Film directors can whisk audiences across locations with a cut and add in special effects in post-production. Theatrical directors have to create those effects in full view of the audience, without disrupting their suspension of disbelief or allowing complicated transitions to slow down the story. But according to Blake Robison, the director of the Milwaukee Rep’s latest production, Heist, that’s part of what makes staging the play so fun.
Heist follows a group of thieves as they attempt a high-stakes robbery, with the story unfolding through 46 quick, interconnected scenes. “In many ways, Heist is a hybrid between theater and film,” Robison explains. “Each [scene] is a piece of the larger jigsaw puzzle of the story. The technical challenge is fusing these elements.”
Gift An Issue For $1 Today!
That challenge is especially important for a production like Heist, where momentum is everything. Like the best cinematic capers, the play unfolds little by little, revealing new information and keeping audiences guessing about what – or who – they can trust.
How exactly does Robison pull that off? For one thing, he and his team use a massive projection screen along the set’s back wall to allow for rapid scene changes. For another, they also incorporate lots of lasers, sound cues and practical effects (like wires that send actors flying across the stage) to establish each new environment. It’ll allow the production to blend the frenetic pacing of a film thriller with the raw emotive power of live theater.
The show arrives at an opportune moment for Milwaukee Rep, whose recently remodeled Powerhouse Theater was designed for such high-tech high jinks. Robison says he intends to put the space to good use. To him, bringing all those technical pieces together is its own kind of carefully orchestrated operation. If everything goes according to plan, audiences won’t be thinking about the technical machinery making it happen – they’ll be too busy trying to figure out what comes next.
Heist runs from Nov. 17-Dec. 20 at the Ellen & Joe Checota Powerhouse Theater.
