As late October finds its way to November, The Quasimondo celebrates the spirit of the season with a stage adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Halloween Tree. A group of boys trick-or-treating run across a tree that seems...

 A haunting testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of impending tragedy, The Diary of Anne Frank has lost none of its timeless appeal. The drama’s unobtrusive simplicity quietly displays the unavoidable...

Penny Marshall’s 1988 film Big was a huge success for everyone involved. Beginning next week, First Stage Children’s Theater looks to find similarly “big” success with the little ones... 

Optimist Theatre welcomes the summer with an enjoyable production of Shakespeare's classic drama Macbeth. The outdoor staging on the campus of Alverno College moved along briskly on a crisp summer evening...

June features not one, but two free outdoor productions of Shakespearean works. The better known of the two productions is Macbeth, which is being staged by Optimist Theatre. There is little that could be said here about Macbeth that hasn't...

  The Optimist Theatre will be hosting a sonnet . . . slam . . . to benefit Shakespeare In the Park on Monday May 7th at Transfer Pizzeria Café. The Sound And Fury Sonnet Slam starts at 8pm and run until . . . whenever. Tickets for the show are $25. Readers slated to perform on the evening include James Pickering, Tom Reed and Andrew Voss. Sounds like fun. There will be time for attendees to s...

nnI narrowly managed to avoid NOT going to A Christmas Carol this year. The Milwaukee Rep’s long-running stage adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic continues another strong season with a strong cast and the Marjorie Bradley Kellogg/Martha Hally design work that has served it so well for so many years.nIn an era where things are changing for the Rep thanks to a new Artistic Director, The Mil...

Midway through last week, Optimist Theatre  announced its next Shakespeare In The Park show. Early December seems to be a more or less appropriate time to mention that the theatre company will be staging The Twelfth Night next June. Following on last year�s success of Shakespeare�s shipwreck drama The Tempest, the Optimist Theatre presents the story prompted by another shipwreck.      Op...

A number of Milwaukee actors have had terrific years in 2010, but it’s difficult to top the two accomplished performances by Milwaukee Rep resident actor James Pickering. In February, he played a blind Irish drunk in The Seafarer—the Rep’s best of the season. Months later, he played a dramatically different character...

� The Optimist Theatre�debuts a prospective annual outdoor Shakespeare series with a production of The Tempest. Due to slightly haywire scheduling, I was unable to attend the show opening weekend. Thankfully, I had the evening open last night. Due to a weird twist of chance, it ended up being my third outdoor Shakespeare show in six days. Surprisingly, my third trip outside with Shakespeare and a...