Tag: Theater

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Next Act Theatre Announces “Next Big Thing” Matching Campaign

Next Act Theatre has some exciting news related to their campaign to raise funds to upgrade their rehearsal facilities. Here’s the info that I received from Next Act:

Milwaukee Theatre Company Needs to Raise $50,000 by December 31 to Unlock Match

Milwaukee, WI – On the heels of its highly-successful 2024-25 season, its best attended season since reopening after the COVID-19 pandemic, Next Act Theatre is excited to announce its Next Big Thing campaign, a matching campaign intended to allow the company to make building and equipment improvements as well as support upcoming productions, creating a better theatrical experience for patrons, artists and employees alike.

Next Act Theatre needs to raise $50,000 between now and December 31, 2025 to unlock a $50,000 match from donors Val and Gary Zamecnik. The $50,000 raised from Next Act patrons and donors will be used to support production costs for the 2025-26 season, which includes productions of SANCTUARY CITY by Martyna Majok, BOSWELL by Marie Kohler, SWING STATE by Rebecca Gilman and DINNER WITH THE DUCHESS by Nick Green.

When Next Act raises $50,000, the match unlocked by the Zamecniks will be used to renovate Next Act Theatre’s rehearsal hall, including a new floor and a new ceiling lighting grid. The rehearsal hall is used by Next Act Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks and outside organizations for rehearsals, classes, workshops, meetings and even performances, and these updates will improve outcomes for artists, students and patrons. The rehearsal hall will be named after the Zamecniks following this renovation. Funds will also support the acquisition of a new lighting board for Next Act Theatre, among other equipment improvements.

TheatreDonors Val and Gary Zamecnik, front, sit with Next Act Theatre Managing Director Libby Amato and Artistic Director Cody Estle.  Photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre

“Next Act has grown substantially over the past few years, including increased programming and partnerships, additional staff members, and improvements to our space,” said Managing Director Libby Amato. “This campaign will allow us to continue that growth and bring an even higher standard of excellence to our productions and educational opportunities. We extend our deepest gratitude to Val and Gary for their support. Their commitment to the Wisconsin artistic community is second to none!”

Next Act Theatre moved into its current theatrical space at 255 S Water St in 2011 following a renovation – previously, the building was a TransPak crane bay. Thanks to a capital campaign, the company’s construction debt was fully retired by 2015.

Donors can support this campaign and double their impact through Val and Gary’s generous match at nextact.org/donate or call (414) 278-0765. For more information, contact Development Manager Tawnie Thompson at tawnie@nextact.org or (414) 278-7780 x7.

photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre
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Red Bull Theater Sponsors An Annual Short New Play Festival (Contest), So I Wrote This Play.

Red Bull Theater is an Off Broadway Theater organization that specializes in producing inviting presentations of the classics, Shakespeare, Moliere, Ben Jonson, etc. both in full blown stage presentations and readings. Some times they also put up video versions so that those of us in the hinterlands can enjoy their performances.

I discovered Red Bull during the pandemic. Unwilling to surrender to the lock outs and stay at home orders, Red Bull put together a remarkable string of Zoom readings with each actor working from their safe space. Each offering saw not only better and better acting but increasing skills at making Zoom imitate live readings. The backgrounds became uniform across the platform and costuming got a bit more elaborate…and they obviously put time into rehearsing ‘passing’ items back and forth and displaying ‘faux signs’ of affection. I wrote about a number of their Zoomies at the time. I was wholly entertained!

So needless to say, I still stream as many of their video presentations as I can…and I am a subscriber to their email newsletters. So earlier this year I got the announcement about soliciting new plays for their 15th Annual Short Play Festival. They were looking for 10 minute or less plays to read at the festival that supported their mission of classical works and fit in the theme of Defiance. I happily reproduced their press release as a public service announcement here on AIP and immediately forgot about it.

But my creative, or should we say pesky, subconscious wasn’t willing to let it go that easily. So about a week or so later, I started being awoken with snippets of text and plot lines that persisted into my waking moments. Now, Red Bull wasn’t the only driving force here. I had just completed auditing an English course at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee titled modern drama. We read and discussed a number of provocative plays including David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face, Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog, August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, and others…so I have been heard to exclaim that I was under the influence. Thank you Professor Berkowitz!

So…where do I start…and where did I start then? As I said I was awoken with text. That isn’t unusual for me. When I toiled as a computer programmer ideas or bug fixes often would awaken me mid-sleep. And since then a number of poems have appeared and the core for scene one and scene last for my WIP cabaret piece. I just need the middle 90 minutes. LOL. My goal is to finish it this year. So yes, the outline popped into my head one night and I tossed and turned for several more to flesh it out and name characters and fill in some details. I kept telling myself to put it away but I resisted or persisted. And I completed it.

What’s it about? Well it plays off those modern plays that I read about gender and environment and character development and contemporary theater practices. And the premise is around auditions for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. A defiant male actor auditions for the role of Juliet. So this opens the whole dialogue about the possibility of theater being a gender neutral playing field, contemporary presentation vs. practices at the Globe, and some other contemporary societal background noise. For a play of just a few pages I think I captured some angst, some defiance, and there is certainly some humor. And I cheated (?) by pulling a small speech from Shakespeare’s piece for our auditioner to read. I titled the play What Light?

Did he get the part? No. Was my play one of the six selected? No.

But I learned a lot. I had a lot of fun. I pushed myself outside my usual comfort zone on a national level instead of just the home town, although few beyond those of you reading this will ever know. And I thought about a lot of things that I don’t normally consider. Should the character’s names mean something other than just a name? In this case I gave them names that mean something in the narrative. Well at least in my mind. How does a playwright comment in the play to the actors and director about on stage activities or gender/race/age assignments for the roles or scenic/set/siting without stepping on their toes in performance? I may have taken a swipe at the Milwaukee Rep’s Romeo and Juliet too but don’t tell anyone. And I learned about how difficult it is to write voices and words for others but how much fun it was when I was done and I submitted it.

Will I do it again? I can’t be sure but I won’t rule it out. But I am officially a playwright!

Here’s the details on the actual reading at Red Bull. Wish I were in New York City!

A few Red Bull reviews if you are so inclined:

RBT: The Woman Hater

Red Bull Theater Reads John Lyly’s Gallathea

Red Bull Theater Reads MJ Kaufman’s GALATEA!

Red Bull Theater’s Reading of Ben Jonson’s Volpone!

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PSA: Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Celebrates Their 50th Birthday and Announces Their 2025 – 2026 Season!

On June 15th, 2025, we’ll celebrate Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s 50th Birthday!   

As we approach this milestone on the heels of our acclaimed 50th Anniversary Season, we’re taking stock, looking toward our next five decades, and laying the foundation for that future firmly on MCT’s vibrant past. We’re digging deep—and so are the characters in this season’s lineup of award-winning plays from unique voices, as they all take a hard look beneath the chaos on the surface to anchor more strongly in themselves, their families, and their worlds.

Without further ado, we are proud to announce our 25/26 subscription season:

Burnt-out American prodigy Stephen Hoffman arrives in 1986 Vienna desperate to reignite his concert pianist’s passion—and instead finds himself assigned to the irascible Josef Mashkan for beginner’s lessons in basic accompaniment and singing. As political ghosts escalate the tension of emerging personal secrets, the bond between student and teacher becomes a powerful reckoning with identity, memory, and the possibility of hope. Built around Robert Schumann’s masterpiece song cycle Dichterliebe played live by two of Milwaukee’s finest actor-pianists, Brett Ryback and Jack Forbes Wilson, OLD WICKED SONGS shows that even the most broken chords can resolve into something beautiful.

At Marty’s Supper Club, everybody knows two things: just how you like your Old Fashioned and all your secrets. Twins LeeAnn and Eric are trying to keep their family business alive after their mother’s sudden death, but when a waitress drops a chilling revelation on the local news their cozy Northwoods holiday plans tilt off their axis. A hilarious and heartfelt new mystery from Wisconsin favorite Heidi Armbruster, MURDER GIRL blends classic suspense with small-town soul, proving that sometimes the family you’d kill for are the same people you’d love to kill.

Based on a true story, this Pulitzer Prize-winning tour de force explores one of the most singular lives of the 20th Century: antiquities collector Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who not only survived two of the world’s most repressive regimes in the Nazis and East German Communists, but preserved countless rare Weimar and Jewish cultural artifacts in her East Berlin home all the while. But as the story goes deeper, what begins as a celebration of queer resilience shifts into a far more complicated portrait of survival, truth, and the cost of living authentically.

Air Force veteran and NSA translator Reality Leigh Winner thought she was doing the right thing; the government didn’t see it that way. Chronicling one of the most controversial acts of whistleblowing in American history, this acclaimed Broadway thriller (drawn entirely from an FBI transcript) stages an interrogation with every pause, cough, and contradiction intact—and leaves us to read between the lines. More than docudrama, IS THIS A ROOM is a razor-sharp examination of language, power, and the uneasy tension between truth and duty.

Lorraine Hansberry’s trailblazing classic—the first play produced on Broadway written by a Black woman and still one of the American theater’s most impactful—follows the Younger family as they wrestle with big dreams in the face of economic hardship and the harsh injustices of discrimination on Chicago’s South Side. With language as lyrical as it is unflinching, A RAISIN IN THE SUN remains a triumphant, deeply human portrait of the determination to build a better life than the one the world is willing to give you, and a powerful reminder that the right to dream belongs to everyone.

For more information about the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, click here, for more information about their 2025 2026 season, click here, and subscription info is here.