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.
I am late to the party again but I want to make sure I get this out there. Kaylene Howard from the Summit Players Theatre shared this with me late last week. Their season is already underway so don’t wait too long…and if you are in Milwaukee there are a couple of local parks where Hamlet is being presented! So here is a bit of the info that Kaylene shared and info gleaned from the Summit Players Theatre website.
We have a few Milwaukee area local shows this month, including a performances on June 29th at Catalano Square Park in the Third Ward. Additionally, in July, we will have performances relatively locally at Kettle Moraine State Forest, Pike Lake on July 17th, Kohler-Andrae State Park on July 18th, and our closing performance is in Milwaukee at Havenwoods State Park again on July 26th!
The Summit Players present their 2026 season: Shakespeare’s Hamlet. We will once again visit 18 different Wisconsin State Parks this summer for 19 unique shows!
All shows and workshops are presented free of charge. Seating is general admission on a first come, first served basis. Wisconsin State Park Admission is required at most locations and can be purchased upon entry to the park. If you have an annual state sticker already, you are all set.
One of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. Performed with six actors in under 80 minutes.
With his father’s recent death still looming in his mind, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark grapples with the truth of his father’s death, his mother’s betrayal and his uncle’s role in all of it. Relationships are torn apart. Deceit will be revealed. At the heart of it all, Hamlet must decide between his duty and his doubt, and learn what it means to be alive amidst power and privilege.
Kith & Kin Theatre describes Of Thread and Thorn as “A brand-new, contemporary play inspired by the women of William Shakespeare’s works. Sisters, Portia, Imogen, and Celia, contend with who they have become and who they once dreamed they would be. This tight-knit ensemble explores the dynamics and individual struggles of the three women in their teens, thirties, and fifties as they each seek to build true friendships with one another and find peace between the lives they were handed, and those they have created for themselves.”
L to R, front row Hailey Kanderski, Sarah Jo Martens, and Autumn Green. L to R, second row Nicole McCarty, Dajanae Williams, and Sandra Renick. Photographer: Adam Laberge and photos courtesy of Kith & Kin Theatre.
Yes, I read the contemporary play part but I focused on the inspired by the women of Shakespeare’s works and thought this would be a marvelous Shakespearean style comedy. So I was caught completely flat-footed by the incredible contemporary family drama that I experienced. Yes, playwright R.M. Laberge has given some thoughtfulness around the character of our characters by giving all six women names taken from the bard. And she has cleverly woven in familiar bits of quotations from his work to propel the story. So every theater buff and Shakespeare scholar in attendance will be poised on the edge of their seats trying to identify them. Spoiler Alert: for instance, when Portia discovers that her husband has left a baby bottle on the wood of the dining room table instead of on a coaster, as she wipes up the water ring, she exclaims: Out Damn Spot! Not really a spoiler, everyone will get that one.
So not the comedy that I was expecting…something far better. Of Thread and Thorn is an intimately drawn family drama of our contemporary era that may actually be closer to a Shakespeare tragedy than just a drama. As described, there are three women, sisters, who “contend with who they have become and who they once dreamed they would be”. But even that sells the story short as there are three other female characters who share their dilemma and have explorations of their own to contend with. The full story is their intersection and sense of self and family and place…and spoiler alert…a search for love that they all genuinely have but maybe don’t actually recognize. Yes, at times this is closer to a tragedy and I will admit to crying twice during the second act and there may have been a moment during the first.
L to R: Sara Jo Martens, Hailey Kanderski, Autumn Green, and Sandra Renick. Photographer: Adam Laberge and photos courtesy of Kith & Kin Theatre.
All of the visible activity in Of Thread and Thorn takes place in the family living/dining room. We first meet the three sisters, there as teens, seated around the dining room table just after their parents have died in a car accident. Their maternal Aunt Roz had been granted guardianship over the girls and is going over how she sees the future. She really isn’t mother material and admits as much and is willing to allow the girls to set their own courses…with Portia, the oldest at 17, the apparent head of household. This scene sets the tone as you would expect and all four characters are clearly defined and their relationships outlined and this sets the stage, so to speak, for what will follow.
Portia lives in a world focused and planned. Sarah Jo Martens’ Portia embraces those traits and more to the point we all feel that she is a little bit anal…well at first and maybe later. But as Portia ages, Martens gives us the feeling that she is clinging to those things for assurance and even late in the play when she realizes that she should let go, Martens shows us a woman who just can’t do that. Autumn Green is the middle sister, Celia. And being stuck in the middle she tends to be the arbiter or middle man in her sister’s arguments. Green does that well but she also clearly explodes when she get exasperated when Portia and Imogen just won’t listen. And her desire to mother or save others takes on other sad appearances in her non-family personal life. Imogen is a free spirit and Haley Kanderski plays her as a human dynamo from the git go. She is only 13 at the intro but already a fireball that I am not sure even Kanderski quite appreciates at first. And Aunt Roz, who is their guardian (of sorts) played to the tipsy hilt by Sandra Renick. Renick sports a larger than life persona here. Not quite sure if Roz is a dreamer, an optimist, an opportunist, or a lost soul. Renick could lead us in any of those directions depending on how the text plays out. These four personalities are distinct and all in their own ways pained. Since we only know them from the time of the accident onward, how much of their exceptionalism is from angst or their environment or their souls.
Sandra Renick. Photographer: Adam Laberge and photos courtesy of Kith & Kin Theatre.
Two other characters hold sway in this drama and play major parts as the eras pass by. Nicole McCarty plays the nanny, Hermione. McCarty is the actual adult in the room at all times. She depicts Hermione as cool, collected, and in charge until a critical pivot point late in the play. McCarty never gives up her sense of self or purpose, but finally shows a new sensitive side of Hermione to Portia. And Portia’s daughter, Regan, is a lightning bolt (as described by Imogene). At times Dajanae Williams is just a blur across the set but as Regan grows and matures, Williams continues to portray Regan as a boundless mass of kinetic energy.
L to R: Sara Jo Martens, Hailey Kanderski, and Autumn Green. Photographer: Adam Laberge and photos courtesy of Kith & Kin Theatre.
There is one other character but he is without portfolio…and that is Portia’s husband. He is only referenced in conversation but his ‘presence’ in the family has significant impact.
R.M.Laberge has written a masterpiece here and her daughter director Kimberly Laberge has given it a full throated presence. Of Thread and Thorns deserves to be on a bigger stage and seen by a larger audience. I am sure that will happen. And no I am not taking anything away from the Laberges by saying that. In the meantime, you should take advantage of seeing this up close and personal in its current intimate setting.
L to R: Nicole McCarty and Sara Jo Martens. Photographer: Adam Laberge and photos courtesy of Kith & Kin Theatre.
Of Thread and Thorn: A Shakespeare Shakeup is being presented by Kith & Kin Theatre from now through May 24, 2026 at Inspiration Studios at 1500 S 73rd St, West Allis WI. There is plenty of on street parking in the neighborhood.
Seating is general admission so get there early for your choice of seating. Ticket information here.
And extra credit reading is HERE in the Playbill. Of particular interest is R.M.Laberge’s note on how she developed the play.
Editor’s Note 5/19/2026. Two things I forgot to include yesterday. One a housekeeping item and the other an observation.
“Of Thread and Thorn is part of World Premiere Wisconsin, a statewide festival celebrating new plays and musicals running January-December 2026.” More into on World Premiere Wisconsin can be found here.
And, listen to the music being played in the theater before curtain, during intermission, and during the stage resets and black-outs between scenes. They too tell the story in a different but just as powerful way. Some theaters excel at setting the tone with the incidental music, and Kith & Kin has done it very well here. But I just don’t know who to credit this time.
