Septober Onstage and Online in Milwaukee

It’s mid-to-late September. Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox. There have been live performances announced for the greater Milwaukee area. In addition to a couple of live, in-person shows (and a very cool sounding Milwaukee Opera Theatre/Danceworks thing on the river this coming Autumn) there are quite a few online events in the days and weeks to come. Here’s a look:

Voices Found Repertory has been consistently doing live theatre performances since the outbreak of COVID. This month the group presents a theatre & chill event as a conclusion to their first Build-A-Bard season. The weekly online video series has had various members of the creatives involved in producing VFR shows talking shop about the work they do. The series is wrapped-up this coming Saturday with a staged online reading of ​Hamlet: one of Shakespeare’s best-loved tragedies on Saturday, September 26th at 6pm. For more information, visit the show’s Facebook events page.

Women Laughing Alone With Salad
As September winds-down on the online Small Stage, The Constructivitsts prepare to open an online season with a “Virtual Theatre Adventure” by playwright Sheila Callaghan. Women Laughing Alone With Salad features a really good cast including  Rob Schreiner, Sabra Michelle, Paige Bourne, and Liz Ehrler. Inspired by the strange trend of women laughing at salads in stock photography, it’s a contemporary social satire that was published just last year. Jamielyn Gray directs.

The show runs online Sep. 30 - Oct. 4.
For more information, visit the Constructivists online.

Boozy Bard returns to Facebook this month with another Shakespeare Raw-ish production. This time around they're doing Macbeth. A cast of some pretty talented people in both dramatic and comedic ends of theatrical performance are chosen at random to play various roles for a lovingly adapted version of Shakespeare’s original script.

Boozy Bard’s Macbeth marches onto the internet at 7pm on October 7th. For more information, visit the show’s Facebook events page.

​This coming month, Voices Found Repertorty opens its 2020/2021 season with the virtual performance of a new play by Bloomington, Indiana-based playwright Pharyne Gremore. It’s called Call Me Dracula. Bram Stoker’s classic villain has been analyzed from every possible direction, so it’ll be interesting to see if Voices Found can find some novel life in the most popular member of the undead this Halloween. Dates and specifics have yet to be announced as of this moment. For more information about VFR’s upcoming season, visit their Facebook page.

The Decamoeron Opera Coalition puts together a really promising virtual performance this month in Tales from a Safe Distance. It’s a video collaboration between Milwaukee Opera Theater and ten other indie opera groups all over the country. The show is an anthology series of nine one-act dramas and a single wrap-around story that presumably unifies the rest of them. The series runs online from Oct. 9 - 30. MOT’s offering is Orsa ibernata, (yes: as a matter of fact that IS “hibernating bear” in Italian.) It will feature work written by Composer Elizbeth Blood and Librettist Danny Brylow. Orsa ibernata will be shot entirely outside (in the woods I believe) by talented choreographer (and likely equally talented Videographer/Editor) Christal Wagner.  For more information, visit Milwaukee Opera Theatre online.

There’s actual live theatre this month.
On a stage and everything.

This coming month, Village Playhouse in West Allis opens its production of Weekend Comedy. Written by Jeanne and Sam Bobrick and originally published in 1987, the comedy involves two couples: a husband and wife in their 50s and a husband and wife in their 20s. They have both booked the same cabin in the Catskills for the same weekend. They’re both determined to be there. It’s a fun premise for light comedy.


The show takes place on the cozy stage of Inspiration Studios on 1500 S. 73rd St. in West Allis. The show runs Oct. 9 - 18. For more information, visit the Village Playhouse online.


As this IS a show on a small stage during a pandemic, there are a number of COVID protocols involved in attending the show. Check out their comprehensive list of safety protocols at Village Playhouse online.

The Waukesha Civic Theatre presents a cabaret which will be available both online and in person at a reduced-capacity Schauer Arts Center. Director Ryan Albrechtson and Music Director Julie Johnson present Virtual Villains Cabaret: a rogues' gallery of musical theatre just in time for Halloween.  October 30th and live-streamed on October 30th and 31st. In-person tickets are $20. Live Steam tickets are $10. All proceeds from the show support the Schauer Arts Center. For ticket reservations and more, visit Waukesha Civic Theatre online.