Onscreen Onstage in Early February

Things continue to circulate for Milwaukee theatre in the often uncertain era of COVID. Early this month, there are some promising local small-stage shows showing-up online. Later-on new things begin to open-up on local small stages again with some particularly interesting pieces coming courtesy of Voices Found and Sunstone Studios.

​Renaissance Theaterworks and Escuela Verde Newline Cafe open the month with an online presentation of Neat. Talented local actress Marti Gobel reprises her one-woman performance of playwight Charlayne Woodard’s tale of an aunt who was refused treatment at an all-white hospital. It’s deeply moving drama that Gobel carries to the stage with breathtaking depth. The show makes it to the internet Feb. 3 at. 6:00 pm. To sign-up for the Zoom reading, visit Newline Cafe’s RSVP site.

Door County’s Third Avenue Playhouse is the next group to return to an earlier era of the pandemic with an online reading of playwright Heidi Armbruster’s Dairyland. Jacob Janssen directs the story of a New York food critic named Allie who returns to her father’s dairy farm in Wisconsin to hang out with a cow named Patches. Sounds like a cross between an animated movie and something from The Lifetime Movie Network. Weird. Could be fun, though. The show hits the internet Feb. 4th at 7 pm. For more information, visit TAP online.

The Quasimondo Physical Theatre presents one of the more abstract experimental local pieces to make it to the internet for the pandemic. Giraffe On Fire is a celebration of Salvidor Dali that has been adapted for the small screen. Originally performed back in 2015, the show is a fusion of dance, music, physical theatre and visual art that is being presented online Feb. 4th - 20th. For more information, visit Quasimondo online.

This month, Voices Found Repertory presents a one-weekend-only staged reading of Margaret. Conceived by director Jessica Trznadel, the show presents Shakespeare’s War of the Roses from the perspective of Margaret of Anjou. Appearing in the title role will be Jackey Boelkow, who played the role of Margaret in Prague Shakespeare Company's European premier of The Death of Kings: Seize the Crown. The reading runs Feb. 10 -13 at Sugar Maple. For more information, visit the show’s Facebook events page.

Zach Thomas Woods has been doing excellent work both on and offstage in and around Milwaukee in recent years. This month, Woods’ role as playwright is presented on the stage of Sunstone Studios. Woods’ ‘Neath the Hills of Bastogne is billed as more than merely a war story from the Battle of the Bulge. The work of three actors and musicians are woven together in Sunstone’s intimate space for a show that. runs Feb. 10 - 20. For more information, visit Sunstone online.

Kenosha's Rhode Center plays hose to love, death and. failure this month as Fleeing Artist Theatre presents Chicago playwright Phillip Dawkins' Failure: A Love Story. Three  sisters die in Chicago over the course of 1928. The same man falls in love with three women after stumbling into the Fail Family Clock Shop. Alex Metalsky directs. The show runs Feb. 11 - 13 at the Rhode Center. For more information, visit Fleeing Artists online.