Playwright Bryna Turner explores four decades in the life of a New England woman’s college in her 2018 comedy Bull in a China Shop. Kith and Kin Collective presents a staging of the comedy to open November just in time for an historic US presidential election that could change things quite a bit for the nation. Turner’s comedy explores the concept of revolution and what it means to be at odds with the world. 5 women cover a tremendous amount of territory in 90-minute show that runs November 2 - 10 at Inspiration Studios on 1500 S. 73rd St. in  West Allis. Playwright Bryna Turner explores four decades in the life of a New England woman’s college in her 2018 comedy Bull in a China Shop. Kith and Kin Collective presents a staging of the comedy to open November just in time for an historic US presidential election that could change things quite a bit for the nation. Turner’s comedy explores the concept of revolution and what it means to be at odds with the world. 5 women cover a tremendous amount of territory in 90-minute show that runs November 2 - 10 at Inspiration Studios on 1500 S. 73rd St. in  West Allis. For more information, visit Kith and Kin online.

It’s set in a kitchen. It’s all about a sandwich. Four former inmates hang out in a kitchen of a diner trying to create the perfect sandwich. This is SUCH a clever idea for a stage comedy. It’s a cozy, little kitchen that could potentially explore quite a few different abstracts as Milwaukee Chamber Theatre presents the Milwaukee premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s. Director Dimonte Henning presents a cleverly-framed comedy featuring an impressive cast including Bryant Bentley and Nate Press. The comedy runs November 8 - 24 at the Broadway Theater Center Studio Theatre. For more information, visit Milwaukee Chamber Theatre online.

So...it’s an opera. But it’s a Milwaukee Opera Theatre opera, so you know it’s going to be cool and intimate and all kinds of hip. MOT teams-up with Early Music Now to present Alcina--a story about a sorceress who has a reputation of transforming her ex-lovers into lions and tigers and boulders and things. Sounds cool. And then...it’s being staged at a vintage clothing and home goods store named Dandy. Cool chamber orchestra. Cool, old opera. Cool venue. This should be great fun. The show runs November 12 - 17 at Dandy on 5020 W. Vliet St. For more information, visit Milwaukee Opera Theatre online.

​Tomas Edison and Henry Ford were...at best...a couple of jerks. At worst they were...well...just totally reprehensible human beings who did awful things to other people in favor of their own advancement. They shared a winter estate not far from Fort Meyers Florida which is probably one of the stranger bits of Floridian history. Edison’s Last Breath evidently takes place far from Florida in a bar in New York where the two men met. Sound like a fascinating topic for a drama. Playwright Tim Duax debuts his Edison/Ford show in the intimate space of Inspiration Studios on 1500 S 73rd St. The show runs November 15 - 24. For more information, visit Inspiration Studios Online.

Next Act Theatre opens a quaint, little romance on the edge of Autumn as it presents the comedy Almost, Maine. Karen Estrada directs a quartet of actors including Rachel Zientek, Bree Bell, Rudy Galvan and Jake Horstmeier. The play examines romantic connections in a small town in Maine that’s so far north that it might as well be in the Canadian wilderness. The show runs Nov. 20th - Dec. 15th at the Next Act Theatre on  255 S Water St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Next Act online.

​Robert Anderson’s I Never Sang for My Father tells the tale of a widowed college professor’s relationship with his aging father. The play debuted back in 1968 and was later turned into a film starring Gene Hackman. Boulevard Theatre presents a staged reading of the play featuring some outstanding actors including David Ferrie, Matt Specht, Joan End and Caitlin Compton. The show runs Nov. 25 - Dec. 1 at The Sugar Maple on 441 E. Lincoln Ave. For more information, visit Boulevard Theatre online. The back room of the bar is a fantastic, little place with one of the best selections of exotic, little beers anywhere in town. Always a fun show at the Sugar Maple.

​Playwright Jen Silverman’s The Moors is many things. It’s a dark comedy about human connection. It’s a spoof of the work of the the Brontë sisters. It’s a meditation on the nature of truth in a fundamentally warped world of human emotion. More than anything it’s a deeply engrossing and provocative piece of theatre. Renaissance Theaterworks stages a production of the play this autumn.


Suzan Fete directs a deeply engaging, little ensemble of actors. Kaylene Howard shows considerable strength in the role of Emilie--a woman who has come to an estate in the middle of nowhere to serve as governess to a small child. As she is introduced to the two sisters who live their and their servant, it gradually becomes clear that both the child she was meant to look after AND the man who had hired her are the products of some deranged imagination.


Sarah Sokolovic is deliciously harsh as Agatha--the sister who has taken on the basic responsibilities of running the estate. Sokolovic wields Agatha’s cold and cunningly comic precision like a scalpel that gets right into the heart of Silverman’s script. Allie Babich dreamily cascades across the stage in the role of the lonely sister Hudley. She is quite excited to have a new member of the household. With any luck the new governess might like diving into the strange fantasies that she seems totally obsessed with. Emily Vitrano rounds-out the central cast in the role of Marjory--a woman who plays many roles with many identities throughout the estate. The role could have read as abstract craziness, but Silverman definitely has a structure beneath the madness which Vitrano is wise to bring to the stage.


Silverman pairs humans with a couple of animals that serve as a subplot with a sympathetic theme to the rest of the action. Reese Madigan plays earthbound animalistic passion in the role of a talking mastiff who befriends a moor-Hen played by Marti Gobel. Gobel has a kind of stunning perfection about her stage presence that seems a bit at odds with the fragility of a wounded moor-hen who is being nursed back to health by a massive canine. Gobel brings a powerful vulnerability to the role that serves as an endearing connection to Madigan’s mastiff.


Jeffrey D. Kmiec’s scenic design is cleverly minimalist. The main set feels elegant and spacious. The moors which rest beyond the estate seem to go on forever even though they’re really only a tiny swath of stage beyond the heart of the action. There’s quite a bit of music that feeds in and around the edges of the production that could have felt really jarring in places, (Hudley's power ballad near the end of the play could have been particularly discordant.) Jill Anna Ponasik has done a clever job of blending the musical interludes into the rest of the production.


This is the second time that I’ve seen The Moors in less than a year. (UWM’s Peck School did a staging of the comedy at the beginning of last November.) The one thing that really stands out to me about a production of The Moors is its exploration of the deeply conflicted relativity of truth. Nearly every aspect of what’s being presented is up to interpretation. What’s real? Is the estate truly immense, or do all of the rooms REALLY look alike? How much of what ANYONE is saying can be relied on when everyone has a different reason for lying about...anything? It’s such a weird existential playground populated by such deeply enjoyable madness. I could see a production of this every year. It’s great fun.


Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of The Moors runs through November 10th at the Next Act Theatre space on 255 S. Water Street. For ticket reservations and more, visit Renaissance online. ​

A guy shows-up at a house wearing cat ears and a tail. The family there to greet him was expecting a cat, but this is just…a guy. So naturally, they show him the door. He is persistent, though. He insists that he is, in fact, a cat. They are still unconvinced. He utters a meow. That’s all the more convincing they need. Clearly he’s a cat. His name is Pete. They’d been expecting him.

OK, so it’s a little weird. First Stage does a pretty good job of completing the illusion in its production of Pete the Cat. Actor Ethan Smith may not employ a whole lot of cat-like affectations. He may not resemble the classic James Dean illustrations of the title character, Smith does a good job of bringing across the overall idea of an unshakably cool cat in the season opener for the reliably stylish children’s theater company.

Written by Sarah Hammond for TheaterWorksUSA, the plot of the one-hour musical moves the title character to the side as the plot focusses on a second grader named Jimmy who is struggling to create an original painting for art class. Pete and a magic VW bus show Jimmy some motivation as they make their way to Paris so they Jimmy can don the magic sunglasses that will allow him to find the inspiration he needed.

The child cast at First Stage bring energy to the stage as talented local theatre veteran Todd Denning and First Stage theatre alum Tori Watson capably round-out th adult cast. The music by Will Aronson harnesses sort of a classic light pop rock feel for Pete to groove to. As commissioned by TheaterWorksUSA, the overall aesthetic of Pete’s cool in the show seems firmly grounded in the boomer aesthetic that would likely be brought-in by many of the grandparents who will be taking kids to the show.

The visual feel of the show lives-up to First Stage’s high standards. There’s a sharp visual reality to the Martin McClendon’s scenic design that feels more or less inspired by Pete creator James Dean’s art style. The color palette that McClendon is working with feels very true to the cool colors that Dean casts the page in. Talented lighting designer Jason Fassl has done a remarkable job of lending luminescent color to the stage as well in a huge cat head that rests above the stage. With eyes that light-up. It’s too bad that the cat head above everything couldn’t look a bit more like Dean’s classic design for Pete. That distinctive Pete the Cat face is a genius piece of design that is instantly recognizable to anyone who might have been a kid or read to a kid in the past 15 years. That basic bit of iconography would have gone a long way towards making the show feel a bit more rooted in the title character.

First Stage’s production of Pete the Cat continues through November 3rd at the Todd Wehr Theater in the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts on 929 N. Water Street. For ticket reservations and more, visit First Stage online.