Lee Ernst and Mallorey Wallace in The Rep’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Photo by Michael Brosilow
#5: La Pasión Flamenca at South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center.
Good things are happening in the SMPAC, a performing arts series that has hosted an international roster of dance, theater and music in the last few years. This weekend, the world-class dance ensemble, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, celebrates the rhythms and movements of Andalusia, which birthed one of the most deeply soulful and passionate music-dance forms of the past centuries. This is a group that has headlined festivals around the world. Don’t miss its Milwaukee visit.
#4: UWM Festival of Films in French.
Not “French film” but “Films in French,” this annual retrospective of cinema casts its net wide, featuring both recent releases and rarely shown classics. This year, there are movies from Quebec (1981—The Year I Became a Liar), and Burkina Faso (An Uncommon Woman), as well as two classics by Francois Truffaut (The Bride Wore Black and The Last Metro). As for recent films, we’ll certainly be there for Potiche with Catherine Deneuve, and for Alain Resnais’ Wild Grass.
#3: Vigil at Next Act Theatre.
It’s been a busy year for the grande dame of Milwaukee theater, Ruth Schudson. In a celebration last fall, theater folk celebrated her decades of work in Milwaukee theatre, and she returned the favor by delivering a terrific performance in the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s Driving Miss Daisy. Now, she moves over to Next Act for Morris Panych’s dark humored meditation on the connections we make and carry through life. Recently produced in San Francisco with Olympia Dukakis and Marco Barricelli (familiar to long-time Milwaukee Rep audiences), it’s a play of sentiment and darkness in equal measure. Here, Schudson is joined by Next Act regular Mark Ulrich.
#2: UWM Winterdances and Ed Burgess Memorial.
The UWM Peck School’s annual Winterdances program becomes something special this year, honoring the late Ed Burgess, longtime faculty member and Milwaukee artist who died last fall. Titled “Fate/Love & Loss,” the concert features work by faculty members Luc Vanier, Dani Kuepper, Darci Brown Wutz and Burgess’s own “Gotta Go.” And it features Arnie Zane’s “The Gift/No God Logic,” originally set on the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in 1987. A special memorial for Burgess will precede the final concert performance on Sunday afternoon.
#1. To Kill a Mockingbird at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre.
The Milwaukee Rep pulls out all the stops with this big-cast adaptation of Harper Lee’s iconic American novel, featuring familiar Milwaukee actors like Jonathan Gillard Daly, James Pickering, Deborah Staples and Lee Ernst as Atticus Finch. Aaron Posner, who adapted and directed The Rep’s terrific production of My Name Is Asher Lev, is at the helm for this production, which means there are good things in store. Check the Rep’s website for information on The Big Read, which sponsors a number of events and community discussions of the book and the play.
