A CHRISTMAS CAROL - Milwaukee Repertory Theater
A CHRISTMAS CAROL - Milwaukee Repertory Theater
A CHRISTMAS CAROL - Milwaukee Repertory Theater
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The Rep’s Insider Newsletter<br />
2010/11 Season Winter 2010 • Issue 2<br />
A Letter from the<br />
Artistic Director - pg 2<br />
Caroline O’Connor: International<br />
Musical <strong>Theater</strong> sensation takes<br />
the stage at <strong>Milwaukee</strong> Rep! - pg 3<br />
A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong><br />
Why it matters - pg 10<br />
The Rep’s Christmas<br />
Family Tradition - pg 13<br />
Playwright/Director Brent Hazelton<br />
brings LIBERACE! to Rep’s<br />
Stackner Cabaret - pg 6<br />
Mr. Showmanship - Walter Liberace<br />
<strong>Milwaukee</strong>’s Native Son - pg 8<br />
Fun Facts from production –<br />
SECRETS REVEALED - pg 15<br />
And much, much more!<br />
Artistic Director: Mark Clements | Managing Director: Dawn Helsing Wolters<br />
Editor: Cindy E. Moran | Graphic Design: Megan Gadient<br />
Editorial Staff: Lindsay Adams, Sandy Ernst, Brent Hazelton, Patrick Schley, Jean Spivey<br />
Cast of The Rep’s 2009/10 production of A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong>. Photo by Jay Westhauser.<br />
PROLOGUE IS AVAILABLE ONLINE QUARTERLY FROM MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER.<br />
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER | Patty & Jay Baker <strong>Theater</strong> Complex | 108 E. Wells Street | <strong>Milwaukee</strong>, WI 53202<br />
Administrative Office: 414-224-1761 | Fax: 414-224-9097 | Ticket Office: 414-224-9490 | Fax: 414-225-5490 | milwaukeerep.com
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER • Winter 2010 • 2<br />
A LETTER FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR<br />
Mark Clements. Photo by Robert Allen.<br />
“A new energy abounds at<br />
The Rep and the city of<br />
<strong>Milwaukee</strong> continues to tell us<br />
that they like what they see!<br />
Thank you, <strong>Milwaukee</strong>! ”<br />
-Mark Clements<br />
CABARET has upended some traditional notions of Rep productions and<br />
exceeded our box office expectations. MY NAME IS ASHER LEV has blown<br />
the walls out of the Stiemke Studio (almost literally), and brought the<br />
pain and triumphs of a young artist’s struggle through elegant, stark<br />
and ultimately simple, powerful storytelling. LAUREL & HARDY in the<br />
Stackner Cabaret had its audience reveling in the timeless routines of two<br />
cherished stars of early American cinema. Rep Platforms has rewarded<br />
those subscribers and newcomers who have braved the late Thursday<br />
nights in the Stackner Cabaret with musical theater treats, local virtuoso<br />
musicians and storytellers of all shapes and sizes – all for the financial<br />
benefit of The Rep’s Education programs! The Patty & Jay Baker <strong>Theater</strong><br />
Complex is alive and kicking with the power of art and our audiences are<br />
responding to this new era with overwhelming zeal and support.<br />
With our first round of productions closing, new artists have arrived to<br />
keep The Rep at the center of <strong>Milwaukee</strong>’s entertainment scene. The<br />
fabulous, international theater star, Caroline O’Connor, has joined us<br />
for the U.S. Premiere of BOMBSHELLS – a spectacular, fun and moving<br />
journey through the lives of six extremely different women facing very<br />
different “bombshell” moments in their lives. The Rep is also proud to<br />
present the world premiere of LIBERACE!, a play about <strong>Milwaukee</strong>’s own<br />
Wladziu Valentino Liberace written and directed by The Rep’s Artistic<br />
Associate, Brent Hazelton, and featuring charismatic <strong>Milwaukee</strong> actor and<br />
musician Jack Forbes Wilson.<br />
And finally, what better way to follow all of this ‘newness’ than with a<br />
dose of a <strong>Milwaukee</strong> classic? I am delighted to welcome back former Rep<br />
Artistic Director Joseph Hanreddy to direct his own adaptation of Charles<br />
Dickens’ A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong>, featuring six members of our Resident<br />
Acting Company at the beautiful Pabst <strong>Theater</strong>. This year’s production<br />
marks the 35 th consecutive year of The Rep’s heartwarming and festive<br />
spectacle. The journey of old Ebenezer will be portrayed by Rep veteran<br />
Jim Pickering, as he marks his 13 th year playing Scrooge and 24 th year in<br />
the production.<br />
As the warmth of summer and fall gives way to winter’s chilly breath,<br />
The Rep will continue to provide audience members old and new with a<br />
place to escape the cold and soak in the beauty of the human experience.<br />
Our mission to become a VITAL epicenter of cultural events in <strong>Milwaukee</strong><br />
continues and your support is equally vital to our success. Please join us!<br />
Wishing you and yours the best for the festive season.<br />
Mark Clements, Artistic Director<br />
CABARET set. Scenic design by Todd Edward Ivins.<br />
Photo by Michael Brosilow.
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER • Winter 2010 • 3<br />
<strong>CAROL</strong>INE O’CONNOR: INTERNATIONAL MUSICAL<br />
THEATER SENSATION TAKES THE STAGE AT MILWAUKEE REP<br />
A regular on the prominent stages of Broadway, the West End, Edinburgh and Australia, Caroline<br />
O’Connor has received international acclaim and 28 prestigious awards for her outstanding musical<br />
theater performances.<br />
O’Connor began her entertainment career as an<br />
Irish dancer, and as a teenager she took third<br />
in the World Irish Dancing Championship. She<br />
went on to train at the esteemed Royal Ballet<br />
School in London but was told by Australian<br />
musical theater luminary Anthony Warlow that<br />
“she had far too much personality for her ballet<br />
slippers,” and should consider musical theater.<br />
O’Connor took his advice and her career has<br />
since been filled with iconic roles, television<br />
and motion picture deals. O’Connor is one of the<br />
only actresses to star as both Velma and Roxie in<br />
productions of CHICAGO, and her role as Roxie in<br />
Sydney, Australia, earned her two major awards:<br />
the Mo Award and the Green Room Award, both Caroline O’Connor.<br />
for Best Female Musical Theatre Performer. She made her Broadway debut as Velma at Broadway’s<br />
Shubert <strong>Theater</strong> in 2002, and the show was extended to 2003 due to its overwhelming success.<br />
She has also starred in classic musicals such as FUNNY GIRL, WEST SIDE STORY, MACK & MABEL and<br />
MAN OF LA MANCHA.<br />
Her movie credits include Baz Luhrmann’s international mega-hit Moulin Rouge in which she<br />
played Nini Legs In The Air, a character most remembered from the powerful Tango de Roxanne<br />
number. She later played iconic entertainer Ethel Merman in De-Lovely, the 2004 musical portrait<br />
of American composer Cole Porter. In the movie, she performs the title song of Porter’s hit musical<br />
ANYTHING GOES in a re-creation of the show’s 1934 opening night performance. Her rendition of<br />
the song is also on the film’s soundtrack.<br />
Now she comes to <strong>Milwaukee</strong> to perform in her international hit, BOMBSHELLS, from November 22<br />
– December 19, on The Rep’s Quadracci Powerhouse stage. O’Connor’s one-woman show has sold<br />
out in four countries, was filmed for television in Australia and has earned her multiple awards which<br />
include London Theatregoers’ Choice Award for Best Solo Performance, Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s<br />
coveted Fringe First Award and the Green Room Award for Best Female Actor in a Play. She also<br />
received her second Laurence Olivier Award nomination, the highest British Theatre honor, for her<br />
run of BOMBSHELLS in London’s West End at the Arts Theatre.<br />
(Continued on next page)
(<strong>CAROL</strong>INE O’CONNOR . . . continued)<br />
“It’s all about the bombshells that happen in women’s lives, such as getting married, becoming a<br />
mother or being a teenage prodigy,” stated O’Connor when describing BOMBSHELLS. She’s the first<br />
to admit that many people have reservations about seeing her show thinking, “here we go again<br />
– widows, mothers, abandoned wives . . .” , but the audience response makes it clear that this is<br />
no run-of-the mill production. “One moment they’re really laughing, slapping their thighs and<br />
exclaiming, ‘That’s me. How does she know?’ , and the next, they’re in tears,” explained O’Connor.<br />
Throughout the production, O’Connor seamlessly shifts between six very complex characters,<br />
which she confesses is “sometimes terrifying and overwhelming.” The difficulty of delivering this<br />
solo production has often resulted in the six roles being split between two or three actors, but<br />
O’Connor has mastered each woman’s monologue. “When you look at the script of BOMBSHELLS<br />
I think you sometimes wonder ‘Would anybody really want to take that on?’ Because it’s really,<br />
really hard. Full on. But I love it,” explained O’Connor. BOMBSHELLS Playwright Joanna Murray-<br />
Smith stated in her author’s notes that she specifically wrote a complex production for O’Connor, “I<br />
was inspired by Caroline . . . I wrote six characters to give full expression to Caroline’s astonishing<br />
versatility as a performer.”<br />
<strong>Milwaukee</strong> <strong>Repertory</strong> <strong>Theater</strong> Artistic Director Mark Clements is excited for BOMBSHELLS to make<br />
its American Premiere at The Rep. “It has long been my ambition to direct Caroline O’Connor since I<br />
first saw this amazing triple-threat actor in action,” stated Clements. “She is a national treasure of<br />
Australia. <strong>Milwaukee</strong> audiences are in for a real treat.”<br />
Lindsay Adams, Public Relations Coordinator<br />
PROLOGUE • Winter 2010 • 4<br />
For more information on Caroline O’Connor, including video clips and song clips, visit her website at<br />
carolineoconnor.com.<br />
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION<br />
BOMBSHELLS<br />
by Joanna Murray-Smith<br />
American Premiere<br />
PERFORMANCE DATES & TICKETS<br />
Preview: November 22 – 24<br />
November 26 –December 19, 2010<br />
Tickets: $10.00 – $65.00<br />
CAST LIST<br />
Caroline O’Connor*<br />
ENSEMBLE<br />
Rukhamani K. Desai, Stephanie<br />
Lambourn, Georgina McKee<br />
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association,<br />
the Union of Professional Actors and<br />
Stage Managers in the United States.<br />
THE REP IN DEPTH<br />
Our lively informative half-hour<br />
talk starts 45 minutes before<br />
every performance in the<br />
Quadracci Powerhouse. This<br />
Rep in Depth will be led by<br />
Artistic Intern Ensemble<br />
Members Stephanie Lambourn<br />
and Rukhmani K. Desai.<br />
BOMBSHELLS is generously sponsored in part by:
Caroline O’Connor.<br />
A DREAM COME TRUE<br />
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER • Winter 2010 • 5<br />
Caroline O’Connor. Photo by John Nienhuis.<br />
In 2001, I went to see the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of a new one-woman play<br />
written specifically for Caroline O’Connor by fellow Australian Joanna Murray-Smith. It was called<br />
BOMBSHELLS, and what I remember about the show was how fantastically brilliant it was, and<br />
also - to my amazement - how Caroline O’Connor had managed to remember so much dialogue.<br />
When I was accepted into the acting internship program here at <strong>Milwaukee</strong> Rep, one of the first<br />
things I did was research what would be in production during<br />
the nine months of my internship. Incredibly, I discovered that<br />
one of the shows on the Quadracci Powerhouse stage, making<br />
its American debut, would be BOMBSHELLS, directed by Mark<br />
Clements and performed by none other than Caroline O’Connor.<br />
I daydreamed that perhaps I would be lucky enough to meet<br />
her during a lunch break or bump into her having a drink in the<br />
Stackner Cabaret. About a month ago, I learned that not only<br />
would I be part of the ensemble for BOMBSHELLS, but, I would also<br />
be understudying my fellow Australian in the show I had loved and Caroline O’Connor in BOMBSHELLS.<br />
laughed through nine years before.<br />
On our first day of rehearsal, I found myself enthusiastically nodding when Mark Clements, The<br />
Rep’s Artistic Director, described Ms. O’Connor as “an Australian national treasure.” Born in Northern<br />
England to Irish parents, O’Connor grew up in Australia and now lives and works in the United<br />
Kingdom, United States and Australia. But we from down under claim her as ours and she is one of<br />
Australia’s leading ladies of theater.<br />
BOMBSHELLS is a play about six very different women all dealing with the challenges of everyday<br />
life and Caroline O’Connor plays all of these characters. These women come from Australia, the<br />
United Kingdom and America. This is rather fitting, as these are the places where, as of November<br />
22 nd when the production opens in the Quadracci<br />
Powerhouse, Caroline O’Connor will have performed<br />
this play. We have just finished our first week of<br />
rehearsals for BOMBSHELLS and, apart from pinching<br />
myself because I’m sitting next to someone I so<br />
greatly admire, I am still immensely touched by this<br />
play and the characters in it and I am definitely still<br />
laughing even nine years later.<br />
Stephanie Lambourn,<br />
Artistic Intern Ensemble Member<br />
New chums, Caroline and Stephanie take a break during<br />
rehearsal for BOMBSHELLS.
Brent Hazelton, The Rep’s Artistic Associate, has been a member of The Rep’s Artistic<br />
Staff for ten seasons and has been running The Rep’s Artistic Internship Program for<br />
the past eight. He first came to The Rep as an Acting Intern and has directed staged<br />
readings for The Rep and Ten Chimneys and UW-Parkside, as well as collaborated<br />
Brent Hazelton.<br />
with playwrights to generate scripts for the past three Rep Education Department<br />
Touring Shows. Additionally, he has directed full productions for Chamber Theatre’s<br />
Young Playwright’s Festival, Spiral Theatre, Windfall Ensemble and Elgin Symphony Orchestra. LIBERACE! is a world<br />
premiere production and is Brent’s first play produced at The Rep. He sat down with Cindy Moran, The Rep’s PR Director, to<br />
talk about his exciting new play about one of <strong>Milwaukee</strong>’s most famous native sons.<br />
Cindy Moran: Why write a play about Liberace?<br />
Brent Hazelton: When Mark Clements started to plan this season, one of the first things he asked about was whether<br />
we had ever done a play about Liberace. He knew Liberace was from <strong>Milwaukee</strong>. Mark feels local connections are<br />
important and believes that what’s on stage should reflect some part of the community. He also wanted a local<br />
perspective on Liberace’s life and in the writing. So he asked me to write it. I’m originally from Whitewater, but have<br />
lived in <strong>Milwaukee</strong> for quite awhile now, so it feels like home. My dad is from West Allis – he grew up about 20 blocks<br />
from Liberace’s house. The local connection is also one of the main reasons why we wanted Jack Forbes Wilson to play<br />
Liberace – not only because he’s a phenomenal performer and really right for the role – but because he’s also a local<br />
guy and has lived here for many years.<br />
CM: How much did you know about Liberace before you started on this project?<br />
PROLOGUE • Winter 2010 • 6<br />
PLAYWRIGHT/DIRECTOR BRENT<br />
HAZELTON BRINGS LIBERACE!<br />
TO REP’S STACKNER CABARET<br />
BH: Not much. I was ten years old when Liberace died. I knew there was some controversy around his death. I think<br />
that was my first window into concepts like AIDS and homosexuality. When you’re confronted with ideas like that when<br />
you’re that young the context in which you remember them tends to stick. I certainly knew that he was from <strong>Milwaukee</strong>.<br />
The only tangible memory I had of him was an episode from The Muppet Show – it was this strange, interpretative<br />
modern dance thing with some high art dancers in kind of frightening bird costumes – for whatever reason that stuck<br />
in my head.<br />
CM: Did you know that Jack Forbes Wilson would be playing Liberace when you started writing the play?<br />
BH: Yes. It’s a wonderful thing when you’re creating a one-person play to be able<br />
to write to fit that person, their skills and abilities as a performer. Since Jack lives in<br />
<strong>Milwaukee</strong>, we’ve had the opportunity to work a little bit over the summer, discuss<br />
drafts together to talk about the music in the show and how that reflects the story<br />
we’re telling. So we’re not starting from scratch when we go into that rehearsal hall<br />
with a brand-new play that we have to put together in three weeks – which is great!<br />
Jack has the musical chops for this role – he’s a great piano player and actor. He’s one<br />
of those people who was born to be on stage telling stories much in the same way that<br />
Liberace was. Jack is also the Musical Director for this production. What I know about<br />
classical music could fit into a thimble – so I ask him, “What do you think is a good<br />
piece of music to go with this moment?” A lot of Liberace’s favorite music – from Chopin to Chopsticks and everything<br />
in between – will be in the show.<br />
(Continued on next page)<br />
Jack Forbes Wilson. Photo by Joe Hang.
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER • Winter 2010 • 7<br />
(BRENT HAZELTON . . . continued)<br />
CM: What did you learn in your research of Liberace’s life?<br />
BH: The most fascinating thing for me was discovering how he began his career. Most of our recent cultural memory<br />
of him is the very overblown “Mr. Showmanship” role with the massive costumes and the hugely spectacular<br />
performances. The first thing I did to learn about Liberace was watch YouTube clips. Many of the clips were from his<br />
TV show in the 1950s. He was much more of a traditional pianist than he would become later in life. There was a very<br />
simple set with a piano and he would come out in a classy tuxedo and play some music while he spoke directly into<br />
the camera. That connection he had with the audience later on was there right from the beginning.<br />
The biggest hook for me about Liberace was looking at that guy from the 1950s and then looking at the performer<br />
who I remember from the ’80s and wondering, “How did that guy become that guy? What is that process?” Anytime<br />
you have someone, whether it’s a public figure or an average joe, go through a personal evolution, there is<br />
something emotional that triggers that. So what caused that change in Liberace? Why did he choose to become<br />
what he became? Who was the private man behind all of the glitz and glamour? These are some of the questions<br />
we’ll be exploring in the play in what I hope to be a clever, interesting and fun production. We’ve got Jack in there<br />
– so one thing for sure is, it’ll be fun with some really great music.<br />
CM: In the field of entertainment, how important was Liberace?<br />
BH: He opened the door creating what we recognize today as modern pop music presentation through his lavish<br />
performances and over-the-top costumes, revolutionized early television entertainment and played a leading<br />
role in putting Las Vegas on the map. Everybody else followed him through that door – Elvis, Elton John, David<br />
Bowie, Kiss, Boy George, Cyndi Lauper, Prince, Madonna – Liberace is definitely Lady Gaga’s spiritual greatgrandfather!<br />
Liberace was already well established in Vegas when Elvis started. He took Elvis under his wing. That<br />
gold lame jacket we always attribute to early Elvis, was literally one of Liberace’s – he gave it to Elvis!<br />
What amazes me the most about Liberace is largely how forgotten he is. To come from the Vegas generation in<br />
the ’60s with Elvis, the Rat Pack and all of those other performers, he was really the leader of that group. So to<br />
have all of those other people live on as iconic figures and to have Liberace marginalized and not taken seriously<br />
as a performer is a little amazing to me. Why have we forgotten him? It is certainly easy to lose sense of him as an<br />
artist inside all of those over-the-top performances, but at the end of the day, he could play the hell out of a piano.<br />
My hope in writing this play is to remind everyone how great he was as a piano player and showman, and to give<br />
people a little insight into his deeply complex personal life – to reclaim a bit of his legacy in his hometown. We<br />
can be proud of the fact that he came right here from <strong>Milwaukee</strong>.<br />
CM: What designers are you working with to help tell Liberace’s story?<br />
Jack Forbes Wilson. Photo by Michael Brosilow.<br />
BH: Alex Tecoma is designing the costumes and is having a ball with it. Rick Graham, from UWM, has designed a<br />
wonderful set for us. It’s loosely based on the set from his 1950s TV show with all sorts of tricks and flourishes in<br />
it. Lee Fiskness, from Chicago, who last worked with us on SOULTIME AT THE APOLLO, will design our lights – lots<br />
of bright color, moving swirling lights and, of course, chandeliers and the odd candlelabra. It’s going to be great.
Wladziu Valentino Liberace.<br />
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER • Winter 2010 • 8<br />
MR. SHOWMANSHIP – WALTER LIBERACE:<br />
MILWAUKEE’S NATIVE SON<br />
I’ll be seeing you<br />
in all the old<br />
familiar places<br />
that this heart of<br />
mine embraces<br />
all day through.<br />
Liberace is an icon. The colorful musician and performer sold out<br />
shows across the United States and beyond. From the 1950s through<br />
the 1970s, he was the highest paid performer in the world (and<br />
was so named in the 1978 Guinness Book of World Records). The<br />
notorious fashion of Liberace shocked his critics, who often deemed<br />
him hideously flamboyant, but in the same turn lauded his act as<br />
thoroughly entertaining. Through it all though, Mr. Showmanship<br />
could be heard laughing all the way to the bank. He was a brilliant man who lived to perform and<br />
share his gifts with the audience he loved and they loved him in return. Many are the stages of his<br />
storied career, but they all share the same beginning; it’s here in <strong>Milwaukee</strong>, Wisconsin, where the<br />
man and the musician were born.<br />
To see Liberace perform was like nothing else. With equal amounts of free-form grace and precision<br />
of craft, he was able to transform the classics into something new, exciting and completely his own.<br />
He was the original single-moniker superstar and there will never be another like him. Such a man<br />
is not born in a day. He was born Wladziu (Walter) Valentino Liberace to an Italian father and Polish<br />
mother in the city of West Allis. His father was an accomplished musician himself, playing French<br />
horn with the <strong>Milwaukee</strong> Symphony Orchestra and other notable organizations around <strong>Milwaukee</strong>.<br />
It was under him that young Walter began his tutelage. They attended shows at the Pabst <strong>Theater</strong>,<br />
where Walter could study the techniques of great musicians first-hand. Through some family ties,<br />
Walter was introduced to renowned Polish pianist, Ignaz Paderewski, at a young age. The boy<br />
who would become Liberace made such an impression on Paderewski that he recommended the<br />
prodigy for a scholarship with the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.<br />
In his teens, Walter followed in his father’s footsteps, playing with the MSO and other local<br />
symphonies, performing often at the Pabst <strong>Theater</strong> he attended as a child. However, much to his<br />
father’s chagrin, he would also eschew the classics and play gigs at <strong>Milwaukee</strong> honky-tonks. He<br />
created dual personalities to better match his diverse venues, but even his classical performances<br />
were starting to stand out for their hints of flair and showmanship. On a night in 1939, in the city of<br />
LaCrosse, Walter’s two paths would converge during the encore of one of his classical performances.<br />
A mocking request came from the audience for the then-popular song Three Little Fishes, and the<br />
entertainer was quick to oblige. He played the tune in the style of several classical composers, all<br />
(Continued on next page)
(MR. SHOWMANSHIP . . . continued)<br />
PROLOGUE • Winter 2010 • 9<br />
the while shooting what would become his trademark winks and flourishes at<br />
the audience: Liberace was born.<br />
From this point on, Liberace’s career was in an up-turn, carrying him to venues in New York,<br />
Las Vegas and around the world, but he never forgot his roots. He loved Usinger’s Famous<br />
Sausage and reportedly held wild, all-night parties at Mader’s German Restaurant. In 1982,<br />
he graced <strong>Milwaukee</strong>’s beloved Summerfest, performing to a crowd of 9,000 fans. Two<br />
years later, he played to capacity crowds at the Marcus Center’s Uihlein Hall and in 1986,<br />
between commitments at Caesar’s Palace, he made his final hometown appearance, selling<br />
out the Riverside <strong>Theater</strong>.<br />
This past month, the famed Liberace Museum in Las Vegas closed its doors. The performer<br />
had wanted it to be built close to home in Wauwatosa, but it was not to be. However,<br />
there will soon be a chance to revisit the spectacle of Liberace in the city of his youth.<br />
<strong>Milwaukee</strong>’s native son returns for one final performance, so that he might once again revel<br />
in the love of the audience he so deeply appreciated. Relive the flamboyant legacy of Mr.<br />
Showmanship and honor the memory of the genius musician, Walter Valentino Liberace.<br />
LIBERACE! runs from November 19th through January 16th in The Rep’s Stackner Cabaret.<br />
Jacob Crawford, Guest Contributor/UWM Film Studies graduate<br />
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION<br />
LIBERACE!<br />
Written and Directed by Artistic<br />
Associate Brent Hazelton<br />
World Premiere<br />
In co-operation with the Liberace<br />
Foundation<br />
LIBERACE! is generously sponsored in part by:<br />
PERFORMANCE DATES & TICKETS<br />
Previews: November 19 and 20, 2010<br />
November 21, 2010 – January 16, 2010<br />
Tickets: $35.00 & $45.00<br />
CAST LIST<br />
Jack Forbes Wilson*<br />
*Member of the Actors’ Equity<br />
Association, the Union of<br />
Professional Actors and Stage<br />
Managers in the United States.<br />
Wladziu Valentino Liberace.
PROLOGUE • Winter 2010 • 10<br />
A Christmas Carol – WHY IT MATTERS<br />
A Christmas Carol opens with perhaps the most famous obituary in English literature:<br />
“Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The<br />
register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker and the<br />
chief mourner. Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.”<br />
A death notice is a decidedly un-cheery beginning for a story that has been read as a family<br />
holiday tradition for more than 150 years, as well as enjoyed in literally hundreds of film and<br />
television versions, cast with actors ranging from a sublime Alastair Sim, to sweetly touching<br />
Mr. Magoo, to a seriously scary Jim Carrey in 3-D. Our “good old city” has held a warm spot in its<br />
heart for A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong>, supporting a 35-year run at The Pabst <strong>Theater</strong> that has given Jim<br />
Pickering, Lee Ernst, Jon Daly, Richard Halverson and Daniel Mooney a turn or two or three as<br />
the “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching old sinner.”<br />
If you’re new to the story, let me assure you that after that chilly beginning,<br />
things become considerably more buoyant as Marley’s surviving business<br />
partner is escorted throughout the reaches of London and the world to see<br />
and hear Christmas celebrated in the warm and fuzzy traditions of family<br />
dinners, gift-giving and heart-warming Christmas carols – traditions that<br />
historians maintain Dickens resurrected from the middle ages, and describe<br />
a Christmas considerably less as it was for the Victorians, and more as<br />
Dickens thought it should be. Today, when we yearn to recapture the “real”<br />
Christmas, more often than not we turn to Dickens, likely not realizing that<br />
his traditions were almost as imagined as the triad of spirits that magically<br />
transport Ebenezer Scrooge across the boundaries of time and space.<br />
(Continued on next page)<br />
James Pickering and Jenny Wanasek. Photo by John Nienhuis. Headshots: Rep Resident Acting Company<br />
Members James Pickering and Lee E. Ernst. Both to return to A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong>.
(A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> . . . continued)<br />
Because so many of us come to the story via a<br />
“treatment” rather than the novella itself, it’s a<br />
surprise how many who love the story don’t really<br />
know it. In the stage adaptation that I initially<br />
crafted with Ed Morgan in 1998, our goal was to<br />
create a version that was as theatrical, visually<br />
spectacular, musically joyous and ultimately<br />
uplifting as we could possibly make it – without<br />
shortchanging the depth of Dickens’ insight into<br />
the lonely, bitter soul who lives at the story’s center.<br />
Those opening lines, of course, are key to the whole<br />
thing. Dickens drives away at the fact of Marley’s<br />
death as if somehow there were doubts – as if<br />
at any moment the old reprobate’s corpse might<br />
suddenly resurrect. (Spoiler alert – it does.) A<br />
<strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> is a story of the spiritual rebirth<br />
of one whose soul has died, so, poetically, it must<br />
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER • Winter 2010 • 11<br />
Other Rep Resident Acting Company Members in this year’s<br />
production of A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> include Deborah Staples,<br />
Jonathan Gillard Daly, Laura Gordon and Peter Silbert.<br />
begin with the finality of death. Ultimately the trigger that allows Scrooge to find joy in life and<br />
become “as good a friend and as good a man as the city of London knew” is when a gothic reaper<br />
in the shape of the Ghost of Christmas Future forces him to glimpse under the blanket that covers<br />
his own corpse and recognize the waste of spending so many of his precious years in his “money<br />
changing hole.”<br />
As much as A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> is about spiritual renewal and reconnecting with family, it’s also<br />
about money and poverty. “If they would rather die,” Scrooge rants, speaking of the starving poor,<br />
“they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” The words sting as sharply today as<br />
they did in 1843. If Dickens left us an image of all of the goodness that Christmas can engender, he<br />
also left us with a nightmare vision of inner-city poverty that lives in our own city as inhumanely as<br />
it did his. And yet, our appreciation of Dickens and the endurance of A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> come more<br />
from a novelist’s ability to penetrate an individual human soul, than from his ability to articulate<br />
a political manifesto. George Orwell, a passionate socialist who was to write his own apocalyptic<br />
vision of the future in 1984, pointed out in an essay on Dickens that “He has no plan to change<br />
society; his target is ‘human nature,’” and that Dickens’ only real lesson is “that capitalists ought to<br />
be kind, not that workers ought to be rebellious.” Orwell dubs Dickens’ outrage “a generous anger.”<br />
Ultimately in this simple story, Dickens asks a profoundly simple thing: that at this “festive time of<br />
the year,” those of us who have been blessed with privileges and good fortune should take the time<br />
to be truly grateful – and to act in ways, both big and small, in which we can be kind and generous<br />
to our “fellow-passengers to the grave.” That, he posits, is what it truly means to “know how to keep<br />
Christmas well.”<br />
Joseph Hanreddy, Director<br />
Former Rep Artistic Director 1993 - 2010/Director of Fellowship in Directing and Design at UWM’s<br />
Peck School of the Arts
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION<br />
PROLOGUE • Winter 2010 • 12<br />
MillerCoors proudly presents<br />
<strong>Milwaukee</strong> <strong>Repertory</strong> <strong>Theater</strong>’s<br />
production of A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong><br />
by Charles Dickens,<br />
adapted by Joseph Hanreddy and<br />
Edward Morgan<br />
PERFORMANCE DATES & TICKETS<br />
December 3 – December 26, 2010<br />
Tickets: $25.00 – $65.00<br />
CAST LIST<br />
Drew Brhel*, Jonathan Gillard Daly*♦, Lee E.<br />
Ernst*♦, Kelley Faulkner*, Nell Geisslinger*,<br />
Grant Goodman*, Laura Gordon*♦, James<br />
Pickering*♦, Peter Silbert*♦, Jonathan<br />
Smoots*, Deborah Staples*♦, John Tufts*,<br />
Jenny Wanasek*<br />
ENSEMBLE<br />
Jonathan Butler-Duplessis, LaToya Codner,<br />
Georgia Mallory Guy, David Hathway,<br />
Sydney Kirkegaard, Ryan Krause, Michael Lindsey,<br />
Alexander Pawlowski IV, Giuseppe Ribaudo,<br />
Kaitlyn Serketich, Greta Wohlrabe, Charlie Wright<br />
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional<br />
Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.<br />
♦ Member of 2010/11 Rep Resident Acting Company.<br />
Cast of The Rep’s 2009/10 production of A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong>. Photo by Jay Westhauser.<br />
Generously sponsored by:<br />
About Sponsor MillerCoors<br />
MillerCoors brews great beer and recognizes that it also has<br />
a great responsibility – to its people, the environment and<br />
its communities. MillerCoors is proud to sponsor <strong>Milwaukee</strong><br />
<strong>Repertory</strong> <strong>Theater</strong>’s A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong>, now in its 35 th<br />
year as a beloved part of our community’s holiday tradition.<br />
MillerCoors believes in supporting <strong>Milwaukee</strong>’s dedication<br />
to the arts to help keep it a vibrant place where residents<br />
enjoy living, working and playing. The company has been<br />
a committed community partner throughout its history of<br />
more than 155 years and this annual sponsorship for The Rep<br />
is just one example of how MillerCoors continues to work in<br />
<strong>Milwaukee</strong> to preserve community and cultural pride.<br />
A WARM FUZZY<br />
Iriene Wells – she goes by Riene – has<br />
been attending The Rep’s production of<br />
A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> for 33 years with<br />
her family. She first attended the show<br />
as a single mom with her two kids and<br />
a friend. Now remarried, her blended<br />
family has grown to 20. This photo was<br />
taken December 6, 2009 when her group<br />
of 21 came to see the production. They<br />
are planning to come again this year. We would like to thank Reine and her family for making A<br />
<strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> a part of their family holiday tradition. Has your family also been making A<br />
<strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> part of your holiday tradition for 25 or more years? We would like to know!<br />
Please e-mail Cindy Moran, Public Relations Director, at cmoran@milwaukeerep.com.
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER • Winter 2010 • 13<br />
THE REP’S <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> FAMILY TRADITION<br />
This holiday season marks the 35th year that <strong>Milwaukee</strong> <strong>Repertory</strong> <strong>Theater</strong> has staged a<br />
performance of A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> at the Pabst <strong>Theater</strong>. For the past 16 years, this holiday classic<br />
has included a post-performance tradition that has touched the lives of hundreds of local families<br />
who may never have visited the Pabst, nor seen a show at The Rep.<br />
For six seasons (1991 – 1996), the role of the Ghost<br />
of Christmas Present was played by an actor named<br />
Michael Nash. Michael was born to play this role – he’s<br />
a big guy with a big heart. Back in those days we were<br />
doing Amlin Gray’s adaptation of A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong>,<br />
and the costume for the Ghost of Christmas Present<br />
was very “Christmas-y:” green velvet with white trim<br />
and Michael’s beard was dyed red. He sort of looked like<br />
Santa’s brother. His appearance in Scrooge’s bedroom<br />
was a bit of theater magic, and as Scrooge cowered in<br />
disbelief at the apparition before him, Michael would<br />
begin laughing, a booming, hearty laugh, for no reason<br />
at all. And soon the entire Pabst audience would be Michael Nash and James Pickering. Photo by Jay Westhauser.<br />
laughing as well – it would start in the front rows and ripple back to the upper gallery, 1,300<br />
people sharing joyous laughter just because Michael was laughing. Magic, indeed.<br />
In 1994 Michael decided that he wanted to share this joy in a more tangible manner. One of the<br />
servers in the Stackner Cabaret also worked for Rosalie Manor, a <strong>Milwaukee</strong> social service agency,<br />
and a conversation she and Michael had one night led to the start of a wonderful idea. She selected<br />
a few families in need, and Michael began going to the lobby of the Pabst after each show to<br />
ask for donations. He’d then come up to my office in the Cabaret and count the collection. It was<br />
mostly loose change as I recall; he’d have stacks of pennies and nickels on my desk. We didn’t have<br />
computers in our offices back then, and I have lost the ledger book that Michael and I used to<br />
record the nightly collections, but I’d guess it was about $2,000 that first year.<br />
For the next couple of years, Michael enlisted a couple of the acting interns to assist him in the<br />
lobby after the shows, and the amount collected each season grew to perhaps $5,000. Michael<br />
would use this money to buy gifts for the families and would take deliveries to their homes<br />
in his Christmas Present costume. The Cabaret server went with him to her clients’ homes and<br />
remembers, “I do recall the look of wonder on both the faces of the kids as well as their mothers<br />
when Michael showed up in full costume! The regal nature of his costume and the energy of his<br />
charismatic personality was such a stark contrast to the humble homes of our clients.”<br />
In 1997, we had a different Ghost of Christmas Present – and a decision to make. In three short<br />
years Michael had created an important tradition here at The Rep, and so the entire cast of A<br />
<strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> stepped in to fill his shoes. So now the actors and stage managers create a<br />
sign-up chart each year, and the cast takes turns going to the lobby of the Pabst after the show<br />
(Continued on next page)
(<strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> FAMILY TRADITION . . . continued)<br />
PROLOGUE • Winter 2010 • 14<br />
to collect donations from our audience. Returning actors guide those new to our production,<br />
and two interns volunteer to sort and count the nightly collection. That money is then brought<br />
to the Stackner Cabaret, where I recount it and deposit it with our Accounting Department. Our<br />
Development Department selects a different local agency each year, focusing on those that help<br />
children and families in need – present-day Cratchits, you might say. Then there is a Rep shopping<br />
day, when dozens of Rep staff go to Kohl’s Department Store early on a Saturday morning, with lists<br />
of ages and sizes for the families that the chosen agency has selected to receive assistance. In mid-<br />
December one of our rehearsal halls is literally filled with gifts, sorted by family, and all Rep staff<br />
assist with the wrapping project. And then, shortly before Christmas, other Rep staff volunteer to<br />
deliver the gifts to the families’ homes.<br />
“You wish to remain anonymous?” the three Businessmen ask Scrooge early in Act I, mistaking<br />
his stinginess for something else entirely. “I wish to be left alone!” is his stern reply. But Scrooge’s<br />
sentiment has been shared by none of the many people who have contributed to The Rep’s effort.<br />
I have had the great good fortune to assist in this collection tradition every night of the past 16<br />
holiday seasons, and never cease to be touched by the generosity of our audiences, as well as by<br />
the enthusiasm and support the entire Rep staff provides to this undertaking. While that ledger<br />
book that Michael and I used in the early days seems to be lost forever, I do have records going back<br />
to 1999. From 1999 through 2009 we have collected a staggering sum of $233,056.36. With the<br />
2010 collection the total donations from audiences of A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> will surpass a quarter of<br />
a million dollars, an amount that leaves me speechless with gratitude. And this is all because one<br />
actor, long ago and on his own, decided to help a few families. We have lost track of Michael Nash,<br />
but as I count the hundreds of dollars each night, I remember him counting the stacks of pennies<br />
and nickels here in my office. I have no doubt if he were here with us now – well, we would be<br />
laughing together.<br />
With joy and appreciation,<br />
Kristen Olsen, Stackner Cabaret General Manager<br />
SHARE THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT WITH THE CAST OF A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong><br />
Following all A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> performances, costumed actors will be in<br />
the Pabst <strong>Theater</strong> lobby collecting donations for the Sojourner Family Peace<br />
Center. Sojourner Family Peace Center’s mission is to create peaceful<br />
communities in which domestic respect and a life free from violence is the right<br />
of every woman, man and child. Sojourner Family Peace Center provides<br />
education, advocacy and resources to keep people safe. They operate a 42-bed<br />
shelter that provides safety and support services to thousands of women and children.<br />
Additional programs include a 24-Hour Domestic Violence Hotline, Family Advocacy and<br />
Support Services, Children’s Advocacy, Ending Violence through Education and a batterer’s<br />
intervention program. Sojourner Family Peace Center is committed to creating communities<br />
where people live peacefully. Please remember to give generously!<br />
James Pickering.
FUN FACTS FROM PRODUCTION –<br />
SECRETS REVEALED<br />
Having powered through the first three openings of our new season,<br />
we take time to reflect on some of the details of our experience.<br />
For instance:<br />
During the combined runs of CABARET, MY NAME IS ASHER LEV and<br />
Jim Guy.<br />
LAUREL AND HARDY, our stalwart Wardrobe Department did 389 loads<br />
of laundry. Surprisingly, the three-character LAUREL AND HARDY in the tiny Stackner Cabaret was<br />
the Laundry Leader with 225 wallpaper paste-laden loads over a long run. CABARET came in a<br />
distant second with 108 loads because, as Costume Director Holly Payne explains, “They’re just not<br />
wearing that much.”<br />
You could light up a small town with the power that it takes to run a performance of CABARET,<br />
according to Lighting Director Craig Gottschalk. The light bulb inventory alone is something more<br />
than impressive. There are 1606 practical lamps (those displayed on stage as part of the scenery,<br />
such as table lamps, the lights in the Kit Kat Klub sign and the swagged festoon strings) and 795<br />
conventional lamps in the show’s inventory of theatrical lighting instruments. The grand total is<br />
2,401 Things That Light Up.<br />
The performers in the number Money Makes the World Go Around tossed more than 4,000 “Kit Kat<br />
Bucks” into the audience, designed by Props Graphic Artisan Jill Lyons. All were printed and handcut<br />
in the Prop Department.<br />
The Master of Ceremonies in CABARET handed<br />
out 200 hot pink carnations to audience<br />
members.<br />
Laurel and Hardy slathered more than 80<br />
gallons of wheat paste wallpaper adhesive on<br />
each other in the course of their run.<br />
What did Sally and Cliff actually drink when it<br />
appeared that they were downing raw eggs<br />
and Worcestershire sauce in their “Prairie<br />
Oysters?” Real pasteurized-in-the-shell Grade A<br />
large eggs and Lea and Perrins Worcestershire.<br />
Troopers, indeed.<br />
The wallpaper used in LAUREL AND HARDY’s<br />
wallpaper scene was hand-printed and handpainted<br />
on canvas in the Prop Department by<br />
Soft Props Artisan Margaret Hasek-Guy.<br />
(Continued on next page)<br />
PROLOGUE • Winter 2010 • 15<br />
Kelley Faulkner and Geoffrey Hemingway in The Rep’s 2010/11<br />
production of CABARET. Photo by Michael Brosilow.
(FUN FACTS . . . continued)<br />
The cast of MY NAME IS ASHER LEV attended a life drawing class at MIAD as part of their preparation<br />
for the play.<br />
Button, button . . . the 531 buttons on the 1,300 square feet of tufted walls in CABARET were<br />
covered by the Costume Department and installed over a period of several days by the Paint and<br />
Properties Departments. Soft Props Artisan Margaret Hasek-Guy hand-tied each of the 87 buttons<br />
on the tufted chesterfield coach in CABARET.<br />
The movie contract that appears several times in LAUREL AND HARDY is a genuine copy of Stan<br />
Laurel’s contract with Hal Roach Studios, and features Mr. Laurel’s actual signature.<br />
Each and every hair on Sally Bowles head was individually handtied<br />
into her wig by our Wig Mistress Lara Dalby.<br />
The beautiful “antique” Telefunken cathedral radio and the<br />
chandelier upon which the Master of Ceremonies descended in<br />
the opening number of CABARET were built by Prop Carpenter<br />
Erik Lindquist. The chandelier was crafted from 1½” square steel<br />
box tube, expanded steel mesh, wrought iron detail and assorted<br />
lamp parts. We have no idea how much it weighs, so don’t ask.<br />
The Giant Movie Contract unrolled across the stage in LAUREL<br />
AND HARDY is 132” long and features language from Charles<br />
Laughton’s 1932 MGM contract.<br />
Though the two upstage table lamps in the Kit Kat Klub were<br />
hard-wired directly into the Quadracci Powerhouse lighting<br />
system, the two downstage lamps were battery-powered and<br />
radio controlled so that they could be picked up and carried<br />
offstage without being unplugged, but would still dim up and<br />
down with the appropriate light cues when in place.<br />
All 25 Japanese paper lanterns in the Engagement Party scene in CABARET were actually made<br />
of nylon for durability, and were hand-dyed and hand-painted by Prop Crafts Artisan Sarah Heck.<br />
No liquid was killed to make these cocktails. In order to avoid breakage, spillage and subsequent<br />
slippage on the dance floor in the Kit Kat Klub, the glasses of champagne and martinis (2 olives,<br />
please) in CABARET were made by Props Artisan Anna Warren of poured resins in acrylic glassware.<br />
Each glass had a metal disc on its base that corresponded to a magnet under the surface of the<br />
serving trays, so that the servers could move quickly and gracefully without fear of toppling drinks.<br />
We called them “magnetinis.”<br />
These are just a few of the fun facts from the wonderful world of The Rep’s Production departments.<br />
Jim Guy, Properties Director/Fun Fact Expert<br />
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER • Winter 2010 • 16<br />
Radio in CABARET. Gerard Nuegent and<br />
William Theisen in The Rep’s 2010/11<br />
production of LAUREL AND HARDY. Photos<br />
by Michael Brosilow.
A SEASON OF FIRSTS<br />
As we began thinking about the 2010/11 season, we set out to challenge ourselves.<br />
PROLOGUE • Winter 2010 • 17<br />
SET UP: Audiences already come to The Rep with high expectations: the highest quality productions of classics,<br />
new works and world premieres showcasing the talents of the Resident Acting Company along with a wide array<br />
of educational programming.<br />
CHALLENGE: Maintaining The Rep’s strong foundation, but embracing this opportunity to shake things up a bit.<br />
Make an impact on the audience from the very beginning, signifying our entrance into a new era with a new<br />
Artistic Director, Mark Clements, at the helm.<br />
RESULT: A SEASON OF FIRSTS . . . We opened the season to rave reviews with CABARET, our first full-scale<br />
musical in the Quadracci Powerhouse. Musical fans and skeptics alike have sent in notes of appreciation for the<br />
production and there were standing ovations at every performance.<br />
• Building on popular programs like Rep In Depth and Director’s Dialogue, we have launched an array of<br />
events called Rep Platforms with musicians, visual artists, cast members and spoken word artists. These<br />
performances can be tied to what is appears on our stages, but throw new voices and perspectives into the<br />
mix. Over 250 people attended the first three, which included an evening of Kander and Ebb favorites and a<br />
performance by Lil’ Rev.<br />
• We have invited hundreds of MPS students not to simply attend a traditional student matinee, but to explore<br />
the world behind the production at Rep Immersion Days. Students spent the entire day at The Rep, beginning<br />
with workshops, production demonstrations and a tour of our building, followed by an intimate lunch with<br />
artists from the production and ending with a performance. Over 400 students attended the debut of this<br />
program in October!<br />
Attendee Katie Koza of Verona Area High School wrote, “From the experience, I learned more about all the<br />
intricate details that go into a theater production. I was amazed by all the different backstage factors that<br />
have to move in synchrony in order to engender a seamless production, from the set changes to the lighting<br />
to the props. I learned more about the tensions that built before World War II from the perspective of the<br />
everyday people and the show people of Berlin. Also, I gained a new appreciation for theater and all of the<br />
people who make theater larger than life.”<br />
And we’ve only just begun! We want to do more of this exciting work for you in the months and years to come.<br />
Your support is vital. Please consider a donation in support of these exciting new programs.<br />
Anne Cauley, Individual Giving Manager<br />
MAKE AN INVESTMENT IN THE REP!<br />
> Mail: <strong>Milwaukee</strong> <strong>Repertory</strong> <strong>Theater</strong><br />
108 East Wells Street <strong>Milwaukee</strong>, WI 53202<br />
> Phone: 414-290-5376<br />
> Web: milwaukeerep.com/tickets/support<br />
Stiemke Studio, fresh with new, purple seats! MY NAME IS ASHER LEV set design by Kevin Depinet. Photo by Michael Brosilow.
NEW TEEN COUNCIL AT THE REP<br />
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER • Winter 2010 • 18<br />
On October 17 th , more than 50 teenagers from all over Southeastern Wisconsin came to The Rep for a wildly<br />
successful CABARET Teen Night. This was the inaugural event of our newly formed Teen Council, which was<br />
launched this season and was inspired by teen involvement at other theaters across the nation.<br />
<strong>Milwaukee</strong> <strong>Repertory</strong> <strong>Theater</strong>’s Teen Council is currently in its beginning stages. The Teen Council is run by<br />
five teen officers who were among the first to enroll with the guidance of our Education Department. The<br />
officers meet twice a month to discuss what the council hopes to achieve and plan upcoming events. Soon,<br />
the officers will expand to a full board of 20 members, all whom are current metro <strong>Milwaukee</strong> students .<br />
The Teen Council is an organization by teens for teens. They promote a love and appreciation of theater to a<br />
younger generation, bringing together peers from all over the region. Students fully plan their own events,<br />
including marketing, fundraising strategies and budgeting. They are learning important business skills and<br />
creating fun things to do for a younger generation, as well as celebrating their love for theater!<br />
The first event was fantastic. Students arrived at The Rep at 5:00 pm for a meet-and-greet with the Council<br />
members. Beginning at 5:30 pm, the teens ate dinner, prepared by Teen Council officers and Rep staff, and<br />
then met and spoke with Resident Acting Company Member Lee E. Ernst, the Emcee in CABARET. After<br />
talking with Lee about the production and the world of professional theater, the students attended the<br />
evening performance. Teens even came from as far as Lake Geneva for this event.<br />
For their next event, the Council is planning an event during A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong> <strong>CAROL</strong> that may also include<br />
ice-skating, hot cocoa and cookies!<br />
If you are interested in being on the Teen Council or participating in events, please contact The Rep’s<br />
Education Department at 414-290-5370 or jkostreva@milwaukeerep.com.<br />
Jenny Kostreva, Education Director<br />
Students meet and greet during a taco dinner,<br />
then took their seats in the Quadracci Powerhouse.<br />
Photos by Jenny Kostreva.
GET INVOLVED<br />
REP EVENTS AND NEWS<br />
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER • Winter 2010 • 19<br />
REP TALKBACKS<br />
Talkbacks (post-show discussions), will take place after BOMBSHELLS on Thursday, December 2, 9 and 16.<br />
THE REP IN DEPTH<br />
Join us for The Rep In Depth, a lively, informative half-hour talk which starts 45 minutes before every<br />
performance in the Quadracci Powerhouse. It’s free and you can drop in any time during the course of<br />
the talk. This popular series is sure to enhance your theatergoing experience with background information<br />
about the play you are about to see. Come and join all of the other audience members who enjoy this free<br />
educational event!<br />
JOIN THE FRIENDS OF THE REP<br />
Join the Friends and join the fun! Members of the Friends of The Rep collectively donate thousands of hours<br />
of volunteer time and effort to assure that The Rep has the resources to maintain its artistic standards and<br />
meet its financial objectives. The Friends’ volunteer efforts provide extra “people” resources to help The Rep<br />
sustain its leadership as one of the finest regional theaters in the country. Membership fees range from $15 –<br />
$40 for one year. For more information, go to our website at: milwaukeerep.com/support/volunteer.htm.<br />
SAMPLE DOWNTOWN’S HOLIDAY SPIRIT DURING THE<br />
MILWAUKEE HOLIDAY LIGHTS FESTIVAL<br />
November 18, 2010 – January 2, 2011<br />
Thousands of lights, dozens of animated displays, sparkling rooflines,<br />
brilliant wreaths and a stretch of Moravian stars. For 12 seasons,<br />
the six-week <strong>Milwaukee</strong> Holiday Lights Festival has electrified<br />
downtown with brilliant light displays and exhilarating events.<br />
The best way to see downtown’s lights and sights is aboard the<br />
convenient Columbia St. Mary’s Jingle Bus. At just $1 per person, it<br />
offers a whole lot of bang for your buck!<br />
Catch the tour from the Official Warming House at the Plankinton<br />
Arcade in The Shops of Grand Avenue, Thursday through Sunday,<br />
from 6 to 9 p.m. until January 2. Tours fill fast so arrive early to<br />
secure your spot! While riders await their Columbia St. Mary’s Jingle Bus tour, free hot cocoa, coffee and<br />
cookies are served compliments of The Chocolate Factory. Plus, kids receive a free coloring book.<br />
Once on board, Public Service Ambassadors will acquaint riders with downtown’s street décor, window<br />
displays and decorated parks, including “Community Spirit Park” at Cathedral Square Park, “Having a Snow<br />
Ball” at Pere Marquette Park and “Magical Moments” at Zeidler Union Square.<br />
And best of all, Columbia St. Mary’s Jingle Bus riders receive a special $3 parking rate at The Shops of Grand<br />
Avenue. Enter the structure from Plankinton Ave. between Wisconsin Avenue and Michigan Street, and<br />
remember to pick up your parking voucher at the Columbia St. Mary’s Jingle Bus ticket sales table.<br />
For more information about the Holiday Lights Festival or Jingle Bus, please call <strong>Milwaukee</strong> Downtown at<br />
414-220-4700 or visit their website at: <strong>Milwaukee</strong>HolidayLights.com.<br />
(Continued on next page)
(GET INVOLVED . . . continued)<br />
PROLOGUE • Winter 2010 • 20<br />
REPARTEE: AN INTIMATE EVENING OF LITERATURE<br />
Please plan on joining The Friends of <strong>Milwaukee</strong> <strong>Repertory</strong> <strong>Theater</strong> for an evening of poetry,<br />
short stories and songs all personally selected and presented by the Resident Acting Company.<br />
This year we are also happy to present special guest Poet Laureate of Wisconsin, Marilyn Taylor.<br />
From funny to poignant, the presentations are captivating and totally entertaining. Tickets<br />
for the evening are available at $50, $75 and $100 levels. Seating is limited. Please RSVP by<br />
Monday, November 29, 2010 to Becca at 414-290-5347 or development@milwaukeerep.com.<br />
Monday December 6, 2010 in The Rep’s Stackner Cabaret<br />
• 6:30 pm Wine & Hors D’oeuvres • 7:30 pm Literary Presentations • 8:30 pm Coffee and Desserts<br />
PRE-PERFORMANCE MATINEE LUNCHEON at INTERCONTINENTAL<br />
Come join the InterContinental for a special pre-show matinee<br />
luncheon before The Rep’s performance of BOMBSHELLS on<br />
Wednesday, December 15. The inclusive lunch buffet is from<br />
11:45 am to 1:15 pm and costs $15 (includes tax and gratuity).<br />
To attend, please call 414-905-1200 or e-mail rebeccarosado@<br />
marcuscorp.com. Our guest speaker will be Associate Artistic<br />
Director Sandy Ernst.<br />
DIRECTOR’S DIALOGUE<br />
We are excited to again be offering our Director’s Dialogue Series for the 2010/11 season. The Director’s<br />
Dialogue Series is your chance to get behind-the-scenes information and meet the directors of our<br />
productions. Hear what they have to say about their process, learn more about the play and get a chance to<br />
ask them any questions you may have about a professional production. The series will feature BOMBSHELLS<br />
on Tuesday, November 23 at 6 p.m. and will be led by Mark Clements. Tickets are only $20. Please check<br />
out our website at milwaukeerep.com/support/events.htm for the most current information or contact our<br />
Development Events Manager, Becca Kitelinger at 414-290-5347 or development@milwaukeerep.com.<br />
HOLIDAY ARTISAN FAIR<br />
The Rep is holding a Holiday Artisan Fair on Saturday,<br />
December 4 th from 12 to 8 pm in the InterContinental’s<br />
Gallerie M. The fair will feature 15 Rep artists who will be selling<br />
handmade art and crafts including jewelry, ornaments, bags,<br />
blank books, greeting cards, hats, monsters and more. Cash or<br />
check only. Come early to find unique one-of-a-kind gifts!<br />
LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT STOCKING STUFFER?<br />
Rep Gift Certificates make perfect stocking stuffers for all of the theater lovers in your life! They’re also a<br />
convenient way to introduce The Rep to family, friends or co-workers. Gift Certificates can be purchased at<br />
The Rep’s Ticket Office, by calling 414-224-9490 or by going online at: milwaukeerep.com. Share the gift of<br />
theater with a Rep Gift Certificate!<br />
>Like us, follow us and check us out on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube!
BASIC INFORMATION<br />
TICKET OFFICE: 414-224-9490<br />
TICKET OFFICE FAX: 414-225-5490<br />
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE: 414-224-1761<br />
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE FAX: 414-224-9097<br />
WEBSITE: milwaukeerep.com<br />
SINGLE TICKET PRICES<br />
Quadracci Powerhouse: $10 – $65<br />
Stackner Cabaret: $35 & $45<br />
Pabst <strong>Theater</strong>: $25 – $65<br />
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER • Winter 2010 • 21<br />
ACCESS SERVICES<br />
Please contact The Rep Ticket Office to request Access<br />
Services, 414-224-9490.<br />
DEAF OR HARD OF HEARING SERVICES:<br />
A SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETED PERFORMANCE<br />
is scheduled for: BOMBSHELLS on December 16<br />
at 7:30 pm .<br />
A CAPTIONED THEATER PERFORMANCE is<br />
scheduled for BOMBSHELLS on Sunday,<br />
December 19 at 2:00 pm.<br />
REP TICKET OFFICE HOURS<br />
Monday – Sunday: Noon – 6 pm<br />
Window service is available until curtain time.<br />
DISCOUNTS FOR STUDENTS & SENIOR CITIZENS<br />
Receive $5 off any seat bought in advance or purchase<br />
half-price “rush tickets” 60 minutes prior to curtain.<br />
Offer valid for Quadracci Powerhouse and Stiemke<br />
Studio performances only. Proper ID is required.<br />
This offer cannot be used in conjunction with other<br />
discounts or Economy seating.<br />
GROUP DISCOUNTS<br />
Group Discounts are available for groups of 10 or<br />
more. For more information, please contact The Rep’s<br />
Ticket Office at 414-224-9490.<br />
THE REP’S UNDER 40 DISCOUNT<br />
For patrons under the age of 40, select Quadracci<br />
Powerhouse tickets are available for $20. To order<br />
tickets visit: milwaukeerep.com/entourage.<br />
Under 40 tickets are based on availability.<br />
A NOTE ON RUNNING TIMES<br />
For exact running time for a performance, please<br />
call the administrative office at 414-224-1761 on<br />
or after the first date of performance. Running times<br />
are also posted at: milwaukeerep.com.<br />
PARKING<br />
Located within the <strong>Milwaukee</strong> Center complex is<br />
an underground parking structure operated by<br />
InterParking. Enter on East Kilbourn Avenue or<br />
North Water Street. Patron Parking Passes are<br />
available in the Quadracci Powerhouse and Stiemke<br />
Studio lobbies for $7.00. See the House Manager for<br />
details or to buy a pass.<br />
A SCRIPT SYNOPSIS is available for those patrons<br />
who are deaf or hard of hearing and would like to<br />
read the script prior to attending a performance. If<br />
you would like to receive the synopsis, please call<br />
414-224-1761.<br />
The Quadracci Powerhouse and the Stiemke Studio<br />
are equipped with an INFRARED LISTENING<br />
SYSTEM, which ensures clarity of sound from any<br />
seat in the house. If you would like a listening<br />
device, please stop at the House Manager’s desk<br />
to check out a headset prior to watching your<br />
performance.<br />
BLIND OR LOW VISION SERVICES:<br />
AUDIO-DESCRIBED PERFORMANCES are scheduled<br />
for BOMBSHELLS on Tuesday, November 30 at<br />
6:30 pm.<br />
AUDIO DESCRIPTION is the art of talking pictorially<br />
to make the arts accessible to people who are<br />
blind or have low vision. A cassette describing the<br />
visual elements and plot line of the productions<br />
are available at no cost to our patrons. Please call<br />
Erin Burgess-Ellingen at 414-290-5346 to make<br />
reservations for either of these audio-described<br />
performances or to receive the tapes.<br />
LARGE PRINT PROGRAMS are available in the<br />
Quadracci Powerhouse or Stiemke Studio by asking<br />
any usher.<br />
All Rep theaters are WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE.
CALENDAR LISTING<br />
NOVEMBER THROUGH JANUARY<br />
PROLOGUE • Winter 2010 • 22<br />
MON<br />
22<br />
7:30 BOM<br />
TUE<br />
16<br />
23<br />
30<br />
7<br />
14<br />
21<br />
28<br />
7:30 BOM<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
6:30 BOM<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
TUE<br />
6:30 LIB<br />
7:00 ACC<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
7:00 ACC<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
WED THU FRI SAT SUN<br />
17 18 19 20 21<br />
24 25 26 27 28<br />
1<br />
7:30 BOM<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
WED<br />
7:30 BOM<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
THU<br />
FRI SAT<br />
3 4 5<br />
8 9 10 11 12<br />
1:30/7:30 BOM<br />
7:00 ACC<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
15 16 17 18 19<br />
1:30/7:30 BOM<br />
7:00 ACC<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
2<br />
22 23 24 25 26<br />
7:00 ACC<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
29 30<br />
7:30 BOM<br />
7:00 ACC<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
7:30 BOM<br />
7:00 ACC<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
7:30 BOM<br />
7:00 ACC<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
2:00/7:00 ACC<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
31<br />
8:00 LIB 8:00 LIB 7:00 LIB<br />
8:00 BOM 4:00/8:00 BOM 2:00/7:00 BOM<br />
8:00 LIB<br />
8:00 BOM<br />
7:30 ACC<br />
8:00 LIB<br />
8:00 BOM<br />
7:30 ACC<br />
8:00 LIB<br />
8:00 BOM<br />
7:30 ACC<br />
8:00 LIB<br />
4:00/8:00 LIB<br />
4:00/8:00 BOM<br />
2:00/7:30 ACC<br />
4:00/8:00 LIB<br />
4:00/8:00 BOM<br />
2:00/7:30 ACC<br />
4:00/8:00 LIB<br />
4:00/8:00 BOM<br />
2:00/7:30 ACC<br />
4:00/8:00 LIB<br />
2/ 7:00 LIB<br />
SUN<br />
2:00/7 BOM<br />
12:00/4:30 ACC<br />
2:00/7:00 LIB<br />
2:00/7:00 BOM<br />
12:00/4:30 ACC<br />
2:00/7:00 LIB<br />
2:00/7 BOM<br />
12:00/4:30 ACC<br />
2:00/7:00 LIB<br />
2:00 ACC 12:00/4:30 ACC<br />
2:00/7:00 LIB<br />
SHOW KEY:<br />
LIB - LIBERACE!<br />
BOM - BOMBSHELLS<br />
ACC - A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong><br />
<strong>CAROL</strong> - PRIME<br />
ACC - A <strong>CHRISTMAS</strong><br />
<strong>CAROL</strong> - VALUE<br />
STEP - THE 39 STEPS<br />
LONE - NOBODY<br />
LONESOME FOR ME<br />
TON - SPEAKING<br />
IN TONGUES<br />
ACCESS SERVICES<br />
Preview<br />
Pay What You Can<br />
Opening<br />
Talkback<br />
Interpreted in ASL<br />
Audio Description<br />
Captioned <strong>Theater</strong><br />
Smoke-free<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
7:30 LIB 7:30 LIB<br />
4:00/9:00 LIB<br />
TUE<br />
WED<br />
THU<br />
FRI<br />
SAT<br />
1 2<br />
SUN<br />
4<br />
5 6 7<br />
8 9<br />
2:00/7:00 LIB<br />
11<br />
18<br />
25<br />
7:30 LIB 7:30 LIB 7:30 LIB 8:00 LIB 4:00/8:00 LIB 2:00/7:00 LIB<br />
7:30 STEP<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
12 13 14 15 16<br />
7:30 STEP<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
19 20 21 22 23<br />
26 27<br />
7:30 STEP<br />
7:30 LIB<br />
6:30 STEP 7:30 STEP 7:30 STEP<br />
6:30 LONE<br />
1:30/7:30 STEP<br />
7:30 TON<br />
7:30 LONE<br />
7:30 STEP<br />
7:30 TON<br />
7:30 LONE<br />
8:00 STEP 4:00/8:00 STEP 2:00/7:00 STEP<br />
8:00 LIB<br />
4:00/8:00 LIB 2:00/7:00 LIB<br />
8:00 STEP 4:00/8:00 STEP<br />
8:00 LONE<br />
8:00 LONE<br />
28 29 30<br />
8:00 STEP<br />
8:00 TON<br />
8:00 LONE<br />
2:00/7 STEP<br />
7:00 LONE<br />
4:00/8:00 STEP 2:00/7:00 STEP<br />
4:00/8:00 TON 2:00/7:00 TON<br />
4:00/8:00 LONE 2 / 7:00 LONE