� � Jack The Ripper. David Berkowitz—the Son of Sam. The Hillside Strangler. The Zodiac Killer. The name Herman Mudgett doesn’t often come to mind along with names of the worlds most infamous serial killers, but the most prolific killers in history have very mundane names like Luis Garavito—Colombia’s “monster of the Andes,” and Dr. Harold Shipman—England’s “Dr. Death.” With a...

The author that brought the world such classic contemporary farces as Lend Me A Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo put out a relatively new show in 2004. The show comes to Elm Grove this year with a Sunset Playhouse�production. Leading Ladies is the story of a pair of down-on-their luck actors who decide to impersonate a wealthy, dying widow’s two long-lost nephews. When the nieces turn out to be neph...

Local silent comedy group The MUTES have developed a rather interesting niche for themselves. The idea of performing silent film-era physical comedy complete with title cards and black and white wardrobe/make-up effects is as clever as it is enjoyable. Looking for fresh faces to join the act, the MUTES will be hosting auditions next Wednesday at the Alchemist Theatre. The audition announcement ...

  Pink Banana Theatre has been staging shorts programs for a few years now. Its latest offering, Sex, Drugs And The American Way finds its way to the Off-Broadway Theatre’s Studio Theatre this May. The new show features work by a number of area playwrights centered around the title theme. Pink Banana never fails to put together an interesting show. Last year’s program featured work by peop...

In addition to its massive success on Broadway and beyond, Mel Brooks’ screwball musical The Producers has had a particularly remarkable amount of local popularity in the past couple of years, having had something like three different productions staged in and around Milwaukee in the past year or so, including impressive stagings by both The Skylight Opera and Carte Blanche Studios. This May T...

Acacia Theatre opens its doors to potential actors this month as it holds auditions for an upcoming production of The Trip To Bountiful—Horton Foote’s 1954 drama set in Texas. A woman yearns to return to the town she grew-up in. With the right kind of staging, this could be a very powerful production on the Concordia University stage that Acacia uses.   Auditions for Bountiful take place on...

UW-Washington County’s theatre department is looking for actors for its spring production of Ronan Noone’s Brendan. The comic drama about an Irishman who has moved to Boston. Brendan’s settling into his new lifestyle west of the Atlantic, but he’s also having to deal with the ghost of his late mother passing judgment on his decisions and host of other concerns. The play, which debuted in ...

This Thursday and Friday, Soulstice Theatre will be hosting auditions for its production of the early ‘90’s Michael Finn musical The Falsettos. It may not have the kind of cache given to its biggest contemporary Rent, but it has a kind of earthbound reality that goes beyond the peculiar idiosyncracy of the more critically acclaimed of the two. The story follows a man, his ex-wife, his son and...

The Sunset Playhouse has announced that it will be holding open auditions for its production of Inspecting Carol—a comedy inspired by Gogol’s The Government Inspector. The Daniel J. Sullivan comedy is set in a Midwestern theatre preparing to put on a production of A Christmas Carol in the midst of news that its government funding has been cut. The theatre’s only hopes of survival rest in a ...

Acacia Theatre recently announced auditions for its Christmas musical The Gifts of the Magi. Set in contemporary-ish New York, the Mark St. Germain/ Randu Courts musical is based on classic stories by O. Henry. The musical is relatively small, requiring only 2 women and 4 men. Auditions for the musical will be held by appointment only at Church In The City on 2648 N. Hackett. on Saturday, October...