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.

Milwaukee Rock Theatre open the month with a production of American Idiot. The Green Day rock opera comes to the cozy, intimate space of Inspiration Studios in West Allis. It runs for just over a week from Nov. 1st - 8th. It’s hard to believe that M.R.T. has almost been around for 25 years now. It’s cool to see them staging a production of the drama. Three young men suffer throguh a suburban lifestyle in the early 2000s. A sleek, stripped-down production of the musical for the small stage has a real potential for getting to the garage band feeling that inspired the pop punk group. For more information, visit Inspiration Studios online. ​

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre continues its season with a show by actor/playwright Heidi Armbruster. (She’s...uh...also in the show opening-up this month with Next Act.) It’s a murder/mystery whodunnit set at a supper club in Wisconsin’s north woods. The cast includes Bree Beelow, Carrie Hitchcock, Joe Line, Matt Bowdren and Colleen Madden. Wow. Brent Hazelton directs the show, which makes its Milwaukee premiere with the production. At 90 minutes in length, it should be a very, very tight, little evening. A little taste of the north woods comes to the theatre district November 14th - 30th. For more information, visit Milwaukee Chamber online.

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Marquette University Theatre explores race. culture and representation with playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury’s satirical comedy Fairview. Drury’s brilliantly-conceived script makes its appearance onstage in a production directed by Dimonte Henning. The first act features a domestic scene involving a group of African- Americans. The second act features that same action playing-out in the periphery as a group of white characters discuss race. Things get...complicated in the third act of a very, very. clever comedy. The show runs Nov. 14 - 23 at the Helfaer Theatre on 525 N. 13th St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Marquette online. 

David Cecsarini returns to the stage in a number of different roles for Next Act Theatre as it presents playwright Marie Kohler’s Boswell. It’s the story of a researcher who goes looking for unpublished writings of 18th century Scottish author James Boswell. The journey takes multiple twists and turns. Lots of fun. The cast includes an impressive mix of talents from local theatre veteran Brian Mani to the talented, young actress Sarah Zapian. Laura Gordon directs the show that runs Nov. 19 - Dec. 14 at Next Act’s space on 255 S. Water St. For more information, visit Next Act Online.

​The Skylight stages an expansive production of a beloved classic as it presents Fiddler on the Roof for its season-opener. Andrew Varela plays Jewish dairyman Tevye in an expansive production with a full cast. The production is graced with two instruments from Violins of Hope--a collection of stringed instruments that Jewish musicians and others targeted by the Nazis played before and during the Holocaust. Those instruments should amplify the resonance of a show that covers themes of tradition and cultural identity. The show runs Oct. 3 - 26 on the main stage at the Broadway Theatre Center on 158 N. Broadway. For ticket reservations and more, visit Skylight Music Theatre online. 

Kith & Kin Theatre Collective presents a world premiere by local playwright Tim Backes. The promising, new drama Caesura features Alyssa Booton as Emma Hitchens--a woman who has stayed away from her midwestern home town since the death of her father. Now she’s forced to return after two years away. A local school where he had become a choral director is going to dedicate a new arts wing in his name and her presence is requested. This is particularly difficult for her as she had been on rather uneven terms with him at the time of his passing. The cast also feature Michael Chobanoff, Maggie Marks and Gray Berendt among others. The show runs Oct. 10 - 19 at Resurrection Lutheran Church on 12400 W Cold Spring Rd. in New Berlin. For ticket reservations and more, visit Kith & Kin online. ​

The more traditional Halloween-style theatrical end of the month onstage opens on October 10th as Theatrical Tendencies presents a staging of Qui Nguyen's She Kills Monsters. It's the story of a woman who gets to know the mind of her late sister by exploring a  Dungeons & Dragons adventure that she had written into one of her notebooks. The show runs through October 19th at Inspirationtion Studios in West Allis. For more information, visit Inspiration online.

​Renaissance Theaterworks presents a psychological thriller that opens mid-month. Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland features  Linda Reiter as a successful murder/mystery novelist who has retired to her study surrounded by her collection of books and antique weapons. Things get complicated for her as she is approached by a man from her publisher (played by Miles Blue.) He wants her to write one more novel in her best-selling series. As things progress, it becomes apparent that there may be more to the man from the publisher than immediately meets the eye. Laura Gordon directs. The show runs Oct. 19 - Nov. 9 at the Next Act/Renaissance space on 255 S. Water St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Renaissance Theaterworks online.

Not to be outdone by Kith & Kin, The Constructivists also have a world premiere show this month. It’s called Bed and Breakfast of the Damned. It’s a bedroom farce. With Zombies. And it’s a world premiere. But I mean...all I really need to know about it is that it’s a bedroom farce with zombies. There ARE a lot of ways that something like this could go wrong, but it’s SUCH a charming idea for Halloween that there’s no way that I’m going to feel good about myself if I don’t see this one. The fact that Becky Cofta is in it is an added bonus. (She’s been onstage with zombies before...just a few years back with Milwaukee Opera Theatre.) The show runs Oct. 25 - Nov. 7. For ticket reservations and more, visit The Constructivists online.

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It doesn’t feel all that often that October 31st lands on a Friday. This particular 31st, Black Cat & Crow Reading Company presents a staged reading of contemporary playwright Lucas Hnath’s The Thin Place. It’s a fun one for Samhain: The story of two women can talk to the dead. Black Cat and Crow’s “Gremlin-In-Chief” Drea Roedel-Schroeder is joined by three other actors in a cozy, little reading at The Brick House on 504 E. Center St. The show runs two nights only: October 31st and November 1st. Both shows start at 7:30. For more information, visit Black Cat & Crow’s Facebook page. ​

It’s a tiny, little theatre in the round just south of downtown. But it’s in a big, fully established space. There are a couple of people on stage as everyone gets settled-in for the show. No one seems to notice that these two people are getting a relationship. They’re navigating around in the same space on the same stage. Maybe they occasionally glance in each other‘s direction. Or maybe not. But it’s inevitable that they’re going to get together. It’s inevitable that they’re going to actually turn to each other and see each other. There might be a dance. There might be a little bit of a connection. And then they leave the stage for long enough for an opening curtain speech.

When they get back on stage, an entire lifetime is going to play-out for them. An audience is going to watch as they tumble around in and within the pull of mutual attractions and mutual struggles. There will be passions and anxieties. There will be confusion and uncertainties. Things will be said. Things will be unsaid. It’s a remarkably sophisticated distillation of All of reality inside 90 minutes in the studio theater. And there’s really no questioning that it’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen.


Vanguard Milwaukee deftly crafts a dazzlingly complex two-person drama this month as it presents Lungs . George Lorimer and Caroline Hansen play a romantic couple living through their entire lives in an intermission-less fugue onstage.. Playwright Duncan Macmillan's script focus is much of the drama on questions of parenthood--current ethics of it, the trials and tribulations leading up to it. All of the many, many challenges that a thoughtful pair of people I have to wrestle with in order to go through with the difficulties of conception. 


Director Matt Daniels has fostered a remarkably clever energy between the two actors. It’s not easy to bring a script like this to this stage. There are a lot of subtleties and nuances that emerge over the course of a lifetime. And it can be very, very difficult to bring it all together on the stage without any kind of set or supporting characters. It can come across as a bit of a parody of itself as life shoots by onstage without any connection to true human time. Vanguard does a strikingly good job of keeping it all grounded. There is a strong emotional gravity between Lorimer and Hanson that drives everything remarkably well.


I've seen well over 1,000 shows over the decades. Every now and  again I’ll walk out of a show feeling like it was definitely one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. One of the best things of any kind I’ve ever seen. This is really one of those shows. It’s so tightly-woven and so thoughtfully produced f and so cleverly rendered on so many levels. There is such a strong and a vivid sense of connection with these two people will only exist on stage for like 90 minutes. The fact that these two actors are capable of rendering such amazingly meticulous, emotional detail in both of these characters deliciously overwhelming.


Vanguard Milwaukee's staging of Lungs continues through September 28th at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center on 325 W. Walnut St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Vanguard online.

​There’s a bonfire in the back yard. A group of people sit around drinking. They all went to high school together. They’re sitting down to drink and talk. It’s onstage, but it’s outside as All-In Productions presents local playwright Tim Backes’ Embers. A large but cozy ensemble takes to lawn chairs out back of The Brick House amidst the sounds of Milwaukee somewhere onin the mix between Riverwest and Harambee. 


There’s no way a set-up in a back yard of an active, living neighborhood would work without the right kind of acting. Director Erica Case has fostered an energy in the group that feels every bit as natural and organic as the fully fenced-in backyard space that the drama inhabits. Some of the cast might occasionally be difficult to hear amidst the sound of barking dogs and conversations of passersby, but the overall experience is a rare opportunity to see a show that almost feels like it’s been perfectly grafted into the neighborhood that it’s inhabiting. It’s a strikingly clever approach, but it’s far from being anything approaching traditional theater.


It’s a bit difficult to get a strong feeling for each of the characters in the show given that they’re all largely just...sitting there in the shadows of the fire talking to each other. This isn’t actually a bad thing as it adds to the organic feel of a group of strangers talking in a back yard somewhere on the western edge of Riverwest. Gradually personalities begin to emerge. Chloe Attalla has a particularly strong presence in the role of Olivia--the one in the group who went off to an ivy league university on the east coast. Time and distance has kept Olivia from feeling connected with everyone else as they navigate the rough terrain of an uncertain future. 


All-In Productions’ staging of Embers continues through September 20 at The Brick House on 504 E. Center St. For ticket reservations and more, visit All-In online.