The Arts – Page 32 – an intuitive perspective

April 24, 2022

The Amazing Lemonade Girl At First Stage

When I first took my seat in the Todd Wehr Theater of the Marcus Performing Arts Center, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Facing a stage set with any number of bins and shelves that reminded me of a dystopian office or an overworked play space, I wondered how the actors got on stage.

But all was quickly revealed as a boisterous cast exploded on stage to open this masterful bit of theater that is The Amazing Lemonade Girl. American Players Theater stalwart, James Devita has written a very compelling play around the true story of Alexandra Flynn Scott and her determined efforts to help fund research for cures for childhood cancers.

The cast consists of six actors. One young actor depicting our principal character, Alex. And an ensemble of five others who depict at times, her family, a close friend, her doctors, her customers, and the supportive general public who aid her in reaching her goals.

There are two casts here. Both are anchored by adult actors. Rick Pendzich plays Dad and a number of others. James Carrington who plays a number of doctors, media types, and others. Karen Estrada who plays Mom and others. And then the Purple Cast which features Maia Scherman as Alex, Sanaiah Hibbler as her friend Theresa and others, and Liam Jeninga who plays her brother and others. This is the cast that I saw perform. And then the young actors in the Blue Cast are Pietja Dusek as Alex, Nala Patel as Theresa and others, and Andrew Kindler as Brother and others. These two casts alternate as the show’s run continues.

Pietja Dusek (front of frame) and the ensemble: from left to right, Rick Pendzich, Andrew Kindler, James Carrington, Nala Patel and Karen Estrada.hoto courtesy of First Stage. Photographer Paul Ruffolo.

Mr. DeVita has given First Stage a demanding play about childhood cancer. The story is direct and truthful and presents the facts that confront all families following a diagnosis of cancer without lingering on the sadness surrounding the subject. And director Molly Rhode understands the text and nuances and moves the action along around Alex. We easily develop an empathy for Alex and celebrate the happy and sad times…the good and bad things. The cast celebrates the best while openly acknowledging the lows. And Ms. Rhode winds us through the whole story as Alex expresses her drive and determination while the ensemble moves from character to character…all with the aid of that at first perplexing scenic background. All with color and drama and action, all of the best kinds!

Karen Estrada and Rick Pendzich. Photo courtesy of First Stage. Photographer Paul Ruffolo.

That transition by the ensemble from one character to another could be perplexing if Mr. DeVita text and Ms. Rhode’s direction hadn’t clearly stated out loud the transitions…and the quick and overdone costume changes clearly indicated each actors change in roles. Very nicely done!!

From left to right: Karen Estrada, Maia Scherman, Liam Jeninga, Rick Pendzich. Photo courtesy of First Stage. Photographer Paul Ruffolo.

And this is an amazing story of a young girl’s determination to help other children who are suffering from childhood cancer. The top story is her lemonade stand and how the nation gets on board and supports lemonade stands in every state and contributions from all over. But the underlying story is her own experience with neuroblastoma starting as an infant. And the struggles and sacrifices her family made to provide the best care possible for her.

And the story goes on to give us insight into the issues she understood. That not all treatments were equal. That not all treatments affected each patient equally. And that hospitals, doctors, and researchers struggled to secure the funds to provide equal outcomes for all of their young patients.

Maia Scherman. Photo courtesy of First Stage. Photographer Paul Ruffolo.

And for me the most rewarding subscript is the monologues or asides from Brother. He clearly explains the unequal dynamic within the family unit as most of the emotional efforts of Mom and Dad revolve around finding a cure for Alex. And how he feels guilty for feeling upset that he’s left out in a way. And this pulls the parents to his side as well. A topic that often gets lost within stories like this. Mr. DeVita has presented this very well and Ms. Rhode’s staging brings Brother front and center. We get it. We feel it.

So we have Alex’s full story here. Her diagnosis, her treatments, her setbacks, her triumphs, and the love of her family. As I said earlier, this is told with truth and facts and directness. without over-dramatization. I think everyone in attendance will understand the story…the happy and the sad without dwelling on the sad.

As I said, I saw the Purple Cast. And I think that Maia Scherman as Alex was simply outstanding. She just had the right determination and the right attitude to play this role. For me, the standout was Liam Jeninga, who so totally nailed the monologues about his feelings and his place in the family late in the play. I didn’t see it coming but he played it just right.

Nala Patel and Pietja Dusek. Photo courtesy of First Stage. Photographer Paul Ruffolo.

The Amazing Lemonade Girl runs through May 15,2022. See more info and ticket details here:

Suggested for families with young people ages 7+. Approx. 70 minutes, no intermission.

Extra credit reading:

The Program!

The Enrichment Guide (activities for pre- and post-theater):

And the info on Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation including Alex’s bio!

April 11, 2022

Things I Know To Be True at The Interchange Theater Co-op

It isn’t very often that you get the opportunity to see a compelling contemporary play on two stages in your home town in the matter of a few years. Our first opportunity was the very challenging production performed almost exactly three years ago at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. (my response can be found here – although this was before I started An Intuitive Perspective). So when The Interchange Theater Co-op announced that they were presenting Things I Know To Be True, I was intrigued.

from The Interchange Theater Co-op website

And I am not the only one taken by the Rep’s presentation. Co-director Kimberly Laberge was as well…and she says this in her notes in the program:

When I first saw Things I Know To Be True at the Milwaukee Rep in 2019, I was awestruck by how different this felt from any other family drama I had seen. I adore the balance of elevated movement and rooted scenework, yes but it was the nuance that stayed with me.

Well, along with co-director Cory Fitzsimmons, Laberge displayed her mastery of that nuance and staged an amazing production of Things I Know To Be True. I had seen the play before. I know the characters. I know the story. Yet, this presentation completely immersed me in this family once again and I laughed at the subtle humor and I cried when things went awry. I wouldn’t have expected such a strong reaction given my previous experience with the play. And I wasn’t quite past my emotional response when I greeted Laberge in the lobby afterwards (I hope she didn’t notice). But clearly some form of katharsis that Fitzsimmons describes in his notes as a certain attribute of this play.

from the Things I Know To Be True Facebook page

And what have we here? A play about a successful middle class Midwestern American family: loving parents, two sons, two daughters. From a distance there seems nothing wrong…no dysfunction…typical nuclear family. But as we get to know them better, we realize that all six have doubts, have flaws, personal stressors, and to each their own form of dysfunction. So not quite the typical family after all but no family would have as many trials to face as this one.

Laberge and Fitzsimmons have taken all of these seemingly distinct personalities and kept them in place within the family dynamic, yet allowing each to excel at their individual monologues and stories, while guiding us through the damaged family culture as it exists. They did this with the necessary drama, tenderness, edginess, and all out family discord that the text calls for. And they added a number of silent vignettes between the dramatic scenes that help illustrate the story and relationships without unnecessary dialogue. Marvelous.

And they couldn’t have accomplished this without the perfect cast…and they have a group here who understood their characters, their place in the world, and their place in the family. And the children at least realized that their best bet to become someone: themselves, was to leave the family home…which always provided shelter when they felt troubled.

The family? Kim Emer as Fran Price (mom), William Molitor as Bob Price (dad), Chloe Attalla as Rosie Price, Mary Seigel as Pip Price, Mari Mercado as Mark Price, and Joshua Groth as Ben Price.

Kim Emer, Photo credits: Mari Mercado and Kimberly Laberge.

The key character is mom, Fran Price. And Kim Emer is outstanding in this role. Seemingly the perfect mother we soon realize that she is insecure and wants to control the family dynamic to her own ends and visions. So she often interrupts her children as they are talking to tell them how they feel or what they are doing. Late in the play, her husband Bob, asks why she is always so angry…and by that point she often is…but she’s overcome by her lack of control of the situation as each of her children are making choices that she wouldn’t have chosen for herself nor for them. Emer is dynamic in this role and never loses sight of who she is or what she wants to accomplish in life. I can’t imagine a better casting.

Chloe Attalla, Photo credits: Mari Mercado and Kimberly Laberge.

Another stand out performance comes from Chloe Attalla as the youngest daughter Rosie. After the first ensemble preamble to the heart of the play, she is the first character who defines her ‘present’ self to the audience via a monologue about her solo sojourn in Europe. She comes off as totally invested in what she is trying to accomplish but doesn’t understand how or why she came up short. And then her homecoming helps introduce us to the rest of the family. While Fran Price is something of the glue that holds the family together…although glue isn’t quite the right term…Chloe seems to be that actual vehicle that spreads love around and binds them together (despite being the butt of a rude family joke).

William Molitor, *Photo credits: Mari Mercado and Kimberly Laberge.*

And we mustn’t overlook Bob Price, the family patriarch who is ably played by William Molitor. Bob seems to have settled for doing what he thinks is ‘right’. Thirty years on the assembly line of a car plant that shut down and then working on his yard…mowing, raking, pruning, watering, fertilizing, and shoveling snow. Seasonal tasks the seem to define his life in retirement but he doesn’t know how to fill the time between finishing any of them and waiting for the need to repeat them. But even that doesn’t seem to make him happy. A classic example of ennui. And he seems to have ceded his place in the family to Fran and his roses. He doesn’t quite seem alive until his sons fracture his sense of moral and cultural norms.

As the lights came up and the actors were taking their final bows, I felt that this was the one performance that I’ve seen this season that had earned a standing ovation. Sadly that didn’t happen.

Side note on the play itself and not the performance: After experiencing two different performances now, I am not quite sure when this takes place. The parents seem to be of the generation of my parents or older siblings (very post WWII 20th Century) while the children feel more of the 21st Century.

This was a very short one weekend run, so by the time you read this it will be over. Sorry for that.

Besides the decidedly inspiring play that I experienced this past weekend, I am anxious to seeing future directing efforts by both Kimberly Laberge and Cory Fitzsimmons. I am expecting that they will present us with more challenging plays, well played and well directed.

and a reprise from my previous posting: When does your childhood end (and unspoken corollary: does parenthood ever end?)

April 7, 2022

Mark Clements “Titanic The Musical” Returns Spectacle To The Milwaukee Repertory Theater!

Given the pedigree of Titanic The Musical…five Tony Awards…Mark Clements could do no wrong bringing it to the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Quadracci Main Stage. Given the size of the cast and the numerous scene changes, this is a daunting production to stage and Clements made use of every inch of the Quadracci thrust stage.

And as I mentioned in the headline, this play is Spectacle. So where ever you are seated, don’t blink or you are going to miss something. And make sure the swivel in your neck is full on because in the ensemble pieces, there is action all across the stage. So it’s easy to focus on the spotlighted actor at every opportunity, but don’t forget to sweep across the stage with your eyes to make sure you take in everything that is going on. The Titanic is after all the biggest moving object of its time!

Clements needs to be applauded on the blocking and staging of this complex play. The cast seems to move effortless around each other whether during the gala and festive dining and dancing scenes, the many ensemble singing numbers, and of course the attempts to organize the evacuation of the ship during its sinking. Bravo!

But the unsung heroes here are really the scenic designer, Tim Mackabee, who’s simple (and quite mobile) but identifiable settings let us know where we were in the ship. The beautiful formal dining room, the bridge with the dramatic wheel, the various deck scenes, to the dance set, to glimpses into the first class suites as the crew wake the guests on that fateful night. And my favorite set: the radio room with the ghosts of old radio equipment and the clack clack clack of the telegraph was just quaintly defining of that older era of communications.

And the other miracle worker here is Alexander B. Tecoma, who is the costume designer. Given the size of the cast, the number of different scenic locales, and the period more than a 100 years ago, the costuming was just right and completely evocative of the time and the class differences. Something to see on its own.

And back to the characters who make up the story line of the play. Emma Rose Brooks is simply phenomenal as the Irish lass, Kate McGowan, She is determined, sure of herself, a bit wronged in the Old Country, and is set to make it right in America. One of the cleverest characters is Alice, played to the hilt by Lillian Castillo! She is sure that we are now in a new world of a classless society and she is determined to meet and greet and hobnob with the rich and famous who reside in first class. So her sometimes successful attempts provide a bit of humor as the steward tries everything possible to show her the ‘door’!

Brian Krinsky plays Jim Farrell, another Irishman heading for the new world. He doesn’t quite know what to make of Kate McGowan at first, but agrees to marry her nonetheless when SHE asks HIM!

And despite the number of romantic stories told here, maybe the most enduring…well certainly…they’ve been married 40 years…involves Philip Hoffman as Isidor Straus and Carrie Hitchcock as Ida Straus…his love match and equal in life…an endearing couple still very much in love!

But watch for Lainey Techtmann if you are fortunate to have her in your production of the play. She was Tiny Tim in last year’s A Christmas Carol and her smooth movements and antics around her parents and crew and fellow passengers will thrill your heart. She certainly has some professional chops already for someone who’s only in third grade!

So…Titanic The Musical runs from now through May 14, 2022. Here is the link for more information and to order tickets on line. There are a few other items to enjoy at that link including some short videos with the cast and director.

Extra credit reading: The PROGRAM The PLAYGUIDE and the COVID Updates at the Rep.

P.S. You will be handed a ‘boarding pass’ on entry. You can use the printed QR code to see if your passenger survived or not with a bit of back story at a kiosk in the lobby.

all photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater except where noted.