Yesterday, Shakespeare In The Park made its way to Humboldt Park in my neighborhood. This year they are presenting two abbreviated versions of Shakespeare plays, Richard III with puppets and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
As of this writing, today’s scheduled event for Sherman Park has been canceled because of air quality issues.
This isn’t going to be a full review, just a few comments on an afternoon well spent in a beautiful Milwaukee County park. Link to other sites below.
The Optimist Theatre has been doing Shakespeare in the Park for a good number of years. They have created a very efficient means of presenting the plays in the park (not in a band shell or stage but out on the grass). So bring our own chair!! For 2026 they have four actors in the cast who play all of the characters in both plays. This year’s cast is Kaylene Howard, Rebekah Farr, Annalyse Lapajenko and Libby Amato.
SitP: Richard III. Photo stolen from their FaceBook page.
Richard III is a puppet production, except Richard is played by Libby Amato. The other actors wield and voice the various puppets who take on the other roles in the play. Think cuddly Muppet types who resemble any number of animals. And often as they enter or exit, they will bark, meow, hoot, or hiss. A bit of levity indeed. Richard III runs 60 minutes.
SitP: Richard III. Photo stolen from their FaceBook page.
The Merry Wives of Windsor: Falstaff’s Tale follows a bit later with all roles played by our intrepid four actors. This show runs about 50 minutes and has all the hallmarks of Shakespeare’s farcical side. It is a lot of fun as well.
A good opportunity to introduce yourself or someone you love to Shakespeare. Admission is FREE.
SitP: Richard III. Photo stolen from their FaceBook page.
There are some side events too to hold your attention and lighten your day. Here is the daily schedule:
1:00 PM … Games and activities open Available all afternoon, including….
Renaissance-era games… yes, even the giant Jenga
Bard-themed trivia and activities
Make your own garland… a free, all-ages activity
1:40 PM … All About Richard III The low-down, the gossip, the history, and oh, the drama.
2:00 PM … Richard III (Puppet Edition)
About 3:30 PM … Reset the stage reconfiguration and shift to follow the shade. Just relax and enjoy the day. We’ll let you know when it’s done so you can adjust your lawn chairs.
4:15 PM … All About The Merry Wives of Windsor Our version, (is it really all about Falstaff?) and what we’ve gotten ourselves into.
4:30 PM … Early Music Now (Approx. 25 minutes)
5:00 PM … The Merry Wives of Windsor: Falstaff’s Tale With live musical accompaniment by Early Music Now.
A few weeks ago I posted an announcement for a new theater company in Milwaukee called The Young Theologians (Mitt Babydoll and M. Casanova) and their new short play “PERHAPS”. The synopsis stated “…an original short play about a Mother and Father who are raising their twins in separate public restrooms. Mother with Daughter. Father with Son.” A number of you expressed some interest or at least some curiosity and I tried to reach out to the group but didn’t receive any response.
The dates for PERHAPS were this past weekend, July 10th through 12th, 2026. I was otherwise booked those first two days so decided to take in the show on Sunday night. But when I went to the Mitchell Street Arts webpage to check the start time, the event was no longer on their calendar. My first instinct was it had been canceled but being stubborn I decided to go anyway just to see. And at this point, I am going to quote from Nate Burger’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya:
Absurdity Is The Human Condition!
my poor photo of the invitation I received from Babydoll and Casanova.
So as I pulled up across the street from Mitchell Street Arts, I saw Casanova holding a sign with Perhaps written on it and an arrow. So I walked across the street to talk with him. I told him that the website no longer had the play listed and he said that there was a whole back story about that for another time. Then he explained to me that the event would take place across the street in an empty parking lot inside the U-haul trailer that was parked there. I could see Babydoll standing next to it. Then, two young women from Appleton joined us. They had been sent invites and were intrigued. So I guided them across the street to the trailer. Babydoll met us and offered us programs and bottles of water and seats on white plastic lawn chairs that were lined up against the wall of the adjacent building. And there sat a 4 by 8 closed U-haul trailer with the rear doors removed and a curtain draped across the opening that was stenciled Perhaps. So I grabbed a chair and moved it over in front to the curtain wanting to get the best seat in front of the play. Another couple joined us and we talked a bit and looked over our programs waiting for the play to begin. And just a few minutes before 8 PM, we could hear David Bowie’s original rendition of The Man Who Sold The World. Just as it was ending, Casanova approached, opened the curtain, and invited us to find a seat INSIDE the trailer on the cushions spread along one side wall and the back wall. Thankfully there were only five of us, a sixth would have fit but we would really need to be friends! So those chairs were just the lobby seating. And down the rabbit hole we go!
This paragraph is purely conjecture. And I haven’t had a chance to confirm it with the Young Theologians. But after losing access to the Mitchell Street Arts facility, I am guessing that this is Plan B. Otherwise I expect we would have had a live theatrical performance instead. And given that the program lists four actors assigned to the four roles and those actors were present at the end of the evening kinda confirm this for me. I truly regret that I wasn’t able to stay and talk with that cast Sunday evening. Because I have questions, lots and lots of questions. Now on to the my experience in the U-Haul!
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At 8 PM, Casanova stationed a laptop computer on the lid of a toilet situated in the corner of the trailer near the door. He then started a video. And the five of us quietly sat carefully on the floor and watched the video unfold. This is a black and white video except for a few moments near the end…which kinda reminded me of Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie where the only word spoken aloud is Hello by Marcel Marceau. And maybe a bit of some of Andy Warhol’s work (screen test and Empire State building), or William Wegman’s dogs videos, ( with Fay Ray and Man Ray), and maybe Mark Borchardt? Or maybe a pseudo-documentary. These comments are aimed at the film and not the performance which will be outlined below. And like every great epic though, we had a ten minute intermission…although that would be a live theater perk as well.
Now lets take a peek at the playbill posted above. Reading the right hand page bottom to top: Yes, let’s not piss in the trailer, aina? But that’s more an aside to the intended location of the action. But it is a video, so the actors are not here…although they were later. The rehearsals are the performance. Yes, that seems to be the case as the video was stitched together from a variety of rehearsal scenes and staged readings. The set is a set up. Well, yes or no? The set on film was utilizing an actual space, likely an industrial washroom/lavatory space. But for our actual experience is the U-haul, toilet, and laptop our set set-up? The costumes are not worn: no, these being rehearsal videos the actors are wearing street clothes it would seem. This is a play on a play? Well our participation itself would seem to be a play on this play (which is a video on a play) for “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women are merely players;“.
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Now, on with the story. But first, despite the cast being listed as a father, mother, daughter, and son, there are no child actors involved. All roles are filled by adults. And although the named roles imply gender, the actual assignment of actors is gender neutral…and seemingly random. Father from one scene may be mother in another, son in one is daughter in the next, etc. I didn’t count but there were more than four actors overall including Casanova in one scene. And all of this gets even more interesting later in the play as you will see.
Opening scene involves a small hall area with a lot of banging on a door someways off. Father and mother burst in frantically and father suggests that they split up and hide in the adjacent men’s and women’s rooms taking their same gender twin child with them. So exit stage left and stage right with the little bundles of joy that they are carrying just before a police officer also bursts in but finding no one in the hall shrugs and exits. And then we see each parent miming feeding their child with an imagined spoon and later bathing them in a utility sink (similar to the one in your basement that your washing machine empties into). The infants at this point seem to be wrapped in aprons with ties so they can be secured. And when bathed they appear to actually be clear plastic water balloons about a liter in volume. Some of this action happens with focus on one parent only and at times split screen. I find it a bit amusing that given a later scene is titled BURP, that neither parent burps their infant. End Act I!
Act II finds the twins are now teenagers. And each parent is trying to teach them to be adult human beings including gender roles like Father teaching Son to shave. And at some point Father and Mother have discovered adjoining toilet stalls that allow them to shout conversations at each other over the wall. And we discover that they have been hiding and residing in these bathrooms for 17 years. Now the question of gender becomes a focus of our play as Father suggests that they got the twins mixed up when they split up because Son peed sitting down. And later Son wants to shave his armpits. Mother ignores this until Daughter starts taking delight in making the loudest burps possible. So our suspension of disbelief is being sorely tried here. Remember above when the parents bathed their infant? And given the lack of social interactions and exposure to cultural norms, why wouldn’t a 17 year old want to experiment? And no one else ever needs to use the restroom? But they convince themselves that they have made a mistake in who is Son and who is Daughter.
So the final decision is for Father to send Son to Mother’s restroom and Mother to send Daughter to stay with Father. So we see a solo Father waiting impatiently until the door opens and instead of Daughter, in walks Mother and they have a REUNION! Fini!
Absurdity Is The Human Condition! Yes, PERHAPS is absurdist to the max and I find it remarkably like much of Samuel Beckett…maybe most like Endgame or Happy Days. Very common ordinary people in seemingly extraordinary situations repeating personal rituals in dystopian environments over and over again. With the dialogue descriptive of the action in a way but without any real semblance of meaning. And we never really know how they got here or why they accept their plight so readily. But being a child of the 1960s/ 70s, I have seen some of this before in any number of experimental theater, or films, or happenings of the period. I may have been guilty of one in art class called Edifice Wrecks.
As I stated above, this was a collection of videos of rehearsals and stage readings. I wouldn’t be surprised that once the Young Theologians find a performance venue, that they stage this as a live performance. I will be watching for it.
The American Players Theater is currently offering Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a new adaptation by long time APT stalwart, Nate Burger. This production is part of World Premiere Wisconsin, a statewide festival celebrating new plays and musicals running throughout 2026.
What do we gain from Burger’s new adaptation? Well a surprisingly contemporary look and feel and dialogue for a well known and well loved play. I suspect that some of his more contemporary attributions results in a bit more humor and audience laughter than the original Chekhov. But we don’t lose a moment of the internecine family squabbles that were so important to Chekhov here and also surprisingly we don’t lose the sense of time and place either…being 1880s Russia. And director Brenda DeVita read Burger’s intent clearly and ignored a typical urge when doing Chekhov of using Russian accents. So Burger’s refreshing take on Uncle Vanya comes through clear and crisp indeed. But never fear, the action is still vodka fueled through and through. And yes there is still plenty of whining by nearly everyone on stage.
Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the American Players Theatre.
All of the family interactions take place in the living area in the home of their rural estate. The photo just above shows scenic designer Takeshi Kata’s simple while elaborate interpretation of just such a space. It certainly draws in the audience’s attention as we enter the theater and permits the actors a working space that aligns with their actions as our story unfolds. And watch the later photos to see the elaborate and signal costumes that Holly Payne has fashioned to depict the character and activities of each role. Despite the quite contemporary dialogues we are hearing, Payne’s costumes settle us into the right place and time.
The relationships and atmosphere are somewhat complicated and hostile/united all at once. Director DeVita writes in her notes that many of the characters remain and accept their ‘fate’ and relationships out of a sense of duty and as the play unfolds you have a clear sense of that. The relationships are complicated you say? Yes, we have a variety of father, mother, daughter, son, uncles, neighbors, doctors, and hired help. Each with a longing for something more, something better, balanced against a sense of loss or a misspent life. Such dreams and loss of dreams are dramas built on.
The original turmoil is based on the return to the estate by an elderly and retired professor, Alexander Serebryakov. The professor’s arrival has thrown the entire household into a tizzy as his presence and demands have changed their lifestyles significantly and most all of them are very resentful. Brian Mani plays Serebryakov as a self-centered, self-important, arrogant old man. His take control persona doesn’t sit well and often belies his supposed superior intellectual abilities. And to make matters worse, he has shown up with, in American vernacular, his trophy wife, Yelena Andreyevana Serebryakova. For ease of my typing and for clarity, let’s just call her Yelena. Tracie Lane’s Yelena is fluid, cool, elegant, and aloof. And depending on how you read her interactions with the others, she may be a bit ditzy and opportunistic? Or may be not. She isn’t unfeeling however and how Lane portrays her sincerity in trying to make peace with her step-daughter, Sonya, is a clear indication of that. And although I said ditzy, Lane also shows that Yelena has some common sense and experience in dealing with the male gaze as she brushes off the advances of the doctor and Vanya. And she offers to use her experience to open the doctor’s eyes to Sonya’s love, although that may in part be to divert his attentions.
Tracie Lane and Brian Mani. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the American Players Theatre.
Mikhail Lvovich Astrov is the local doctor and a family friend. Astrov often spends time at the estate but even more time now that the professor is in residence. He is often called because of some malady being experienced by the professor but the professor refuses to see him. But he comes anyway…sense of duty? No because he is crushing on Yelena. Casey Hoekstra plays Astrov for all he’s worth. A very passionate man about the environment and documenting the changes over the past 50 years and trying to foresee what will change in the future. Hoekstra is vibrant in this role…active and feeling but lets his feelings for Yelena get in the way of his other duties. Hoekstra’s very effectively portrays Astrov as Vanya’s drinking buddy and another lost soul despite his respected role as the local doctor.
Foreground: Marcus Truschinski and behind him Casey Hoekstra. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the American Players Theatre.
Sonya Alexandrovna Serebryakova is Alexander’s daughter and the niece of, well, Uncle Vanya. Her late mother was Alexander’s first wife who was Vanya’s sister. Sonya and Vanya have been working the estate and sending money to Alexander to maintain his lifestyle. Maggie Cramer is a marvel as Sonya. Girlish in an exciting way when around her family and the doctor about also immensely mature when it comes to running the estate. But being young she is a bit naive and can’t quite come to express her feelings for the doctor. Although when she finally has enough, Cramer is there in the moment when she forces Astrov to quit drinking. And Cramer also shows the more mature side of Sonya when she agrees to accept Yelena’s offer to make peace.
Maggie Cramer and Tracie Lane. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the American Players Theatre.
Marcus Truschinski is Uncle Vanya, I mean, Ivan Petrovich Voinitsky. Truschinski instills Vanya with all of the brio and angst that Chekhov and Burger have called for. And his wooing of Yelena is more direct and sloppy than Astrov’s. But his feelings for his niece and mother feel genuine and concerning and as DeVita said, full of duty. And Truschinski too effectively portrays a man in the thralls of vodka and he explodes with rage at the apex of the dramatic arc, when Alexander suggests (well assumes actually) that they sell the estate. But here too he is able to bring Vanya back to reality and settle for the old/new status quo after Alexander and Yelena decide to leave the estate.
Left to right: Casey Hoekstra, David Daniels (with guitar) and Marcus Truschinski. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the American Players Theatre.
The glue holding the household together while managing to hold her tongue is Marina, the old nanny. And everyone on set loves the nanny. Karen Janes Woditsch quietly and calmly takes most everything in stride, not without some comment mind you, but just as calmly with a sigh of relief says this should have happened a long time ago, when the professor decides to go.
There are two other characters, Maria Vasilyevna Voinitskaya, the mother of Alexader’s first wife, the mother of Vanya, and Sonya’s grandmother. Leslie Brott gives Maria a regal and maternal bearing. And ‘Waffle’s, an impoverished landowner who helps out on the estate and helps out with drinking the vodka. David Daniels gives him a solid presence and a delicate sense of self worth but sometimes he seems to be a bit of comic relief.
In her notes, DeVita hopes that we will fall in love with these characters. And with Burger’s script and her direction I can honestly say that I did, particularly Sonya who seems the most beset of the characters but at most times the most tolerant. Well expect for one: Alexander Serebryakov! I have no time for that man.
Contains adult themes and language. This performance also uses theatrical, blank-firing firearms and gunshot effects.
American Players Theatre presents Uncle Vanya at their Hill Theatre from now until Sept. 5th, 2026. Run Time: 2 Hours 45 Minutes, including one 20-minute intermission.
The cast of Uncle Vanya. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the American Players Theatre.
A side note on our particular evening at Uncle Vanya. Well…there is a scene where there is a storm and there is some thunder in the sound for the play. Except when the storm scene ended we could still hear thunder and it turned into the real thing just before intermission. So our intermission was a bit longer than planned and the scenic crew covered the set and later mopped the stage. And the show went on despite a steady but light rain that continued through to the end. The result was any number of wags in the audience stating as we left the theater, I need a vodka!
