Onstage Online in April

Milwaukee theatre percolates in and around the edges of the internet in April as COVID’s impact on the stage continues to be felt more than one full year after the initial outbreak. April offers a little bit of everything from drama to comedy...from shorts to feature-length shows. There’s even a live reading onstage for those interested in venturing out to Hartland this month.

Someone has returned a book to a library that is 113 years overdue. A sole librarian goes in search of the book’s history with one initial clue: an unclaimed dry cleaning ticket. This is the premise behind Glen Berger’s Underneath the Lintel. This coming month, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre stages the show online in a production featuring the always-engaging Elyse Edelman as the librarian in question. Brent Hazelton directs the show, which runs April 9 - May 2 online. For more information, visit Milwaukee Chamber Theatre online. Milwaukee Chamber Theatre has done a really good job of bringing compelling local theatre to the internet. With Edelman paired with a good script, MCT appears to have another compelling show for the 2020-2021 season.

The Village Playhouse has maintained activity over the course of this past year. This coming month, they’re bringing program of three shorts by George Bernard Shaw online.

“Overruled,” is a one-act about a pair of couples looking to negotiate complexities of open relations. 
“Passion, Poison and Petrification,” involves a poisoning and cure-by-plaster in a rather strange comedy.
“How He Lied To Her Husband,” is a three-person comedy involving a woman named Aurora, her husband and her lover.

An Evening With Shaw is available April 15-25 online. For more information, visit Village Playhouse online.

Deanna Strasse directs a staged reading of a play she’s written that will be staged in Hartland at Lake Country Playhouse this month. Islands is set in a bed and breakfast in Ireland. A group of strangers come together in a potentially fun, little excursion outside of Milwaukee for anyone interested in seeing something live. Lake Country Playhouse will, of course, be staging the reading in a reduced-capacity socially distanced format. The show will be performed Saturday, April 24 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, April 25 at 2:00 pm. For more information, visit Lake Country Playhouse online.

Director Michael Cotey brings a contemporary drama to light in Next Act Theatre’s latest. An American soldier is accused of war crimes in Iraq. Casey Hoekstra plays the soldier in question who finds himself lost in encounters with superior officers, lawyers, preachers and more. The cast also includes Next Act Artistic Director David Cecsarini, Chike Johnson and Malkia Stampley.

“9 CIRCLES is not about war or Iraq,” says Next Act Producing Artistic Director David Cecsarini, “but the journey of a man discovering himself within the environment of war.”

The show runs April 26 - May 16. For more information, visit Next Act online.