As winter turns to Spring this weekend, Milwaukee Theatre seems to be looking to stage the darker side of human interaction with a series of openings that mix drama with dark comedy in exploration of dysfunctional relationships.WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?Tonight, Alchemist Theatre opens its production of the classic Edward Albee drama. The intimate space and natural lighting should be intere...

Mental illness in general and schizophrenia in particular are tricky things to capture onstage. Over the years I’ve talked to number of people with schizophrenia, both in my personal life and in activities involved in the pursuit of my BA in psychology. As a result, staged interpretations of schizophrenia rarely seem authentic to me. Everyone’s got some level of distance from what society laug...

After a post-holiday lull, Milwaukee's theater scene gathers steam with two openings on Friday, Jan. 16. At the Broadway Theatre Center's Studio Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks opens The Dig, a new drama by Playwright-in-Residence Marie Kohler. And in Elm Grove, the Sunset Playhouse presents the musical comedy I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. At Renaissance, The Dig tells...

   Shortly after the Battle of Salamis, in which Persia lost thousands of men and hundreds of ships to Greece, Aeschylus wrote about the conflict. Not only is The Persians the world's oldest surviving play, it's also the first play to be written from the perspective of the losing side.

Before the curtain goes up on any performance, many decisions go into determining what patrons will see and hear. Audience wishes, performer's artistic growth and cost concerns are just a few of the considerations when planning a season. A few artistic leaders share their thoughts on programming for the arts.

Past scholars have often decried Love's Labour's Lost as wholly insignificant, a self-indulgent piece by William Shakespeare before he moved on to more serious work. More recently, Cambridge University's Anne Barton described the play as "relentlessly Elizabethan," with dialogue that is mostly inaccessible to modern audiences because it's filled with in-jokes and references that are specific to the 1590s. Despite these beliefs to the contrary, director Jennifer Uphoff Gray hopes to prove that the comedy can appeal to today's theatergoers when Milwaukee Shakespeare opens its production in the Studio Theatre of the Broadway Theatre Center on Sept. 6.

The exciting season finale of the Milwaukee Ballet Company presented three pieces, including a beautiful world premiere by Artistic Director Michael Pink. At the post-party, Pink happily announced that the company’s firm financial footing was aided by angel Bob Dohmen.

Obesity and self-image are very serious issues in this country that rarely get directly addressed in contemporary drama. While Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig does very little to rectify this, these issues come to the center of a story so rarely that it ends up being very provocative. Renaissance Theaterworks ends its current season with the romantic drama, now through May 18.

Playwright Neil LaBute first came to the attention of national audiences with 1993’s In the Company of Men, a successful play about a pair of misogynists looking to ruin the life of an innocent girl. Less than 10 years later, he turned the tables by telling the story of a female art student who makes a living work-of-art out

Renaissance Theaterworks hosts a 7:30 p.m. reading at the Skylight Bar of the 1950s William Inge comedy/romance Bus Stop, a tale of lonely souls who take refuge in a modest diner during a snow storm (and also the basis for the 1956 Marilyn Monroe/Don Murray film of the same name.) If you’re afraid all the . . .