October 2024 – Page 3 – an intuitive perspective

October 6, 2024October 14, 2024

First Stage Opens Their New Season With Pete The Cat ~ Meee-ow!

Settling into my seat in the Todd Wehr Theater and seeing the inviting set, wildly painted stage floor, and the spot lights all ready to perform, you can’t help but feel a bit of excitement and anticipation for the new First Stage season. And you could feel it in the crowd as well as the sound of youthful voices eventually drown out the pre-show soundtrack. The young audience was ready for a show, and First Stage delivered.

Are you ready to rock?

This isn’t the first time (and probably not the last time) that this grandfather wasn’t familiar with the character or backstory being enacted on stage. But from experience, I knew that wouldn’t prevent me from getting into the story and enjoying the show. But Pete The Cat is a rock and rollin’ street cat with a little combo behind him consisting of a toad and a platypus. And they love to jam in backyards well into the night, until the cat catcher finally catches up with Pete and sentences him to a week of being a ‘house cat’. And of course neither Pete nor the family who adopts him knows quite what to expect…and that’s where the story and the adventures begin!

Cool Cast: Photos courtesy of First Stage Theater. Photographer: Paul Ruffolo.

Did I forgot to mention that this is a musical. It is a boisterous rollicking musical from beginning to end with song and choreography that absolutely appeals to the 3 to 12 age group that Pete The Cat is recommended for. The youngsters in the audience paid rapt attention to the action and happily bounced up and down in their seats to the music. And even those of an older timbre will find themselves laughing and tapping their toes at the merriment in front of them.

First Stage musicals are usually anchored by an adult actor or two and there are three adult actors in Pete The Cat. A very agile and engaging Ethan Smith plays Pete. He has all of the rock star moves needed to be a jammin’ cat and all of the other cool nuances you’d expect from a loving and devoted cat…well once he gets past the point that he’s now a house cat!

Todd Denning and Ethan Smith as Pete: Photos courtesy of First Stage Theater. Photographer: Paul Ruffolo.

Tori Watson is poetry in motion as she moves from the mother in the Biddle household, to the second grade teacher in Jimmy Biddle’s class, and a roadie!! Watson has a great voice on top of a fluid feel for the choreography that enhances the story and music. And then Todd Denning, a very popular actor at First Stage, plays opposite Watson as the dad, the cat catcher, a roadie, AND a shark! Denning too has a native feel for the choreography and is a smooth and mellow presence as dad!

left to right, back row: Tori Watson and Todd Dening, front row: Jillian Vogedes and Juan Ramon Andrade Escobedo. Photos courtesy of First Stage Theater. Photographer: Paul Ruffolo.

And if you have been following my comments on First Stage over the past few years, you will remember that there are two youth casts for these bigger productions at the Todd Wehr. And Pete The Cat is no different…the casts are the Cool Cast and the Groovy Cast. I saw the Groovy Cast at the Sunday matinee.

Juan Ramon Andrade Escobedo is Jimmy Biddle, a very clean and neat freak and of course a cat in the house violates all of his personal rules. But Escobedo and Watson bond in this work as their characters become best friends…by overcoming some obstacles that Pete has essentially caused. Escobedo really brings home the feeling of frustration when his plans originally go awry but moving to a quick acceptance when he realizes that everyone else has got his back. Well that and the magic sunglasses. His foil here tends to be his sister, Olive Biddle, played by Jillian Vogedes. Vogedes is just full of energy and excitement and for me is just the perfect Olive!

left to right: Ethan Smith, Elliot Lippman, Jillian Vogedes, Juan Ramon Andrade Escobedo, and on drums! Cole Sison. Photos courtesy of First Stage Theater. Photographer: Paul Ruffolo.

Two other characters that help open the story and then solve Jimmy’s little crisis are Grumpy Toad, the drummer in Pete’s combo and played by Cole Sison…and then last but not least, Elliot Lippman as Gus the Playpus, the hard rocking bass player. But again, depending on which day you attend you may experience a different set of youth cast members. But from my experience, you won’t be disappointed!

left to right: Tori Watson, Ethan Smith, Ryan Stepanski, Allyson Lindberg, and Todd Denning. Photos courtesy of First Stage Theater. Photographer: Paul Ruffolo.

This play is recommended for young people from age 3 to 12 and of course everyone older who loves theater. It runs about 55 minutes with no intermission and the music, dancing, action, and story will keep 3 year olds engaged for the whole time…guaranteed! And how director/choreographer Bree Beelow managed to fill all of those shoes and put together such a smooth and fulfilling show is a marvel!

Hey, watch the tail

Pete The Cat runs at the Todd Wehr Theater in the Marcus Performing Arts Center through November 3, 2024. For more information and to order tickets, click here!

Extra Credit Reading: PLAYBILL!

As Mona Lisa, Julia Jordan Schloemer. Photos courtesy of First Stage Theater. Photographer: Paul Ruffolo.

October 4, 2024

MKE Rep’s The Coast Starlight Presents A Microcosm Of Modern America ~ On A Train!

And by modern, I certainly mean 21st Century America. Playwright Keith Bunin has fleshed out very distinctive and unique, yet very American, characters here and gives them text and subtext galore, but he doesn’t give us a lot of action…so Director Mark Clements and choreographer Jenn Rose give us transitions from one idea to the next, one scene to another, through the elegant choreography of moving train seats from one position to another. You will understand this if you experience it.

Jack Ball and Emily S. Chang. Photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Michael Brosilow photographer.

It seems a bit ironic to me that Keith Bunin has set this modern drama on a train…once an ubiquitous mode of American transportation…but now a luxury and something of an outlier. But he needs time to tell his story (stories). And we have six characters and six stories to tell. Yet few of the stories are actually told via conversation between the passengers. Most of them are thoughts spoken out loud so that the audience may hear but go unheard by the other passengers. And these aren’t necessarily inner dialogues nor asides…they are suppositions that the playwright is making about the ideas and thought processes of his characters…and the effects and repercussions that they have on each person’s life. And how those decisions could effect the others or their society, if they were actually shared with the others. With this form, Bunin is easily able to discuss a number of problems in modern society, modern politics, and the damage we may do to ourselves and others by not openly engaging with each other. That alone is a major focus on a very modern and I guess, recent failing in American society.

Justin Huen, Jack Ball, and Emily S. Chang . Photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Michael Brosilow photographer.

Jack Ball is T.J., who is running away from something (we know what it is in the play but I don’t want to provide TMI) and is clearly going through a lot of inner turmoil as a result. The other characters can see the physical effects. Yet he comes to the fore and helps others where he can. Ball does a marvelous job of the presenting the stressed out T.J. whenever he is allowed to disengage and be alone. He cleanly moves to caregiver mode when his thoughts can be put aside. The shift is so subtle at first but so significant, I can’t imagine how Ball moves from one to the other on stage.

Emily S. Change, Jonathan Wainwright, Justin Huen, Jack Ball, and Yadira Correa. Photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Michael Brosilow photographer.

All of the passengers have secrets, all are here with personal stressors, and all of them have stories to tell…and in most cases they come out in those out loud thought processes than Bunin so readily employs. Emily S. Chang gives us a very cool and seemingly collected Jane, an artist who works in animation and seems to have the world at her feet…not quite. Yadira Correa is a very angrily animated Anna who doesn’t quite care anymore about who knows what about her personal tragedy…some of her speaker phone rants provide some of the bigger laughs of the night! Noah is an Army veteran who has seen the ravages of war and is trying to keep his life together. Justin Huen channels the perfect level of anger, wisdom, and self-acceptance here…Heun seems to understand PTSD and how to portray it on stage. He also provides some of the most sincere although not always practical advice to T.J.. Liz is heading home after making funeral arrangements for her late brother and is at her own wit’s end…yet Kelley Faulkner, outwardly, keeps her in a cool, calm, collected zone. And she quickly adopts her mother mode when confronted with the very troubled T.J.. A bit of comic relief and a bit of generational conflict is introduced by the arrival of Ed, a drunken traveling salesman who too is at a nadir in his life, and Jonathan Wainwright gives us, at first, a out of f***’s to give character to a more mellow observer of modern life.

Jack Ball, Emily S. Chang, and Yadira Correa. Photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Michael Brosilow photographer.

A big theme here is how we miss opportunities…and how we don’t recognize that others are often suffering too…because they seemingly aren’t looking the part. And things aren’t always what they seem and that a lot of comfort can be provided to others just by recognizing them.

BUT: there is a great deal of humor here as well…some of it a bit dark…but a great deal of fun nonetheless.

The set is simple, modern, and elegant as well. Six simple train seats on wheels, lighting in the floor to highlight the actors at the center of the action, and simple overhead lighting as well to emphasize mood and feeling! Props? Knapsacks and luggage…just like on the train.

Because of some interruptions in my own personal life, I attended The Coast Starlight late in the run and it ends on Sunday October 2024. It runs 1 hour and 30 minutes without intermission. Ticket and other information here:

Extra Credit Reading: The program.