Mike Fischer wrote theater and book reviews for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel for fifteen years, serving as chief theater critic from 2009-18. A member of the Advisory Company of Artists for Forward Theater Company in Madison, he also co-hosts Theater Forward, a bimonthly podcast. You can reach him directly at mjfischer1985@gmail.com.
Mike’s work as WPW’s Festival Reporter is made possible through the sponsorship of the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF). Learn more: https://upaf.org/
I saw two operas last week, and the experiences couldn’t have been more different. Amidst a sea of empty seats, I attended an extremely well-sung and competently staged but otherwise traditional and entirely predictable 3.5 hour matinee of Bizet’s CarmenContinue reading
Rendering of the TIDY set by Scenic Designer, Jeffrey D. Kmiec. Source: Renaissance Theaterworks Facebook Page.
The breakthrough came in Antarctica. Kristin Idaszak – whose play Tidy will open this weekend as Renaissance Theaterworks’ entry in the World Premiere Wisconsin festival – had long been interested in writing plays about the relationship between science and culture;Continue reading
Cast of HOOPS, courtesy of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.
“I contain multitudes,” proclaims actor Ashley Oviedo during an early moment in Eliana Pipes’ Hoops, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s entry in the World Premiere Wisconsin festival. Oviedo nominally makes that proclamation as Cee, joining Aye (Celia Mandela Rivera) and Bey (PaulinaContinue reading
Playwright Art Kopischke, photo courtesy of their website: https://www.artkopischke.com/
Art Kopischke’s You Don’t Deserve to Die – which will receive a reading next Saturday in Green Bay as part of the World Premiere Wisconsin festival of new plays – features a singing deer whose repertoire includes both Dido’s lamentContinue reading
Kim Ruyle was a multi-degreed management consultant whose three decades of work had taken him to 49 states and 45 countries when he submitted his play Kalispell to a playwriting competition in Florida, where he was living in 2017. ItContinue reading
Meet Raymond T. World! Raymond is the mascot for Renaissance Theaterworks’ environmental mystery, TIDY. Photo: Maria Pretzl.
In just two weeks – and just in advance of Earth Day come April – two World Premiere Wisconsin plays will make their debut on the same day: Saturday, March 25. Art Kopischke’s You Don’t Deserve to Die, featuring aContinue reading
BAD IN BED (A FAIRY TALE). Photo by Steve Noll
What happens when the traditions and rituals that inform our lives no longer describe who we are? Or when our aversion to change means we continually replay the past rather than imagining a different future? Or when we’re so busyContinue reading
Source: https://www.atsocanicole.com/about-the-project
Nicole Acosta was just a few months into her new job as Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s Marketing Director when MCT Artistic Director Brent Hazelton approached her about turning her HOOPs Project – a multimedia art installation featuring global majority women andContinue reading
Shining in Misery promo image. Source: Capital City Theatre’s Facebook. Photo credit: Kat Stiennon
Late in the extraordinarily entertaining, two-plus hour laugh fest Shining in Misery – the just-opened Capital City Theatre entry in the World Premiere Wisconsin festival – its evil genius makes clear just how dire things are for the poor souls trying to escape. “MyContinue reading
“Horror lit,” wrote Chicago Tribune arts columnist Christopher Borrelli in a recent column, “is very ALIVE! Some even say it’s experiencing a golden age of creativity, popularity and fresh blood.” “It’s relevance,” Borrelli continued, “is screaming.” Cue the creepy music for Capital CityContinue reading