Experience the journey of a young girl’s strength and determination in a theatrical adaptation of a modern literary classic.
MILWAUKEE — First Stage — one of the nation’s leading theaters for young people and families — invites audiences to witness the world premiere of ESPERANZA RISING, a poetic tale of a young girl’s triumph over adversity based on the popular book by Pam Muñoz Ryan.
Set in the turbulent 1930s, two young storytellers, with the help of an ensemble of actors, take the stage and begin to weave the tale of Esperanza — a wealthy Mexican girl whose privileged existence is shattered when tragedy strikes, and she and her mother must flee to California. Forced to work in a migrant labor camp, Esperanza must learn to rise above her difficult circumstances and discover what she’s truly made of.
“Our Todd Wehr season concludes with an exhilarating world premiere from our First Stage’s Amplify Reading Series,” said Jeff Frank, First Stage artistic director. “Playwright-in-residence Alvaro Saar Rios has crafted a nimble version of the story with two storytellers welcoming us into the world of the modern classic novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan magically lifted by the music of composer Dinorah Marquez. The importance of hope and the power of family resonate deeply as the storytellers guide us through Esperanza’s loss of her home and her journey to make a new life.”
ESPERANZA RISING runs May 2 through 18, 2025, at the Marcus Performing Arts Center’s Todd Wehr Theater. Tickets are available now on FirstStage.org.
The show runs approximately 75 minutes, including a brief intermission. Recommended for families with young people ages 7-17 and theater lovers of all ages. This production’s Pay What You Choose Performance is on Friday, May 9 at 7:00 p.m., the Sensory Friendly Performance is on Saturday, May 17 at 3:30 p.m., and the Sign Language Interpreted Performance is on Sunday, May 18 at 3:30 p.m.
The First Stage Young Company consists of advanced high school aged actors. They generally stage three shows per season and tackle adult plays and themes as seen in their recent productions of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Ibsen’s Enemy of the People. And unlike the bigger First Stage musical productions at the Marcus that use adults and younger actors, Young Company seldom features adults in their offerings.
Young Company is currently offering a full blown musical in Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell’s Ride The Cyclone, The Musical [High School Edition]. Please pay attention to that last bit as this play does deal with mature themes and is recommended for young people 13 to 17 and adults.
Hazel Dye (center) and cast. Photo courtesy of First Stage. Photographer: Paul Ruffolo.
Richmond and Maxwell have written a wondrous and dramatic musical here and Director Michelle LoRicco and the eight actors do just a marvelous job of bringing it all to life. This is certainly the most engaging play that I have seen at First Stage. The musical part of the musical borrows from the great history and genre of American musicals…moving through pop and contemporary sounds to West Side Story to Cabaret and to rap…with maybe a bit of The Three Penny Opera thrown in. The Young Company cast has mastered the nuances and styles here in a very commanding manner.
(left to right) Lio Landis, Hazel Dye, Thomas Alberto Bastardo, Evie Maassen, and Max Larson. Photo courtesy of First Stage. Photographer: Paul Ruffolo.
The story of course is ideal fodder for a teen age play. Starting with the excitement and light of youth as the youth choir performs at a carnival and swiftly blends into the macabre as they ride the cyclone roller-coaster and all perish when their car comes loose. And now we get to see them interact on ‘the other side’.
Edward Owczarski. Photo courtesy of First Stage. Photographer: Paul Ruffolo.
And once our choir members reconnect and become apprised of their situation, they meet an automaton named Karnak who is employed as a sideshow act predicting people’s futures and deaths for a few coins in the slot. But here he takes on a more sinister persona and promises to bring one of the deceased back to life after they each testify to their worthiness of such a boon and win a unanimous vote from the others. Without going into much more detail, Karnak seems to easily change the rules as we go or keep some of them to himself until they have had an effect on the choir. Edward Owczarski is Karnak and he is Karnak for every single minute of the 90 minute run time of the play. Beyond his pronouncements and gibes, he has to maintain his robotic presence and movements and gesturings even when the focus of the action is on other cast members. Owczarski maintains his persona throughout and believe me, he is more than the requisite creepy here!
Ocean is the self-assured young woman who assumes that she will be the one selected to return to life and makes her case fervently…and Evelyn Maassen makes her very very real for us. And her best friend, Constance, is equally appealing via the acting of Hazel Dye. And although Ocean disses her friends including Constance at times, Dye and Maassen never let us lose site of the fact that Ocean and Constance are besties.
Now before I forget, the action here is located in a small rural town in the middle of nowhere Canada. So as each character relates their lives and their stories and their goals…a lot of personal traits and experiences come out that would have been kept personal…given the nature of small towns. So beyond the overall story board, we see and feel a lot of other emotions. And the play takes on how we perceive our selves, how we never ever really know everything about even our closest friends, and how community affects our lives and our goals.
And we also have Mischa, an adopted Ukrainian boy aptly played by Max Larson, big and bold and present. And Thomas Bastardo is Ricky, who never spoke before the accident so was relegated to play tambourine in the choir…so his sudden ability to speak provides a bit of wonder for the group. And Lio Landis is Noel, with a few secrets of his own and now I am going to have to finally watch Marlene Dietrich in the Blue Angel. So that covers the five members of the choir, but:
Mackenzie Wooten and cast. Photo courtesy of First Stage. Photographer: Paul Ruffolo.
A sixth child was found in the wreckage and she was without a head and was never identified, despite having a choir outfit. And none of the others recognize her either…so we meet Jane Doe. Now, Mackenzie Wooten plays Jane with a head but with makeup, hair, and a gait that is more zombie that teen age girl. And Wooten is the epitome of teen age macabre here…and she certainly has a chilling effect on Constance. You need to see that first hand for yourself.
Now this isn’t all chilling horror movie fodder. The songs are expressive and capture the nature of each character. AND there is a fair amount of laugh out loud humor here both in context and jokes and a few aside comments. It’s a delight.
For me, this is a five star, two thumbs up event. Ride The Cyclone runs from now through April 13, 2025 at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center in Milwaukee. It runs for 90 minutes without intermission. MYAC is an intimate theater in the round with general admission seating.
Recommended for families with young people ages 13-17 and theater lovers of all ages
Note: Contains mature content, language and themes including discussion of untimely death and mature situations including references to sex, drugs, and violence.
Max Larson (right) and cast. Photo courtesy of First Stage. Photographer: Paul Ruffolo.
As you start to settle into your seat in the Todd Wehr Theater, you realize that you are now in a new and exciting undersea environment. First you take in the organic stage shapes that define a reef and other underwater environments and then you notice the waving blue lights that depict sunlight streaming through the surface waves and you are transported. So before our musical actually begins, Scenic Designer Kristin Ellert and Lighting Designer Jason Fassl, have put us in the right frame of mind to enjoy Finding Nemo.
There is a large ensemble here and as always there is a core of adult actors that play the major adult roles and then two casts of young people who perform at alternate performances. So if you are looking to see a certain performer, please check the performance schedule. There are links below.
Cast in Disney & Pixar’s FINDING NEMO TYA. First Stage, 2025. Photo by Paul Ruffolo.
The version of Finding Nemo is an adaptation of the famous Disney + Pixar movie so most of the audience is going to be familiar with the story, but maybe not the storytelling! I mean, how do you depict the action of an animated movie, live on stage! Well, with a lot of very enthusiastic and dramatic actors…and a whole ocean of puppets!
Two of the three main characters are played by adults, Jake Horstmeier as Marlin, Nemo’s Dad, and Karen Estrada as Dory, a friend that Marlin meet’s along the way in his search for Nemo. Estrada plays off Dory’s bit of forgetfulness and brings out the happy and determination in the character. And when Marlin starts to give up hope or strays away from the task at hand, she is able to help him focus and stay on track. Horstmeier is a clearly determined and loving father here but shows us the occasional frailty in Marlin as his determination flags a bit from time to time. Horstmeier and Estrada clearly enjoy their characters and just as clearly enjoy working together.
Lainey Techtmann (center) and cast in Disney & Pixar’s FINDING NEMO TYA. First Stage, 2025. Photo by Paul Ruffolo.
But of course the actual star of the show is Nemo! And here is where the split in casts takes command. In the Orange Cast, Lainey Techtmann plays Nemo and in the Blue Cast the role belongs to Simone Gong-Murray. When I attended for the Sunday matinee, Techtmann was on stage and absolutely nailed the role. I was pleased to see her on stage again, having enjoyed her depictions of Tiny Tim in the Rep’s A Christmas Carol.
Now there are a lot of other characters here…and every member of the ensemble played multiple roles. And this is where the puppets come in!
Mara Iligaray (center) and cast in Disney & Pixar’s FINDING NEMO TYA. First Stage, 2025. Photo by Paul Ruffolo.
Rather than elaborate costumes and intense and time consuming costume changes, each actor carried a stunning puppet for each role. Sunfish, starfish, barracuda, sharks, octopi, seahorses, sea turtles, and a tall tall shore bird were all represented by puppets, as well as Nemo, Dory, and Marlin. Most of these puppets were carried on the shoulder of the actor who supported them on a stick near the tail and a mechanism at the head that provided support and the action to make the mouth move. And the bodies are articulated so the actor can make movements with the puppet that resemble swimming. So besides singing, dancing, and speaking their roles, the actors had to remember to swim their puppets and move their mouths to simulate their speech as they told the story. Simply amazing!
And I have no idea who Puppet Designer Jesse Mooney-Bullock managed to produce such a unique array of puppets and teach everyone in their use. I enjoyed this aspect of the production very much. And also special thanks to Directors Jeff Frank and Michael Dean Morgan for making all of this work. Just moving around all of these characters much less making it all work with such precision and grace is amazing.
And I was not the only one amazed. At the end of every performance, the cast assembles on stage and takes a few questions from the audience. Two questions about the puppets came from youngsters in the audience. One wanted to know how hard was it to learn to work with the puppets. And a cast member assured them that it took a lot of work but after a while it got easier but it took a lot of practice. And the second question was why they used puppets instead of costumes, and another cast member stated that it easier to switch to a different puppet for a role change than doing a costume change and moving with the puppet was easier to do.
Disney + Pixar’s Finding Nemo, Theatre For Young Audiences Version, continues at the Marcus Performing Arts Center at the Todd Wehr Theater through April 6, 2025. Additional information and tickets can be found here.
Run time is about 75 minutes with a brief intermission and Finding Nemo is recommended for ages 5 and older!
