Espejos: Clean Explores The Intersections Of Class, Culture, Race, And Language…

but brings it all together through a depiction of family dynamics and physical and emotional abuse. This is the type of challenging storytelling that you expect from the Milwaukee Rep’s Stiemke Theater. And you will be challenged as well, as you are thrust into the explorations as an audience experiencing a multi-cultural, multi-class, multi-lingual event(s).

There are only two active characters on stage. Sarah, played by Dylan Brown, is a young privileged white woman from Canada, who is staying at a Cancun all-inclusive resort for her sister’s destination wedding. And Regina Carregha plays Adriana, an in control and serious Mexican woman who is the manager of house keeping at the resort. There are a few other characters and playwright Christine Quintana gives them life and presence in the script. They are the mother and sister of Sarah and the boyfriend, father, mother, aunt, and housekeeping staff in Adriana’s life. We only know them through monologues, narrations, and dialogues from Adriana and Sarah. But they bear heavily on the stories being told here.

Dylan Brown and Regina Carregha. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

So, Dylan Brown. Her Sarah is clearly a self-centered young woman who seems more than a little put out by the demands from her mother surrounding Sarah’s role as bridesmaid at her sister’s wedding. I mean, three rehearsals? Really? And Sarah also has a problem with alcohol. Sarah is aware of it and clearly doesn’t care. And she is also clearly aware of her privilege as she brags that her family and friends are financially able to hold this destination wedding. She also brags that her sister and mother are betting on when she will have her first fuck up. Her first interaction with Adriana is a rather demanding moment around the apparent cleanliness of the bathroom.

And Regina Carregha’s Adriana is clearly in charge and sure of her role until Sarah pushes her on the bathroom. Carregha can sometimes seem a bit officious as Adriana, but clearly has empathy for her staff as she carefully matches her supervision on their strengths and weaknesses. And at first Carregha gives us a woman who seemingly is removed from her family and determined to be herself…until we discover she isn’t necessarily here at the resort of her own volition. And then Carregha gives us a stunning example of someone trying to hold it together on the outside while falling apart on the inside after her aunt calls to relay that her father has passed.

Regina Carregha and Dylan Brown. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

But there is more to the stories behind both of our characters and they unwind (unravel?) as the play progresses. And then their relationship suddenly changes when Sarah witnesses an interaction between Adriana and her boyfriend. Did she see what she saw or was it something else? Despite Adriana’s denial, one is never quite sure. We don’t know if we should believe Sarah or Adriana. But both Brown and Carregha effectively make the pivot from their original personas to a newer one. Brown’s Sarah’s epiphany brings a more stable, more aware, and more emphatic character. Brown exudes a new inner strength here and becomes the in control human being you would expect. Carregha’s Adriana tries to exert her managerial persona but she can’t make it believable anymore.

Dylan Brown in tub and Regina Carregha in foreground. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Quintana throws us a few more loops as she adds scenes that are false starts or dreams or nightmares that present alternative viewpoints. But finally some truths will out and we finally understand the under dramas that have driven our characters to be who they are and appear as they wont.

Director Juliette Carrillo certainly put this together seamlessly despite the various shifts in locale, personae, and moods. And those dreams/nightmares spoke as true magical realism and merged into the story and out again.

Dylan Brown in tub and Regina Carregha to the left. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

An important note. This play is presented in English and Spanish. Sarah speaks English all of the time except for a phrase or two of Spanish. When she is speaking, the Spanish translation appears as super-titles above the stage. And except when Adriana is speaking directly with Sarah in English, she is speaking in Spanish and the English translations appear as super-titles above the stage. Now, I am an English speaker, who like Sarah only knows a few phrases and words in Spanish, so I am glued to reading the super-titles. And this is too bad because Carregha is a fluid and dramatic actor and I missed her actions on stage while I tried to keep up!

The stage here was a simple modest workhorse. A bedroom that served as Sarah’s hotel room, a raised bathtub which was bathtub, beach, and shower, and chairs and tables that depending on the scene were whatever they needed to be. Quite dramatic, very effective, and thank you Luciana Stecconi!

And one more thing about the super-titles. I was there during the previews and I had trouble reading some of them. At times the contrast was too low, particularly when they were on the black back curtain or of there was a haze amplified by the spots or if the spots were too hot on the front of the stage.

Regina Carregha. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

The Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Espejos: Clean at their Stiemke Theater from now through May 11, 2025. Additional information and tickets can be found here.

Extra Credit Reading: The Playbook

The Woman In Black at MKERep

It was a dark and stormy night. No, really, it was, as I made my way downtown during the biggest snow storm of the Milwaukee winter season (so far). And that probably threw me off my game a bit so I wasn’t really prepared for the intense story telling I was about to experience at the Milwaukee Rep’s Stiemke Studio Theater. And for the record, I Don’t Believe In Ghosts! You will get that reference as you are experiencing The Woman In Black.

photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Rep

What we do have here is a compelling story rich in language, a strong story line that twists and turns and keeps us guessing…and a handful of surprises…a couple you can anticipate in a ghost story and a handful that will come…as a surprise!

After a family holiday gathering that ended with a session of shared ghost stories, which solicitor Arthur Kipps feigns to participate in, he is compelled to tell a story of his own that has haunted him, if I am doing the math right, for some 30 years. He has documented his story in a tome of significant proportions and enlists the aid of an actor to help him present it to an audience of friends and family.

photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Rep

Kipps begins by quietly reading his story from his journal and has us leaning in to hear as for a solicitor, he is particularly quiet in his speech and manner. This brings protests from The Actor and after several sessions and attempts at livening up the presentation, The Actor proposes a new course.

Instead of reading the story, the two principals will act out the key scenes with this added twist, the actor will play the young Kipps and Kipps will play all of the other characters in the story. This works amazingly well and now ‘we’ are wholly enmeshed in a play within a play.

This is an incredible bit of story telling on both the part of playwright Stephen Mallatratt and director Robin Herford. They both carefully nurture the precise language in the text and smoothly draw out the fright required of a good ghost story. Herford keeps us on the edge of our seats throughout as the story is told…and then wrenches us out of our seats on occasion.

photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Rep

There are two actors on stage…but three actors playing the roles in rep. David Acton plays Arthur Kipps, Mark Hawkins plays The Actor, and Ben Porter has turns as both. I am confident that I saw Acton and Hawkins the evening I attended. But the action and story telling was incredible and the actor interactions felt true to the story and made the suspension of disbelief automatic and unavoidable.

The set is the stage of a small and somewhat moth eaten theater and despite only two actors there is a fair amount of choreography necessary as they purpose and repurpose a few stage props and set pieces to their needs and change their outer costuming to suit each character change from a spare little coat rack at stage right. And there is a bit of theater humor here as The Actor employs a ‘new’ technical innovation to provide background sound effects to their play…which then reaches into our theater and experience just moments later. I won’t say more because it is part of the ‘surprises’.

This is a play that I would like to experience again, if I can fit it into my schedule, before it ends its run. It continues at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Stiemke Studio through March 23, 2025.

Additional information and tickets can be found here.

Extra credit reading: the online program can be found here!

photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Rep

Marie And Rosetta: Two Voices Ready To Bring You Joy!

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a force of nature in the music business throughout the middle of the 20th Century. She is often called the Godmother of Rock And Roll and her influence on jazz and blues and rock musicians in the United States and the United Kingdom is well documented. And you will recognize the source of many rock sounds and tones during Marie And Rosetta, but that is not the focus of the play.

Instead, we will experience the developing relationship between Sister Rosetta Tharpe at the pinnacle of her career as she plucks a young singer/pianist from under the nose of Mahalia Jackson and makes Marie Knight her understudy and accompanist. They will both grow as musicians and will begin a life long friendship.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Marie and Rosetta in the Stiemke Studio, October 22 – December 15, 2024. Pictured: Bethany Thomas, Alexis J Roston. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

And there is an intriguing subtext here as well. Both women are devout Christians who are coming from a background of singing in church choirs and being soloists as well. So there is a struggle between being true to their spirituals and choral singing and the world of secular music. Sister Rosetta being older and more in tune with herself and her world has made it work but Marie isn’t yet comfortable where she now finds herself and presents a bit of push back. The resulting discussions provides opportunities for both women to reconsider their ideas and moral guidelines and find new ways to express themselves musically!

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Marie and Rosetta in the Stiemke Studio, October 22 – December 15, 2024. Pictured: Alexis J Roston, Bethany Thomas. Photo by Michael Brosilow

So what does that get us? Besides the conversations and exchanges of life being lived, we get an amazing panorama of songs and music from the Sister Rosetta Tharpe songbook. This isn’t quite a musical and not quite a cabaret piece either, but somewhere in between. But Director E. Faye Butler has made sure the music and the personalities are all front and center, every moment.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Marie and Rosetta in the Stiemke Studio, October 22 – December 15, 2024. Pictured: Bethany Thomas. Photo by Michael Brosilow

And as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, we have Bethany Thomas! This is a marvelous bit of casting because Thomas certainly has a voice that dominates just the way Tharpe’s did and an incredible stage presence that certainly illustrates that Tharpe diva persona as well. And it’s a joyous homecoming as Thomas also appeared in the Rep’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch and for me, most notably, Songs For Nobodies. I can’t think of any recent Rep performer who is more suited to play Sister Rosetta Tharpe than Bethany Thomas!

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Marie and Rosetta in the Stiemke Studio, October 22 – December 15, 2024. Pictured: Alexis J Roston,. Photo by Michael Brosilow

And Alexis J Roston is Marie Knight. Roston plays the younger Knight as a prodigious talent who is self-deprecating in the face of the famous and intimidating Tharpe. But she eventually starts to feel comfortable and slowly accepts her role in secular as well as Gospel music as Tharpe eases her along. There is a sort of big sister little sister relationship developed and at one point Tharpe starts calling her Little Sister. And Roston has every vocal chop needed to play Knight. She fills the stage with song and humor, although not always intentionally, and grows Knight’s stage presence and self confidence neatly and organically as the play progresses.

There are only the two actors and a single dramatic set of a funeral parlor that allows for the drama and the music to seamlessly be performed. Kudos to scenic designer John Culbert for that. And you may not be aware of the stage lighting…it is bright and dramatic for most of the spoken dialogue but will subtlety shift color and intensity to help express the moods for each of the songs performed. Lighting director Jared Gooding knows when to dim the lights. And although Rosetta and Marie are working with a piano and Rosetta a number of guitars, we are actually hearing Morgan E. Stevenson on piano and Benjamin Oglesby-Davis on guitar.

Marie and Rosetta is being performed in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Stiemke Theater. Opening night was October 22, 2024 and it runs through December 15, 2024. Additional information and tickets are available here.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Marie and Rosetta in the Stiemke Studio, October 22 – December 15, 2024. Pictured: Alexis J Roston, Bethany Thomas. Photo by Michael Brosilow