Small stage theatre has the opportunity to explore drama in a way no other format can quite manage. Milwaukee Irish Arts explores matters between one man and one woman in a cozy, little space a County Clare this weekend in a staged reading of Christian O’Relly’s Chapatti. Margaret Casey and Bo Johnson play a couple of reclusive neighbors living quite close together in a small town in Ireland. Johnson summons a soulful depth to the stage as Dan--an old gentleman who is looking for a good home for his dog Chapatti. Casey is carries a charming energy into the reading in the role of the local cat lady Betty who is also looking for a good home for a couple of kittens. The two quite literally run-into each other at a small-town vet and strike-up a friendship that could turn into something more. 


O’Reilly’s script holds a tremendous amount of intricate nuance. It would be far too easy to carelessly trod over the emotional subtleties of the script in search of something more explosively dramatic. It’s not like the script wouldn’t support a more over-the-top performance with heavy emotional expression, but it would lost a great deal of its charm. Dan might read as an oppressively dark figure contrasted against the powerfully high-energy of an extremely vivacious Betty. Thankfully, Casey and Johnson’s instincts move for something much more sophisticated under the direction of Next Act Theatre’s Cody Estle. There’s a deeply resonant connection between the two actors onstage, who read from the alternating monologues that the script consists of. The emotional drama of two people is enhanced by the script’s focus on pet ownership. The title character may not appear onstage, but Johnson and Casey do a cleverly intricate job of delivering the dog’s presence to he stage simply in allowing it to let its presence be known in the mixing and mingling of their alternating monologues. All of the many cats in and around the edges of the drama make their presence known as well. (Betty has 19 cats.)


Once again, County Clare serves as a cozy, little spot for a reading. The bar has a variety of local and Irish beers on tap. There’s plenty of cozy nooks in and around the inn. It’s a delightful space in which to discuss a very provocative drama after its brief, intermission-less time in the Joyce Room of the pub. 


There are two more performances of Chapatti. This afternoon’s performance starts at 4:00 pm. There’s also a 2:00 pm performance on Sunday, April 12. The reading takes place at the Joyce Room in Country Clare Irish Inn & Pub on 1234 N. Astor St. For more information, visit Milwaukee Irish Arts Online.

You will believe a 24 foot-wide stage can revolve. (It’s got to be a serious challenge for any set designer.)  Marquette University Theatre is staging a production of the classic onstage/backstage farce Noises Off. Actors in a farce play actors performing in a farce. It’s kind of a weirdly existentialist meta-comedy for something that ends-up being as light as it is. Kind of a fun show for a group of college students to bring to the stage. Marquette University Theatre’s Noises Off runs April 17th - 26th at the Helfaer Theatre. For more information, visit the show’s page on Showclix. 

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Just one more thing...The West Allis Players are staging a production of Prescription: Murder. Zack Sharrock play Lieutenant Columbo in a murder mystery involving a psychologist, his wife and his patient (who is also his mistress.) The Doctor and his patient are certain that they’ve gotten away with murder until Columbo shows-up. It’s a fun script that should be a pleasant evening’s exploration into the nature of appearances...what we choose to see. What we choose to overlook. Prescription: Murder runs April 17 - 26 at West Milwaukee Intermediate School on 5104 W. Greenfield Ave. For ticket reservations and more, visit West Allis Players online.

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Milwaukee Theatre veteran Laura Gordon plays a virtuoso violinist near the end of her career in Next Act Theatre’s staging Dinner With The Duchess. Samantha Martinson directs a drama exploring the nature of performance, art and artist on one of the classiest studio stages in the greater Milwaukee area. The show runs April 22 - May 17 at Next Act’s space on 255 S. Water St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Next Act online.

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Her name is Reality Winner. Some years ago, she had been convicted of releasing classified government information. She was given the longest prison sentence of anyone ever convicted of such a crime. This was only a few years ago. The contemporary drama of her story makes it to the stage of this month courtesy of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre in an intimate production of Is This A Room? Director Brent Hazelton brings the actual FBI transcript of a conversation with Winner to the stage in a crushingly close look at the peculiarly mundane nature of heroism in the age of information. It’s an incredibly intimate portrayal of daily life on the edge of the epicenter of serious political concerns.  

Isabelle Muthiah summons a tremendous amount of inner complexity in the role of Winner. All eyes are on her as the center of a drama that explores a tremendously intricate world of political drama. Jonathan Wainwright brings a warm and casual gravity to the stage as the FBI agent tasked with getting to the bottom of why it was that Reality Winner did what she did. Aiding him in his questioning is another agent played with sharp and decisive precision by Rasell Holt. Milwaukee theatre veteran Mark Corkins rounds-out the case in the role of an FBI agent who is investigating Reality’s home with court-ordered search warrant. 

There’s a remarkable resonance to the fact that Is This a Room? is essentially a “found drama.” There is no introduction. No closing comments. The transcript is presented as it appears in the FBI files...complete with the glaring red redactions it contains. So much of the drama is a simple conversation between strangers at work on official business. Everything spoken onstage was written by chance and circumstance. The whole show is 75 minutes without intermission. It’s remarkably complicated stuff on a whole bunch of different levels, but it all comes down to the intensity of four people performing a script written by inevitability itself on the edge of a very fierce and ragged contemporary political world. 

It’s just a few people in a confined space. The dialogue reaches well beyond the immediate to concern itself with deeper matters. There’s a deeply provocative intensity about the tiny 75 minute stretch of time that feels almost inescapable. The gravity of the situation feels kind of overwhelming at times. There’s a crisp precision about it all that feels so very, very primal. In light of this, it feels all the more disturbing that the dialogue in question was actually spoken in the context of “real life” events on this side of the stage. No one speaking would have conceived that what they would say would end-up being spoken in a theatre for the purposes of art. Muthiah and company do a remarkable job of locking-in the emotional reality of the situation with great intensity. Muthiah deftly holds the heart of the drama with great heart and intellect.

The seating arrangement in the Broadway Theatre Center’s studio theatre has been specifically designed to amplify the intimacy of the theatre. With “tennis court seating” the audience is sitting on both sides of the stage. This means that EVERYONE is closer to the drama. (The late Milwaukee Shakespeare group had used the space in a similar fashion to impressive effect years ago.) There’s a deep intimacy about the drama that feels all the more intense close-up. 


Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of This is a Room continues through April 5th at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre. For ticket reservations and more, visit Milwaukee Chamber Theatre online. 

​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.