May in Milwaukee

There’s a pleasant variety of different shows making it to the small stage this month including a variable plot adventure with First Stage, a promising tenth anniversary for Reanaissance’s new play festival, the emergence of a new opera company and a charismatic one-man show. Here’s a look at what’s coming in May in Milwaukee.

​First Stage presents an interactive adventure with a variable plot as it presents Escape from Peligro Island--A Create Your Own Adventure Play. Playwright Finegan Kruckmeyer pastes together a surrealistic fantasy adventure which tells the story of Callaway Brown. He starts the story stranded on a desert island, but things can go in many disparate directions depending on the decisions of the audience in a fun experimental theatre experience. Director Jeff Frank leads the cast in a show that runs May 10 - June 2 at the Milwaukee. Youth Arts Center on 325 W Walnut St. For ticket reservations and more, visit First Stage online.

Theatre Gigante welcomes Spring with a brand new program--Here There Where...described as "An enigmatic theatrical piece that fluctuates between keen absurdity and poetic musings, interweaving dialogue, monologues, music, video, movement, and a lot of playful wisdom."

Gigante is really, really good with this sort of thing. They've been doing it for quite a long time now. They know what they're doing....it can be breathtakingly fascinating stuff when they frame it well. The show runs for one weekend only: May 17 - 19 at Kenilworth 508 Theatre - 1925 East Kenilworth Place, 5th floor. For more information, visit Theatre Gigante online. 

 

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Renaissance Theaterworks’ Br!NK New Play Festival turns TEN this year with some drama, some comedy and lots and lots and lots of shorts. Featured on the festival is the story of a woman who returns to an island looking for answers about the death of her brother. There’s also a number of shorts written by some pretty impressive names including  Deanna Strasse and  Maria Pretzl. (They’re both really, really cool. Trust me.) The festival runs May 18 and 19 at The Baumgartner Center for Dance on 128 N Jackson St. in the Third Ward. For more information, visit Br!NK  online.

Next Act’s performance space serves as the launching point for  Brew City Opera--a new company which emerges at the end of the month...with a production of Così fan tutte. A man disguises himself in order to hit on his best friend’s fiancé in a light and enjoyable comedy. It’s a warm romantic comic hug from Mozart that comes to inhabit the space at 255 S Water St. BCO should have little difficulty filling the intimate studio theatre space with a light and spacious three hours of Mozart at the dawn of the summer of 2024. The show runs May 30 - June 1st. For more information, visit BCO online.

Actor/performer Thom Cauley presents a story of life with Autism in his one-man show The Spectrum Revisited (or a Typical Neuro-Atypical.) Cauley talks the history of the science, his personal life in a spoken word show infused with song parodies. Cauley has shown a charming and charismatic stage presence in and around the edges of larger ensembles. It should be fun to see him move into something right in the center of the stage. Should be fun evening. The show runs May 31 - June 9th at Hi-Five Studios on 3276 N Weil St. For more information, visit the show’s Facebook page.