes in some sort of a variety show or shorts program. Milwaukee Irish Fest offers an opportunity for just such an experience this weekend as Milwaukee Irish Arts hosts the two-person dramatic comedy Meeting Venus by contemporary Irish playwright Simon O’Gorman. 


Director James Galagher fosters an environment that holds the dialogue together quite well. Kevin Callahan plays Trevor: the gentleman who claims to have run into the goddess in question. There’s a wistful, faraway nature to the story that Callahan captures perfectly. Callahan’s stage presence also resonates well with the peculiarly mundane nature of the story. Jonathan Wainwright has the unenviable task of serving as the gentleman Trevor is talking to at the time. The challenge is to make a presence on the stage without overpowering the story. He needs to be there in order for the comedy to come across as anything other than a weird monologue...but if he makes too assertive a presence onstage, the story fades-out into the background. Wainwright manages a nice balance between the serving as an active part of the dialogue and a passive audience to Trevor’s tale. The two actors have a great deal of stage experience. They make for an enjoyably contemplative diversion amidst all of the rest of the festival fare. 


A couple of men sit on a park bench as one relates the tale of having quite casually met the goddess of beauty. They discuss expectations, beauty love and a very beautiful, little moment over the course of a quarter hour’s time. A simple philosophical comedy comes to inhabit a park bench on a stage under a tent not far from the shore of Henry Maier Festival Park. Once again, that particular placement for this particular pavilion proves to be the best possible place for it. The sound of music can be heard drifting-in from around the edges of the festival as a couple of men discuss the small matter of infinite beauty manifesting between a few thoughts and somewhat inexplicably having arms and a wristwatch. It’s one of the strangest possible placements for a theatrical experience, but it’s easily one of the most natural places for it. Honestly...well worth the price of admission to the whole festival for those who might be in the right frame of mind for such a thing. Somewhere in between all of the beer, music and dancing a couple of lads discuss a meeting with the goddess of beauty. Quite fun. 


Simon O’Gorman’s Meeting Venus has a couple of performances per day at Milwaukee Irish Fest. (Which continues through Sunday, August 16th) Also featured in the Theatre Pavilion this year is the deeply engaging drama of Chapatti and quite a few other things. For more information and a complete schedule, visit the Theater Pavilion Listings at Irish Fest online.

Patrick Schmitz’s Kindasortaverse continues to expand with a brand new spoof of another public domain work as Schmitz ’n’ Giggles presents The Wizard of Oz...Kinda Sorta... Much of the same ensemble that brought together previous spoofs of Macbeth, King Lear and a whole bunch of other beloved classics has set its satirical lens on L. Frank Baum’s American fairy tale. Kara Minelli is irresistibly fun as Dorothy--the little girl from Depression-era Kansas who finds herself off on an adventure to colorful world of magic. 


Different worlds are brought to the stage through simple backdrops and costuming. It’s a small stage spoof...writer/director Patrick Schmitz includes a few jokes about the limited budget he’s got for these productions. As it is a lighly silly spoof, the adventure is less about transporting the audience into another world and more about making fun of the classic MGM movie and the book on which it’s based. There are also a few appealingly fun jabs at the Wicked franchise. 


Becky Cofta manages a fun impression of Margaret Hamilton from the 1939 movie. While there IS some fun physical comedy, Cofta’s dialogue is sharper than anything else that she’s doing. Her voice sounds like almost a perfect match, which goes a long way toward selling the some of the basic comedy in Schmitz’s script including a somewhat casual relationship with a flying monkey (played with inspired comical lack of enthusiasm by Chris Goode) and a somewhat complex relationship with her sister Glinda the Good Witch.


Beth Lewinski once again articulates an impressive subtlety and nuance in her both timing and delivery. She continues to prove herself to be one of the best comic actors in town with respect to dialogue. Occasionally there’s a bit of Schmitz’s script that wouldn’t really have any life in it at all, but Lewinski finds a way to bring it to the stage that actually works. It’s always cool to see her work. 


The rest of the central cast includes some enjoyable moments. Longtime Schmitz collabortator  Tim Higgins makes for a fun Tin Woodsman. Josh Decker cleverly articulates the intentional vacuousness of the Scarecrow. Mike Kauth is particular fun as the Cowardly Lion in a performance that opens like Burt Lahr...but quickly transitions to an inexplicably enjoyable impression of Paul Lynde. (Weird.)   


Jacob Woelfel is bizarrely fun as the show’s central villain--Pete Benson, who last appeared in The Comedy of King Lear..Kinda, Sorta...The weird menace of a perfectly normal guy in a heroic fantasy spoof has a lot of potential that Patrick Schmitz has slowly been exploring with Benson. He works quite well as a central antagonist in the story, which is kind of strange given the fact that the he doesn’t interact with that many characters and Cofta still beautifully serves the central role of the witch. 


Schmitz ’n’ Giggles production of The Wizard of Oz...Kinda Sorta... runs through August 22nd at Inspiration Studios on 1500 S 73rd St.  in West Allis. For more information, visit Schmitz ’n’ Giggles online.

Patrick Schmitz spoofs L. Frank Baum’s classing with his new comedy The Wizard of Oz...Kindasorta. Schmitz’s Kindasorta series has been a lot of fun so far. It’ll be interesting to see what he does on the small stage with an adaptation of the modern fairy tale that continues to captivate audiences in weird mutations like the ever-populat Wicked franchise and so on. Local comic talent Kara Minelli stars as Dorothy Gale in a production that also features Beth Lewinski as Glinda the Good Witch and Becky Cofta..also as a Witch. The cast also includes a couple of actors playing MGM reps, so...’y’know...it’s going to get weird. The show runs Aug 13th - 22nd at Inspiration Studios in West Allis. For more information, visit Schmitz ’n’ Giggles online. 

Once again, Milwaukee Irish Fest featurs a couple of performances in the Theater Pavilion August 14 - 16th. Milwaukee Irish Arts presents a phenomenally well-rendered two-person drama in Chapatti--the story of two people who meet and strike-up an unlikely friendship. I’d had the opportunity to see it at County Clare some time ago. Also featured on the fest this year: Fishamble: The New Play Company from Dublin presents a 15-minute short involving a casual conversation on a park bench. For a complete listing of offerings at the Theater Tent this year, visit Milwaukee Irish Fest online.
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Quite a long time ago, Randal T. Anderson did a phenomenal show at the Alchemist Theatre Bar called The Bartender. Anderson went over the history of a variety of popular mixed drinks from throughout history that were then presented to the audience. Anderson has since passed-on, but the memory of that piece lives-on in The Bar Project: a variety show format featuring Anderson’s monologue from The Bartender followed by variety acts from various performers. Robert W.C. Kennedy will perform the role of The Bartender for the run of the show. Kennedy is a perfect choice for the role. He’s got a striking presence that’s both distinctive and approachable. He’ll serve as a sharp anchor for  what should be a fun show. The Bar Project runs August 21 - 30 at The Brick House on 504 East Center Street. For more information, visit the Brick House online.

Local playwright Peter Kao finished the first draft of a new murder mystery a few weeks back. The script will have been through a month of edits and re-writes before it is presented for the first time in a staged reading with Lotus Theatre at Inspiration Studios. The murder-mystery Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah is set in a diner. Who is responsible for the murder” Is it the victim’s son? His girlfriend? The waitress? Perhaps the owner of a competing restaurant? Should be a fun reading. The world-premiere runs Aug. 28 - 30. For more information, visit the show’s Facebook Events Page.

I grew-up with network television in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Prime time TV back in those days was mostly awful sitcoms. Those cheesy late ’70s sitcoms introduced me to the concept of light farce. To this day I can’t watch most wacky farces without some small part of me thinking about how Three’s Company would have handled it. So it makes perfect sense that one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated farces would make it to the stage in a format that pays homage to the late 1970s American TV sitcom. This is precisely what SummerStage is doing with its current production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Director Dustin J. Martin finds a staging the feels suitably ’70s without totally overpowering the script. There’s no canned laugh track. There’s no bumper for a commercial break before intermission. There’s no pre-show announcement that “The Merry Wives of Windsor is performed before a live studio audience” or anything like that. There is, after all, no studio: SummerStage performs everything outdoors in a beautiful state park in Delafield. It’s a fun night at the theatre under the stars. 


James Ryan is suitably silly and arrogant as Sir John Falstaff: a man looking to woo two married women at the same time. Tess Cinpinski and Ariel Korducki are both pleasantly engaging as Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, respectively. Cinpinski has a sharp sense of elevated wit about her in the role of Mistress Ford that pairs well with a more casually-poised sense of humor as Mistress Page. Del Lovejoy brings a lot of fun to the stage as the manipulative Mistress Quickly, who glides through several intrigues in the course of the twists and turns of the plot. Local theatre veteran Hal Erickson has a pitch-perfect sense of the overall sense of delivery needed to bring across the specific atmosphere of a ’70s sitcom in the role of the Host of the Garter Inn. Erickson brings it to the stage with the distinct presence of an old bartender who also happens to run a tiny hotel. 


The music cues featured throughout the show have a real “super hits of the ‘’70s” sort of a feel about them. The type of mainstream pop music from the era that would have been advertised on an ad for a K-Tel collection at some point in the early 1980s. Costume designers Brianna Deans and Sarah Jo Martens do a really...um...I guess...groovy job of putting everyone in very cool and appropriate-looking attire for the era. In places it feels like a bit of a strange clash with some of what’s in the script, but there’s been a conscientious approach to every aspect of production that makes this particular production of Merry Wives of Windsor feel particularly memorable.  


SummerStage of Delafield’s production of The Merry Wives of Windsor continues through August 1st at the stage at Lapham Peak State Park on W329 N846 County Highway C in Delafield. For more information, visit SummerStage online. 

1. And then every now and then something comes along that feels like it has the potential to be the right kind of absurd to be brilliant. Thus it is with a theatrical piece called ..And then every now and then something comes along that feels like it has the potential to be the right kind of absurd to be brilliant. Thus it is with a theatrical piece called ...perhaps... 

The original short play about a couple who are raising their kids in separate public restrooms. Mother with Daughter. Father with son. The show is being staged at the Kunzelmann-Esser Lofts on 710 W. Historic Mitchell Street. The show is the work of a couple calling themselves M. Cassanova & Mitt Babydoll. The show runs July 10, 11 and 12 at Mitchell Street Arts. Admission if Free. For more information about MiSA, visit them online.

Optimist Theatre returns to various outdoor stages in the area this month with a staging of Richard III. Also features on the program: the first of a couple of outdoor Milwaukee-area. Falstaffan experiences with a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor: Falstaff’s Tale. This year’s cast includes Kaylene Howard, Rebekah Farr, Annalyse Lapajenko and Libby Amato. The Optimist Theatre’s summer season begins July 11 at Wisconsin Lutheran College and runs through August 16th at the Schauer Center. For specific dates and locations. visit Optimist Theatre Online.  

​James Ryan stars as comedic hero Sir John Falstaff in an idyllic outdoor production of The Merry Wives of Windsor this month. One of Shakespeares most loved comedies makes its appearance under the stars in a SummerStage of Delafield production. Tess Cinpinski and Ariel Korducki play the title characters--a couple of married women who had received identical love letters from Falstaff. I’m not familiar with Korducki, but Cinpinski is usually quite stunning. I haven’t had a chance to see her in comedy all that often, so this should be fun. Dustin J. Martin directs the show, which runs July 16 – August 1 at Lapham Peak Stat Park on W329 N846 County Highway C in Delafield. For ticket reservations and more, visit SummerStage online.

Hannah Kubiak directs a one-performance-only reading of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of being Earnest this month as The Brick House welcomes Voices Found Repertory for a fundraiser. Kubiak is stepping down as Education Director ofVoices Found n favor of grad school, so this should be a fun opportunity to wish her well in the fall and support Voices Found at the same time. The show takes place Saturday, July 18th at the Brick House on 504 E. Center Street. For more information, visit the show’s Facebook Events Page.

​Kith & Kin Theatre Collective returns to its Bard Bites fund raising programs this summer with a one-weekend-only production of As You Like It. The staged reading format features charismatic actors rolling through a reading of the classic comedy while periodically being prompted to engage in hot sauce. It’s kinda like theatre. It’s kinda like staged reading. It’s kinda like a game show. And it’s a lot of fun.


As the show opens, the entire cast is assembled on chairs. As it’s a very casual atmosphere, there’s very little in the way of costuming. Actors wear simple name cards to denote the characters that they’re playing. A table rests before the stage on which a small army of eager, little bowls of hot sauce rest. There’s one for every single actor. I love sitting right next to the table. The smell of the hot sauce permeates the area...occasionally wafting across the front rows of the tiny studio theatre space as affected actors project their lines. 


The tale of love gradually crosses the stage as characters tumble about in the forest of Arden. Periodically a  bell is rung. A name and number announced. (There are three levels of heat laid-out for each actor.) The heat is index linked to donations that make it into Kith& Kin. For every $100 the show brings-in, everyone onstage is prompted to go for something really, really spicy on the table. 


The spice table activity on opening night was pretty overwhelming. The comic rhythm of the play has a tendency to get lost in the Game of Scovilles. (Opening night Orlando was particularly hit with frequent trips to the table.) It would be really, really difficult for anyone to follow who wasn’t already familiar with the play. A good portion of the appeal of the comedy is the game itself.


The central cast does a good job of working in and around the Capsaicin to deliver a fun, comic experience that goes well beyond the spice table. Director Kimberly Laberge keeps the cast focussed on over-the-top energy that serves the overall informality of the format quite well. This makes perfect sense: if a cast is going to be able to overcome the intensity of the hot sauce and make any kind of a script-based impression on the audience at all, they’re going to need to amplify everything. And honestly...As You Like It is such a good comedy that it can embrace even the goofiest performance in the service of a fun evening at the theatre. 


Maria Beilke puts in a solid performance as romantic lead Orlando. Caitlyn Nettesheim is deeply charming in the role of romantic lead Rosalind. Netteesheim has a natural poise and grace about her as she tangoes between the script and the table of hot sauce. Jaleesa Joy has conjures a particularly strong charm to the stage as Rosalind’s cousin Celia. Joy’s quick wit frequently cascades out around the edges of the dialogue. Joy’s always fun, but she’s particualrly good here. The subplot between shepherds makes a remarkably appealing appearance onstage courtesy of a really charming rapport between Brittany Haut (Phoebe) and Jonah McGinnis (Silvius.) Other notable appearances include relatively new Milwaukee area talent Kim Giddens as the fool Touchstone and the radiant presnece of Mariah Kiefer in the role of Jaques. A show like this is also a fun chance to see relatively new faces of younger actors like Jabril Rilley (who plays Le Beau) and Memphis Cook (who plays Amiens.) It’s also really cool to see someone show-up in the cast from elsewhee. Recent Milwaukee transplant Kim Giddens makes a clever appearance in engagingly physical performance as the jester Touchstone. 


Kith & Kin Theatre Collective’s one weekend-only Bard Bites production of As You Like It continues through Sunday. Tonight’s show starts at 7:30 pm. Tomorrow’s show is a matinee which begins at 2 pm. For ticket reservations and more, visit Kith & Kin online.

​A video graphic of the show’s logo is projected against a wall as everyone settles-into their seats for Reefer Madness: The Musical. It’s a fun dive into lighthearted satirical silliness in a show that makes the occasionally clever connection to bigger issues. Director Samantha Paige  carefully orchestrates a rather large ensemble in a rather small space. The challenge is to make it all look completely out of control due to...y’know...the madness and all. Of course...making it look comically crazy while keeping everything from crashing into itself on a small stage is a pretty impressive accomplishment in and of itself. 


Thom Cauley opens the show in the role of a lecturer who establishes the basic premise of the show: it’s the mid-1930s and people must know the dangers and evils of marijuana, so he and a group of actors are presenting a lurid tale of corruption and murder to warn the populace about it. Cauley plays the role with a straight face without over-exaggerating the sternly conservative nature of the lecturer.


Riley Luettgen and Phillip Steenbekkers play Mary and Jimmy: a couple of wholesomely naive high school kids who are beginning to date while studying Romeo and Juliet. Leuttgen and Steenbekkers manage a loveably enjoyable romance between the two characters that serves as the emotional center of the play. Luettgen also manages a comically fun sudden turn from wholesome to something else entirely towards the end of the show that’s a great deal of fun. 


Contrasting against the wholesome relationship between Mary and Jimmy is the tortured relationship between Jack and Mae--the proprietors of the local den of iniquity where kids get hooked on marijuana. Lee Rydzewski is suitably seedy as Jack...a slinky character with a great deal of pleasantly strange energy. Bryanna Vancaster is comfortably over-the-top in the role of a woman in an abusive relationship she can never seem to escape. 


There are a lot of big numbers in a show that also features really impressive props and costuming. The actions spills off the stage and slides its way around the audience in an occasionally immersive experience that energizes that intimate second floor space of La Cage quite well. There are a lot of fun, little performances around the edges of the ensemble. Ernesto Bellafonte makes a memorable turn as a very cool Jesus Christ. Nye Udengwu conjures the stage presence of a poised model as the show’s Placard Girl. And it was just...A LOT of fun watching Michelle Dalamatter really selling some of the passionate goofiness of the ensemble with a cleverly serious and seriously silly grace. 


It’s a fun show all aroud and it’s not often that something like this makes it into a space that’s as small and responsive as a totally sold-out crowd at La Cage. If you get a chance...see it. 


Outskirts Theatre’s production of Reefer Madness: The Musical runs through June 28th at La Cage NiteClub on 801 S 2nd St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Outskirts online.

Pink Umbrella Theatre is staging a staged reading. It’s a world premiere by playwright Rick Bingen. It’s called This Is A Staged Reading. The title suggests something really weird and experimental, but it’s really just a love letter to small stage theatre that feels somewhere between comedy, tragedy, romance and drama. The staged reading of This Is A Staged Reading. takes place in a cozy space on Mitchell Street. The space has a very clean and open feeling about it. The play’s five actors sit in a line dressed in black that contrasts beautifully against the largely pristine witness of the space itself. 


Ekenedilichukwu Ikegwuani is charming as the central character of the ensemble: an actor-turned playwright named Avery. He’s quite attracted to Joedan: an actress/costume designer he’s working with, but can’t seem to find the right moment to establish anything more than a working relationship. Ashley Garcia is engagingly passionate as Jordan, who serves as a central focal point to the dramatic end of Bingen’s script. Kaylene Howard lends an impressively organic presence to the sstage as a director named Kris, who serves as some of the backbone to the ensemble. It’s a great pleasure to see Gray Berendt play Ash: the youngest member of the ensemble: a struggling actor who desperately wants to commit to a life in the theatre. Berendt has a deliciously sharp grasp of subtleties in delivery that work a clever alchemy on even relatively mundane lines. Playing the opposite end of experience onstage is William Molitor in the role of seasoned local actor Rowan. Bingen’s making an interesting contrast between age and youth in Rowan and Ash that feels like it could spin-off into its own play. Of course...Bingen’s got a lot more going on than that. If he were to focus on the Ash/Rowan relationship it would be a pale echo of Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre. 


Bingen’s script feels like it’s constantly ending. The ending of every scene seems tobe the ending of a whole drama in and of itself. This isn’t a bad thing, though, given the play’s focus on the theatre. The episodic nature of the script serves the ephemeral nature of an art form that must be born, live and die every single night. There’s that constant feeling of progression through rebirth that feels refreshing. The romantic end of the play is a lot of fun. So often dramatized romance is plagued by a three-act Hollywood plot structure...it’s nice to see something with a greater potential for all those little insecurities and uncertainties that linger around the edges of a potential romance. Bingen’s script might run the risk of trying to do many different things at once without being truly satsifying on any one level. The episodic nature of the script and the overall milieu of the story makes it all feel so very, very natural, which is something that has begun to feel increasingly rare in the modern world. 


Pink Umbrella Theatre’s staging Rick Bingen’s This Is A Staged Reading. had one more performance Monday, June 15th at 7:30 pm at Pink's Accessible Theater House (PATH) on 1104 Mitchell St. Admission is Free.


For more information, visit the onilne program.
For more information about Pink Umbrella Theatre, check out their website.

​There’s a certain allure in the idea of having a group of friends that you’ve known since college. People you continue to hang out with on a regular basis for decades. Things being what they are in the contemporary world, this isn’t a luxury that a whole lot of people can afford. Playwright Jones Hope Wooten explores the fantasy of this idea in The Sweet Delilah Swim Club, which finds its way to SummerStage of Delafield at the dawn of summer. 


Christopher Kurtz’ set is a cozy outdoor affair. A serene stage in an outdoor space serves as a vacation home on North Carolina’s Ourer Banks where five southern women meet once per year to catch-up. They met in college when they were on the swim team. A lot has happened to them since. And there’s a great deal that happens to them in the course of the many scenes of the play as it covers a series of meetings between the women that span a great many years.


Director Tiersa Ferraro works well with an ensemble of five actresses who play women seen in scenes that stretch out over the course of a whole bunch of years. There’s a real challenge in a play that covers a whole bunch of years...trying to make it feel like a substantial time has passed between scenes can be difficult. All too often it feels like there are only a few minutes from one scene to the next when at least one full year is supposed to have passed. Ferraro and company hold each moment for long enough to feel like its own event in the lives of the women in question. That’s quite an accomplishment. 


Lesley Grider holds a respectably stable energy in the c enter of the cast as Sheree, who was team captain of the swim club in college. Grider has a sharp confidence about her that carries the role well. Victoria Wozniak plays well to the opposite side of the ensemble as the youth-obsessed Lexie who always seems to be getting over a romantic relationship of some sort. Julie Rowley makes a powerful appearance in the role of Vernadette--a tough-as-nails blur collar woman with a life that has enough tragedy to fill a dozen country-western songs. Jessie Jefferson is given one of the bigger challenges in the ensemble in the role of Jeri Neal, who has one of the more dramatic character arcs of the entire ensemble. She’s introduced as a nun at the beginning of the comedy and goes through quite a transformation. To her credit, Jefferson doesn’t exagerate the changes in Jeri Neal’s personality...choosing instead to focus her performance and the deeper emotional aspects of the character. Michele McCawley rounds-out the cast as a driven high-powered lawyer with a shrewd eye for detail.


It’s a fun, casually social comedy that occasionally touches on some very, very deep emotional issues. Ferraro and company do a respectable job of keeping everything moving in a plot that covers a tremendous amount of ground in more ways than one. 


SummerStage of Delafield’s production of The Sweet Delilah Swim Club runs through June 27th at Lapham Peak State Park on W329 N846 County Highway C in Delafield. For ticket reservations and more, visit SummerStage online.

The idyllic outdoor space in The Kettle Moraine stands-in for a cozy, little space in stands-in for North Carolina’s outer banks this month as SummerStage of Delafield opens its season with a production of this 2007 ensemble 2-hour comedy about a group of women who met at college a couple of decades ago. They meet at a beach cottage every August to catch-up with each other in a fun story of friendship that should serves as a pleasant entry into the summer for SummerStage.  Tiersa Ferraro directs The Sweet Delilah Swim Club, which runs June 11 - 27 at Lapham Peak State Park. For more information, visit SummerStage online. 

The Summit Players explore one of Shakespeare’s best-known plays this summer as it tours around the Wisconsin State Parks system  with a production of Hamlet. The Summit Players continue with their tour of performances and pre-show workshops for another summer. Once again, they will perform the classic tragedy at 18 different state parks between mid-June and late July. The tour begins with a special preview performance on the campus of Marquette University on June 11. The final performance makes it to Havenwoods State Forrest on July 26th. As always, all performances are free of charge. Seating is general admission.
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Theatrical Tendencies presents a family comedy this summer with its production of Regrets Only. Set in New York, it’s a satire on marriage, friendship and the debate over gay marriage. The comedy comes to the stage of Inspiration Studios on 1500 South 73rd Street June 12 - 21. For ticket reservations and more, visit Theatrical Tendencies online.

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It might be one of the best-known church-funded films of all time. It’s alsoe generally considered to be one of the worst films of all time. It was largely forgotten after released. Over the years Reefer Madness has gained a second life as a cult classing. Years ago it was turned into a musical. Outskirts Theatre presents the campy musical tribute to a pop cultural touchstone with a cozy, little staging of hte musical at La Cage Nite Club on 801 S. 2nd St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Outskirts Theatre online.
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The idea feels like a bit of a take-off on the drunken Shakespeare idea. Shakespeaere is performed onstage with periodic asides to consume progressively spicier hot sauce as the show progresses. It’s a fun gimmick that adds a bit of levity to an already fun comedy as Kith and Kin Theatre Collective presents As You Like It: Bard Bites Edition. Directed by Kimberly Laberge, the show runs June 26 - 28 at Inspiration Studios  on 1500 S. 73rd St. in West Allis.