Broadway Theatre Center – an intuitive perspective

May 2, 2026

The Contructivists: BUG. Plumbing The Breadth Of Contagion

The Constructivists pride themselves on presenting dark cutting edge theater. And they have certainly accomplished that with their season ending presentation, Tracy Letts’, BUG. In her program notes, director Maya Danks describes loneliness as the driving force in this play. But that is only part of the story…how far is one willing to suspend disbelief in real life in order to assuage that loneliness. In BUG, Letts suggest that there is no limit.

Jaimelyn Gray. Photo courtesy of The Contructivists.

Constructivists founder and artistic director Jaimelyn Gray plays our lead protagonist, Agnes. At first Gray’s Agnes seems to be on the verge of getting her shit together, strictly on her own terms. But that bit of bravado seems to be buoyed by a fair amount of drug and alcohol use. She’s a waitress sequestered in a sketchy long stay motel somewhere in Oklahoma. And Gray moves to a subtle loss of composure as her ex-husband, out of prison on an unexpected early parole, still haunts her emotionally and then physically when he arrives on the scene. It is unsettling for us to watch as Agnes acquiesces to the violence and control of her husband once again and as she seeks shelter in the machinations of her new found friend, Peter.

So who is Peter? Well, Agnes’ friend, R.C., shows up at Agnes’ room in the middle of an evening of partying with Peter in tow. R.C. wants to have Agnes join her in her endeavors to continue partying through the evening but it’s not happening. Tess Cinpinski is a direct and forceful presence as R.C.. Also something of a wild and crazy woman who just moves on after being turned down by Agnes. Later on, acting as an advocate for Agnes, she has a showdown with Peter that is a pivotal point sending us in a new direction and the climax of the play. Cinpinski’s strong dramatic presence tends to draw much of the attention to herself in her moments on stage.

Jaimelyn Gray and Tess Cinpinksi. Photo courtesy of The Contructivists.

Peter is played by Joe Lino. He is brought to Agnes’ room by R.C. but doesn’t leave with her. They are essentially strangers who met at a party. Lino’s Peter seems to live at the periphery of the action initially. Lino very effectively tiptoes around the edges of the other cast members on stage and convincingly exhibits a number of tics and twitches describing his nervous nature. As we learn Peter’s backstory of hospitalization and military service, Lino increases the intensity of the character and brings Agnes under the sway of his issues and under his control.

Matt Specht. Photo courtesy of The Contructivists.

Goss is Agnes’ ex-husband. Matt Specht brings a forceful destructive male presence to the stage as Goss. Completely self-absorbed he ignores a restraining order and a possible parole violation by visiting Agnes and trying to take up where he left off. And he gets physical with Agnes and helps himself to her purse. Specht depicts a troubled misogynist who doesn’t realize he is troubled. This is just the normal course of events for him.

Late in the play, Goss brings Dr. Sweet to the motel. Dr. Sweet has been asking around town for Peter and claims he would like to help him by returning him to the hospital. Robert W.C. Kennedy brings a calmly somewhat detached doctor to the stage. He might be a little naive about Peter’s condition but he makes a great effort in trying to coax Peter to agree with him. Instead, this is the final breaking point. I will leave it there.

Joe Lino and Jaimelyn Gray. Photo courtesy of The Contructivists.

Maya Danks has assembled a great cast and tells a great story, despite it’s deeply troubling aspects. I can’t imagine how she moved these actors to plumb the breadth and depth of contagion and mental illness without affecting their sleep at night. But the content is on Letts’ head, Danks has made it into a great season closing presentation.

And I don’t envy the stage crew. There are literally hundreds of small props to handle, add, remove, or replace as the play progresses. And in the talk back afterword, we were told that it takes an hour to reset the stage before the next presentation can begin. And Martilia Marechal did a marvelous job with sound effects and music throughout.

And this disclosure from The Contructivists about BUG: This production contains adult subject matter. Viewer discretion strongly advised. We believe in the power of dark art catharsis. As such, every Constructivists production contains provoking words, ideas, and actions. We respect everyone’s boundaries, but also respect those who wish to know as little as possible about this production. General warnings are violence, language, and heavy drug and alcohol use. [I am going to add: spousal abuse and suicide as possible triggering activities. Ed]

BUG is being presented at the Studio Theater, Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway, Milwaukee WI from now until May 9, 2026.

Ticket info is available here. More info about the play is here.

Joe Lino, Jaimelyn Gray, and Tess Cinpinski. Photo courtesy of The Contructivists.

March 24, 2026

Is This A Room: A Surprisingly Intense Drama From A Real Life Text

I have never attended a play where any of the dialogue was….REDACTED. Welcome to the 21st Century.

Left to Right: Rasell Holt, Jonathan Wainwright and Isabelle Muthiah. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Is This A Room is an original concept put together by Tina Satter and the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre is fortunate to be able to bring this to Milwaukee. Satter has built this play on the actual transcript of the interrogation of whistleblower Reality Winner by the FBI on June 3, 2017. Winner was arrested for leaking an intelligence report related to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. She was later convicted and sentenced to over five years in prison. The fact that the transcript alone makes intense dramatic dialogue is amazing.

First, let’s consider the set, or in this case, lack of set for Is This A Room. Instead we have an industrial strength gray carpet mid-theater with the Chamber Theatre’s seating split with a portion on either side of our stage. Not quite theater in the round but not Chamber’s usual layout either. As we move into the action, we understand why this is important. The transcript/dialogue clearly indicates our location and describes how the action moves from one site to another. AND, as the cast thrusts and parries through their conversations, they intensify those moods and feelings with agitated pacing around the space/room. And there are times where director Brent Hazelton has the cast move about in obvious stalking or moves to make advantage in their physical relationship to the other characters. When many observers or critics talk about directors choreographing the action on stage, it tends to be more metaphor than fact, but in Is This A Room, Hazelton has choreographed an actual dance here. And Hazelton’s facility in crafting this text into an engaging play on stage is equally satisfying.

Left to right: Isabelle Muthiah, Jonathan Wainwright, and Rasell Holt. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Isabelle Muthiah is Reality Leigh Winner. Muthiah is ingenious as Winner. Initially playing a naivety card, she is cool and coy and intentionally slow to understand what is going on until the FBI plays their cards. And even as events start going against her, Muthiah never loses her cool or her control and sometimes leads the agents down a tangential path. Jonathan Wainwright plays Special Agent Justin C. Garrick, the bad cop in our pair of special agents? Well, not the bad cop in a forceful threatening way, but the bad cop in asking most of the questions and always the most direct questions, and the holder of the facts at hand. Wainwright tries to project something of a wise fatherly figure, trying to put Winner at ease. And Special Agent R. Wallace Taylor is played by Rasell Holt. Holt’s Taylor shows more empathy for Winner and I guess, he would be considered the good cop. He asks questions, but not the direct type we get from Garrick, but follow up questions or clarification questions which do show his empathy.

Left to right: Jonathan Wainwright, Isabelle Muthiah, and Rasell Holt. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

And then there is the Unknown Male! Well, well not exactly unknown. While Garrick and Taylor are both plainclothes special agents, the Unknown Male is in full FBI regalia and armed to the teeth. And Unknown Male is played by one of my favorite actors, Mark Corkins. It was great to see him on a local stage again outside of his annual appearances in the Christmas Carol. Well, Corkins gives us an officer who is something of a doofus. Wandering around seemingly aimlessly, often unaware of his surroundings, generally unaware of those around him, constantly distracted, but absolutely sinister! And he gets to deliver the line that gives the play its name, Is This A Room?

Mark Corkins and Isabelle Muthiah. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

When working with a minimal set, other technical items become far more important. Like lighting: Jason Fassl is the Scenic & Lighting Designer here and the mood and direction on stage is clearly emphasized by Fassl’s lighting. And Stephanie K. Brownell’s costumes set us in the right place and atmosphere as well. The special agents and Winner are dressed in casual clothes which supports the initial casual conversations in the text. But as I said, Corkins is absolutely sinister in his role as an FBI agent and that is enhanced by Brownell’s custom FBI costume.

Foreground kneeling: Mark Corkins, behind him left to right, Rasell Holt. Isabelle Muthiah, and Jonathan Wainwright. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Is This A Room continues through April 5, 2026 at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre. Run time: approximately 75 minutes with no intermissions.

Additional information and ticket info can be found here. When ordering tickets, please note the changes in seating for this play.

February 1, 2026

I Am My Own Wife. But You Are An Impossibility.

The first sentence in my title is the title of the play currently on stage at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. The second is a paraphrase from Doug, the alter ego of playwright Doug Wright, from one of his interactions with Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in the play. Charlotte is an open transvestite living in Germany. She is an impossibility because she survived the Nazis during the Second World War and later the Soviet occupation of East Germany. She was an antiquarian, portrayed as having a particular affinity for Victrolas and other late 19th and early 20th Century music systems and mechanical clocks. And according to Wright’s play, she kept a museum of her treasures and conducted detailed tours through the 28 rooms of her museum. The items were acquired through purchase and trades but much of it salvaged during WWII and the Cold War. The story revolves around interviews between the play’s fictional Charlotte and the fictional Doug…

Jonathan Riker. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. Photographer: Michael Brosilow

Charlotte’s life wasn’t an easy one by any means. First an abusive father who meets an untimely end and of course the indignities that queer people and transvestites in general experience in the mid 20th Century. All of these instances are described in detail in conversation with Doug or acted out for our benefit, sometimes in great detail, by Riker/Charlotte. So there is a lot of different contexts here. From general and specific homophobia and its changing face over 50 years and of course the antisemitism of the Nazis. This is history that 21st Century society needs to remember and guard against forever.

There is but one actor in I Am My Own Wife. And that actor is Jonathan Riker who is credited at Charlotte et al. And that is because as written, Riker plays all of the roles. Not an easy task at any time but particularly difficult here given not only the varieties of gender but the varieties of nationality. Riker is an impeccable Charlotte, the graceful moves, the lilt in her German, and the intense feeling for the music and the music machines. Oh, and a delightful German accent that clearly makes the point but without being too strict for these Midwestern ears to understand. But with a droop of the shoulders or a turn of the head, Charlotte becomes Doug the playwright and interviewer, or Doug’s friend John who ‘discovers’ Charlotte and alerts Doug to her existence, or her lesbian Tante who helps Charlotte identify her sexuality and provides support, or any number of other friends or acquaintances who are keys to the story. Going from the feminine lilting German to a very deep masculine Texas drawl would be daunting for anyone, but particularly here in the midst of a half dozen other voices. But Riker nails it and has fun with it. There is an audible chuckle in the audience the first time he makes the transition. There’s also a sly look on Riker’s face!

Jonathan Riker. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. Photographer: Michael Brosilow

Director Alexander Coddington has orchestrated a very simple but inviting dance on stage for telling this involved story. How he put this all together is simply staggering…so seemingly simple…but such elaborate story telling. And kudos to Coddington for keeping Riker so focused and on track through the two hours it takes to tell this story well.

There is a second star of the show, the set. Riker works in a spare shallow space with a dining room table, two chairs, and a cabinet. But behind is a painted backdrop that resembles a paneled dining room until the lights behind are turned on…and at one time we see an elaborate bar and back bar setting that Charlotte saved from a gay bar and later a mass collection of furnishings adorned with a milieu of mantel clocks and hall clocks or simply a sitting room. Quite s stunning achievement from the scenic staff of Sarah Hunt-Frank, Adam Hastings, and Maaz Ahmed.

I was a bit late to the dance on this one: I Am My Own Wife is at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre through February 8, 2026. Ticket information is here!

And an answer to the unasked question stuck in the back of my head: there has been an understudy performance added on Tuesday February 3rd.