Welcome back from the summer doldrums. There are some (I know you’re out there) who love summer—the heat, the sweaty, shirtless festival crowds, the gently lapping waves on the shore of your favorite Wisconsin lake (interrupted, of course, by the gush and whoosh of drunk jet-skiers, vrooming up to restock their beer coolers).
Me? I like watching my skin peel and nursing my air-conditioning-induced allergies as much as the next guy. But some time around July 4th (when my mind starts to wander after the first firework goes off), I start to long for fall. When you don’t have to swat mosquitoes in between Shakespeare speeches or slosh through beer puddles en route to see your favorite band.
So it begins. There’s a helluva year ahead (see my Fine Arts Guide preview in the September issue of Milwaukee Magazine). Theater is surprisingly plentiful this August, so I’ll kick off the first Friday Five with an eye toward the dramatic. See you in the lobby.
#5: In Tandem’s Tea at Five.
Why? Because Angela Iannone’s portrait of Kate Hepburn was so popular at In Tandem last season, they brought it back for a second run. See it, and have a Philadelpha Story and Holiday festival over the weekend.
#4: Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s Crimes of the Heart.
Why? Because this Chamber Theatre production fills the stage with great actresses, including Laura Gray, Georgina McKee, Laura Frye and Karen Estrada. And great guys, too (Neil Haven and Jonathan Wainwright). And if you didn’t think that gunshot wounds, suicide attempts and dead horses weren’t funny, you’re in for a treat.
#3: A Youngblood Theatre Two-fer.
Why? Because Milwaukee’s always interesting young company isn’t satisfied with putting on a play in August. It’s putting on two plays. Gruesome Playground Injuries is by one of the hottest “new” playwrights around, the guy who wrote a play good enough to get Robin Williams to act on Broadway. And John Olive’s Minnesota Moon, by a playwright familiar to veteran Milwaukee theatergoers, is conversation between friends that spins out during a moonlight night. True to Youngblood’s fondness for appropriate locations, it will be staged in a Greendale Barn.
#2: American Players Theatre.
Why? Because APT’s season is going full tilt, which means the weekend is chock full of plays. How chock? Well, between 1 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Sunday, you have your choice of seven different productions, a chance for three double-headers in a row. See my review of The Cure at Troy here, and pick from Shakespeare (The Tempest), Coward (Blithe Spirit), Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men) and others. Jump in the car (a lovely 2-hour drive from Milwaukee), get a room, and settle in for a theater weekend.
#1: Hinterlands’ Manifest Destiny at Alverno Presents.
Why? Because this Detroit-based ensemble (once based here in Milwaukee) creates completely original “physical theater” around an idea or theme. In tackling the “American West,” they’ll draw on William “Buffalo Bill” Cody as well as William Burroughs. And because they’ve made the entire Pitman Theatre building their stage, be prepared to ramble pardner.
