Deathtrap

This is one of those better late than never posts. A.J. and I went to see Deathtrap at Sunset Playhouse last night. It was awesome. The cast did an amazing job. There wasn’t a weak performer in the bunch. The gentleman that played Sidney Bruhl (Paul Troglia) had several wonderful scenes where it was just him on the stage performing some complicated actions with very little dialogue. Those were some amazingly believable.

We went to the show to support our friends, Mark Neufang and Donna Daniels. A.J. and I have both had the opportunity to perform with both of them in various shows. They were both incredible in this show as they are in everything they do. I can’t really tell you what they did because the show is a suspense thriller and I don’t want to ruin it for others.

On a side note, we saw many friends while we were there. And I even got to meet Jonathan West (Artsy Schmartsy), the Managing Director at Sunset. I have been reading his blog posts for years and it was nice to finally meet him. It was quite an enjoyable and “thrilling” evening. There are only two performance of the show left today. If you can get away, go see it today!!!

And Then There Were None… Again

And Then There Were None opens on Friday at Waukesha Civic Theatre. I’ve been so busy lately that I hadn’t realized that I hadn’t posted an entry about it yet. As you may remember I appeared in this show in September, 2007 when the Village Playhouse of Wauwatosa and the Brookfield Players staged it. At that time, I played Rogers, the butler. I love murder mysteries and I liked that show so much that I suggested the show to the WCT Play Advisory Committee last year. It was recommended by them and approved by the board of directors and it found its way into the current season.

Hoping to try my hand at a different role, I auditioned for the show but, alas, I must possess those quintessential butler traits. I am again playing Rogers. I must admit that learning lines is much easier when all you are doing is refreshing them in your memory. On the other hand, it is harder to give the role a different look as you tend to fall back into old habits.

I am lucky to have the opportunity to work with a few people that I have never worked with before, many of them veterans of Soulstice Theatre. I am also pleased to able to work with three individuals that I worked with on the first show I ever appeared in, Arsenic and Old Lace. Hopefully, I’ve grown as an actor since then. One of my cast-mates, Jenny Kosek, and I have appeared on stage in three separate shows now. I’m sure that Jenny is getting sick of doing shows with me. I really enjoy working with her; she is such a fine actress.

I am again privileged to have Mark E. Schuster as my director for the second show in a row. Mark can add to the dubious honor of being my only male director to being my only repeat director. He obviously has a larger threshold of pain than many others. Kidding aside, he is great to work for and makes the rehearsal process as enjoyable as it can be.

Please come out and see the show if you have a chance. It runs October 23rd to November 8th. Check out this great cast:

Justice Lawrence Wargrave: Scott Allen

Vera Claythorne: Kelly Simon

Philip Lombard: Andrew Lien

Dr. Edward Armstrong: Joel Marinan

William Blore: Michael Endter

Emily Brent: Mina Miller

Thomas Rogers: Kurt Magoon

General John Mackenzie: Jim Volden

Ethel Rogers: Jenny Kosek

Anthony Marston: Kyle Konetzke

Fred Narracott: Jeffrey Berens

A.C.T. Summer Showcase 2009

On Saturday, Erin took part in the A.C.T. Summer Showcase at Waukesha Civic Theatre. It was her third Showcase in three years. This event is the result of two weeks of theatre arts classes presented by the theatre. This year, Erin only took the acting class and, therefore, participated in just one piece on-stage. She and some of the fellow member of her class enacted a short sketch called Sibling Rivalry; a humorous game-show style comedy about pitting brothers and sisters against each other to score points. Erin played the angelic side of the brother’s conscience. It was very funny. I was extremely proud of her. She spoke loud enough for all to hear without shouting. She spoke clearly and with emotion. And she even held for laughs when they came (which is very hard to do sometimes).

Congratulations to Doug Jarecki and the rest of the instructors for a great job again this year. The show was very well done. All of the kids involved should be very proud of the effort they put forth.

Around the World in 80 Days

Back in April, I volunteered to help out at the WCT Gala. At the gala, I bid on and won two tickets to a main stage performance at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (for an extremely reasonable price I might add). Last week, Kristi and I decided to use those tickets to see the Sunday performance of Around the World in 80 Days. I can’t believe what I great time we had. First of all, the Cabot Theatre in the Broadway Theatre Center is a phenomenal venue. And we were lucky enough to get great seats; fifth row center.

The show was great. There were five members in the cast to play almost forty roles. One actor, Matt Daniels, played only one role, that of Phileas Fogg, and he was amazing as the stoic, refined gentleman. Two actors, Marti Gobel and Chris Klopatek, played a couple of minor roles each but mainly one character throughout. They were awesome as well. And the remaining two actors, Norman Moses and Robert Spencer played about twenty characters each. They were hilarious. I can’t imagine how frantic it must have been backstage with all of the costume changes. With their different accents and costumes they really made the show.

The other awesome thing about the show was the set. It was created with the Steampunk style that is associated with the works of Jules Verne. It was really cool to watch them transform it into the various locations and modes of transportation in the show. The three members of the run crew were also dressed in a Steampunk manner and they added to the humorous nature of the show.

The Milwaukee Chamber Theatre is a little more expensive than the shows we normally go to, but, in this case, it is well worth the extra money. You should definitely go out to see this one before the end of the month. For those with a little ingenuity that want to see the show for a cheaper price, they are having a Steampunk Night on Thursday, August 20th and anyone dressed in Steampunk attire gets in for half price. That night, they are going to have pre-show activities and a Steampunk band, Eli August, in the Skylight Bar after the show. Check out this flyer.

The World’s Stage Theatre Company

For our second successive Friday night, A.J. and I again ventured out to a theatre performance. And again, it contained some Shakespeare. We went downtown to the Tenth Street Theater to see A Little More Than Kin as performed by The World’s Stage Theatre Company. This is a new company composed of twelve high-school aged artists from this area that have worked together in the past at Milwaukee Shakes, the Skylight, or First Stage. This was the first show of their premiere season.

As they are a fledgling organization and couldn’t afford to pay the royalties on an existing work, they wrote the show themselves with a little help from the Bard. The show had that Noises Off quality of being a show about rehearsing for a show. In this case, the show that they are rehearsing for is a compendium of Shakespeare scenes. Those scenes were intermixed with scenes about the actors’ relationships with each other as they rehearse a play that opens in a week.

I have to say that these are some of the finest youth actors I have seen in the area. I understand that one of them will be attending Julliard in the fall. They handled moving between the actors that they were playing and the difficult Shakespeare with ease. I will certainly support any of their future endeavors. I would have to say the script was pretty good for a first effort. It was much better than some of the efforts produced by adults. The rehearsal scenes were filled with the type of relationship drama that seem so very important to teenagers but not so much as we grow older. Other than that, it was very good. It contained lots of humorous situations that really brought the audience into the show.

Congratulations on your first effort. Keep up the great work. If you do, I may be auditioning for you one day.

Seussical – The Musical

We all went to see Seussical yesterday at Waukesha Civic Theatre for their final performance. It was a great show. I had never seen this show before and I laughed so hard throughout the entire show. I especially liked it when one of the Wickersham Brothers plopped in my lap during the chase scene near the end of Act 1. Everyone in the show did a fantastic job. Awesome performances were turned in by Paul Burkard as The Cat in the Hat, Corey Richards as Horton, and Samatha Burkard as Gertrude McFuzz. Congratulations to Jacob Sudbrink for directing an incredible show. Nice work by Sallie Burkard and Anthony Mackie on the tremendous costumes and wigs. It felt like I was watching several Dr. Seuss books come to life.

First Stage Classical Company Class

Last night, A.J. and I went down to the MYAC to see a performance by the First Stage Theater Academy’s Classical Company Class called A Great Reckoning in a Small Room. Wow! What an incredible night of classical theatre. The twenty seven high school aged performers were amazing. The directors, Jim Tasse and Brian Gill, discussed how the class last year focused just on the works of Shakespeare. This year, they expanded the study to include works from many of the Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights. They humorously referred to this as a “Jacobethan” work. The performance was about an hour and a half long and contained 31 small scenes from playwrights like William Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and others.

In a previous post, I had indicated that I was amazed by the performance of another one of the academy’s company class. I actually think that this class was even better. It took a few minutes to adjust our brains to understand the Elizabethan style of speech. The actors and actresses were all dressed in black and barefoot and used props when only necessary. Their depth of emotion and understanding of the dialogue was amazing. I was also impressed by how they controlled their bodies while on stage as well as entering and leaving each scene.

I’ve said this before but it bears mentioning again. Although his modesty prevents him from acknowledging this, John Maclay is to be commended for his stewardship of this fantastic theatre arts training program. He and his staff have put together an excellent program that really helps the kids to shine. Keep up the great work.

Cotton Patch Gospel

This post is long overdue but very important. Last Friday night, we saw Cotton Patch Gospel at Waukesha Civic Theatre and it was absolutely extraordinary. The show has since completed its run on Sunday. But if it hadn’t, I would be encouraging you all to go see it. The musical is a retelling of the Gospel of Matthew set in Georgia and played is the style of an old southern tent revival. Most of the show is performed by one individual playing multiple characters with four musicians assisting with the singing and some of the dialogue.

John Cramer was outstanding in the lead role and his four musicians (banjo/guitar, fiddle/mandolin, guitar, and bass) were perfect. What a captivating way to tell the story of Jesus. Kudos to everyone involved for a superb job. There was a mention in the program that bringing all or part of the show to your church would be a perfect way to spice up your service. I couldn’t agree more. As I don’t want to put the contact email address in this post, contact me if you are interested and I will forward the address on to you.

First Stage Theater Academy

Last Friday, A.J. finished up a four week class at the First Stage Theater Academy. I am very impressed by their program and I am glad that we have such an amazing opportunity for our kids here in the Milwaukee area. A.J. took their two week course last summer and had such a great time that he asked if he could take the four week course this year. The course runs all day and is broken into four parts each day: Acting Theory, Musical Theatre, Improvisation, and Shakespeare. I’m sure that I don’t have those names exactly correct but they describe the subject matter in each class. On the last day of the program, they put on a presentation to demonstrate all of the things that they have learned. It is so cool to see all of these kids get up in front of an audience to sing, dance, and act. Most kids their age would be scared to put themselves out there like that.

The director of the Academy, John Maclay, indicated that this program is one of the largest professional theatre training programs in the country. Its instructors consist of professional theatre actors and directors that aren’t working on any shows during the summer. It is interesting that their true purpose is not to train a bunch of budding actors. Their real goal is to help the students to become better people. Their motto is teaching “life skills through stage skills.” Because of the structure of the program, there are no cliques and there is no teasing or bullying. That message is reinforced at the beginning and end of each day by the director of the Academy as well as by all of the instructors in the classrooms. How cool is that!

One of the other classes that the First Stage Theater Academy puts on during the summer is called the Company Class. In this class, the students spend four weeks (all day) rehearsing a play that they present two performances of during the final weekend. This weekend, we saw one of the Company Classes put on The Foreigner. Our whole family really enjoyed the show. It was wonderful to see what they accomplished in four weeks. In the last year, we have attended both a play and a musical put on by our local high school drama department and I was amazed at how much better the kids of the Company Class production were. Even though they were the same age as the high school students, the training and direction that they received from the class really showed when they were on stage.

Congratulations to John Maclay and the entire First Stage Theater Academy staff for putting together a terrific program and sticking to their principles.

WCT 2009-2010 Season Preview

On Sunday, Waukesha Civic Theatre had the first of two season preview parties. The two hour long event was like being able to see the “movie trailers” for the upcoming theatre season. Except that the trailers were performed live and there was free food. In fact, the whole event was free. How cool is that? Area actors and directors volunteered to stage short scenes from each of next season’s Mainstage and Holiday shows as well as the Random Acts of Entertainment. There were eleven scenes in all. A.J. and I were lucky enough to perform in two of the scenes. It was a really fun time and everyone involved did a fantastic job. What I like about this event is that the patrons can get an idea of what to expect from the upcoming season and, if they like what they see, they can step out to the box office and order their tickets right away.

The second preview party is this Thursday, June 25th, at 6pm. So, if you are tired of worrying about what’s going to happen at the Skylight and want to see a free preview of some really great shows, call the WCT box office at (262) 547-0708 is reserve a spot as soon as possible. There is quality entertainment happening out in many of the suburban community theatres. You should check it out.