Alan Piotrowicz on R.I.P.

​R.I.P. is one of a few completely new pieces to be opening in Milwaukee this month. The musical comedy about the afterlife should be really interesting given the nature of the story. Director Alan Piotrowicz took some time out to answer a few questions about the show, which opens this coming week.

It’s a musical comedy about life and death. There’s a really delicate balance there. Love, loss and auto accidents aren’t always the cheeriest things to cover. It must be kind of ominous to try to find the right balance between tragic drama. How are you handling the balance between comedy and drama? 

It’s an incredibly delicate balance! But the thing about death is that it is one of the truly universal experiences in life. We all will have to face it at some point, not only once ourselves, but also whenever we grieve a loss. But grief and love are inextricably intertwined, and so with the heartbreak also comes joy – happy moments, funny anecdotes, opportunity for growth, chances for reconnection – and so too are there moments of light and levity in our show. The fact of the matter is we don’t know for sure what happens after we die, and neither do the Dead in our show, as find themselves wait in the back rooms of a mortuary. When things are that crazy, what can you do but find the humor?

Half the ensemble of characters is dead. The other half is alive. This should make for some rather interesting dramatic dynamics. Is there a whole lot of direct musical interaction between the living and the dead? How does the dynamic work on both sides of life and death in R.I.P.?


One of the many conversations I’ve had with Robert Grede, the playwright and composer, is about the role of music in the show. Rob’s done an amazing job of defining the “rules” of how the living and the dead can and can’t interact, and as we explored those rules during an earlier workshop, we learned that perhaps it is actually the music that acts as the connective thread between them. There’s an adage in musical theatre (I think from Bob Fosse) that “the time to sing is when your emotional level is just too high to speak anymore,” so it just makes sense to me that the moment these characters are reaching their most emotionally vulnerable place is both when they would be singing and when they’d be able to connect (even across the barrier of death) to fulfil their hopes and dreams. My personal favorite song in the show, in fact, started as a solo piece for a grieving sister, but as we continued to develop the script, it evolved into a beautiful duet between both sisters (one living and one dead), finding how they’ll each be able to move on.

The Next Act space can be VERY intimate. There’s an intimidating factor in staging something this delicate so close to the audience. This isn’t a simple staging either. There’s choreography and everything. How is the space of the show informing on the mood, music and movement of the piece? 

When we were looking for a venue for this show, I was a huge advocate for Next Act’s performance space. I’ve directed there before, including a production of Dead Man’s Cell Phone for Pink Banana Theatre Co, and actually designed lighting for several shows for Next Act Theatre, including 7 Stories, Four Places, A Sleeping Country, Grace, and Three Views of the Same Object – and those were all in some way about death! (I also did some not about death, too, I swear.) I love directing in intimate spaces, so it doesn’t seem so intimidating for me. Small, up-close spaces means that the storytelling is also more connected with the audience. We’re allowing folks to be a true fly on the wall, watching the lives (and in this case, afterlives) of these characters. Then when the music picks up and the dancing kicks off, the space feels as big and alive as it needs to be – and we definitely will have some "rock out" moments to share.

There’s quite a range of different ages and experience levels in the ensemble of performers. Some of the people in the cast have been around for decades. There are a few who have only attained their BAs like...a couple of years ago. It must be exciting working with such a diverse group. How has the group dynamic been in rehearsal? 

We’re so lucky in Milwaukee to have an array of talent that includes both strong young talent and accomplished actors who have been seen on many different stages in the region. However, it’s not always the case that they get to work in the same room! One of the things I love about RIP is that Rob’s created characters spanning a wide range of ages and life experiences, and we needed a cast that reflected that. This gave us the opportunity to assemble a team of artists with so much awesome experience – spanning from Milwaukee’s historic Melody Top Theatre to the most recent class of Professional Residencies at Milwaukee Rep. We begin rehearsals in one week, and I couldn’t be more excited to get everybody together in the room. 

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer a few questions about the show.

The world premiere of RIP - A Musical Comedy of Life & Death runs Jul. 17 - 25 at Next Act Theatre’s performance space on  255 S Water St. For more information, visit the musical’s webpage.
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