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 was made possible through the sponsorship of the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF). Learn more: https://upaf.org/
“Who’s the person in the mirror? I don’t know her name. – Lourds Lane, “Fragmented” I. The best moment in Lourds Lane’s SuperYou, receiving its world premiere developmental production with Skylight Music Theatre as part of World Premiere Wisconsin, comesContinue reading
Early in Micro, the new Adam Qutaishat and Heidi Joosten musical receiving a workshop production this Friday courtesy of Music Theatre of Madison, protagonist Ali Masihl sings a rousing power ballad addressing all she’s up against, as a global majorityContinue reading
In order for it to reassert itself as first-class music and drama, [opera] has to be emancipated from the formal presentation in which it may have been conceived but has now been imprisoned. Opera, like any other art form, hasContinue reading
Long before World Premiere Wisconsin, there was the Village Playhouse, which has been staging annual one-act festivals of new work by Wisconsin playwrights for nearly 40 years. Opening on June 9 in Milwaukee and featuring six world premieres, the Playhouse’sContinue reading
The Loneliness One dare not sound – And would as soon surmise As in its Grave go plumbing To ascertain the size – . . . I fear me this – is Loneliness – The Maker of the soul ItsContinue reading
Following an initial concert presentation and ensuing developmental lab in 2019, Filipino-American artist Lourds Lane’s SuperYou – a musical for which she wrote book, music, and lyrics – was ticketed for an off-Broadway opening in May 2020 at the DarylContinue reading
The Cast of THE KENOSHA VERBATIM PROJECT with narrator Dr. Julius Crump
This past weekend, each of the three World Premiere Wisconsin plays I saw – Margaret in Madison, Lincoln & Liberty Too in DePere, and The Kenosha Verbatim Project in Kenosha – involved versions of civil war, with communities tearing themselvesContinue reading
Playwright Marcia Jablonski was working as a freelancer in California when she realized she’d need to write the play that would become The Last Hotel; it will make its debut this Friday as part of World Premiere Wisconsin, courtesy ofContinue reading
“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” – Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte I.Continue reading
“I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.” – Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie I. Jamie is a psychiatrist. BlaiseContinue reading