Category: Milwaukee Chamber Theatre

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Every Brilliant Thing Enthralls With Insights, Hope, And Sharing

This is a very intimate play…featuring one actor as storyteller who engages the audience in the telling. And the Goodman Mainstage at the Milwaukee Youth Art Center is the ideal intimate venue for the telling of this tale. We all become family here.

Yes, we only have one actor/character on stage. The character does not have a name and begins their story with a monologue that explains what the term Every Brilliant Thing means and where it originated. And at this point it is important to mention that this is a play about mental illness and suicide. And our actor is a youngster when we first meet and we get to share their growth and awareness and thoughts through a decade or better. And at first Every Brilliant Thing is a list to help their mother heal…a simple list of Brilliant Things! But eventually it becomes a coping mechanism as our actor struggles through their life as well…and obviously suffers from a reluctantly acknowledged mental health issue of their own.

Elyse Edelman. Photographer: Ross Zentner. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Director Molly Rhode as taken a risk here…and instead of casting a single actor for entire run…Rhode has cast Milwaukee favorites James Carrington and Elyse Edelman on alternating evenings. Which opens up a new question that I hadn’t considered before…what effect on the story will gender have? Will a female character seem more sympathetic? Will a male character be perceived as weak? ??? Edelman held the floor when I attended on Sunday March 2 and just mesmerized the audience. She is a grand story teller!

James Carrington. Photographer Ross Zentner. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

But even without the dual casting this story will evolve differently at each performance. There are roles for the audience to play, as the actor selects audience members to play a vet, school counselor, and father. So bring your best actor voice and face when you attend. Depending on the actor and the audience member selected, the story will deviate from performance to performance and there will be a fair amount of ad lib activity on everyone’s part.

Elyse Edelman. Photographer: Ross Zentner.. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

But there’s more: There’s the actual Every Brilliant Thing List! When a new audience member found her seat next to me, I exclaimed, what great seats! And she replied, yes they are as long as I don’t have to be in the play…at which point Edelman came over and recruited my neighbor to participate…simply reading a line when her number was called: “Really Good Oranges!” There is some fun when a volunteer has forgotten their number and fails to respond on the first cue.

James Carrington and audience member. Photographer: Ross Zentner.. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Yes, the topic is mental health and some sad life events. So there are moments of feeling choked up with tight throats and teary eyes. But there is an incredible amount of hope and happiness here and laughter that make this play feel full circle and complete…despite the unusual format.

I’d appreciate hearing from any of you who experienced James Carrington in this role. I have seen him in a number of other plays and I am sure he nails this!

Every Brilliant Thing continues at the Goodman Mainstage Hall at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center (just north of the Deer District in the old Schlitz Brewery area) through March 16, 2025. Run time: approximately 75 minutes, no intermission​

Additional information and tickets available here. If you have druthers on whether you see Elyse Edelman or James Carrington, the dates of their performances are listed.

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PSA: Next At Milwaukee Chamber Theatre: Every Brilliant Thing

Editor’s note: Every Brilliant Thing is a brilliant and intimate play and the Goodman Mainstage at the MYAC is the ideal location.

MILWAUKEE CHAMBER THEATRE’S WARM-HEARTED COMEDY EVERY BRILLIANT THING SPOTLIGHTS MENTAL HEALTH, COMMUNITY, AND LIFE’S SIMPLE PLEASURES

Directed by Northern Sky Theater Artistic Director Molly Rhode
Features beloved Milwaukee actors James Carrington and Elyse Edelman

MILWAUKEE, WI – February 19, 2025 – Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) continues its landmark 50th Anniversary 2024/25 Season with warm-hearted comedy favorite EVERY BRILLIANT THING by Duncan McMillan and Jonny Donahoe. Directed by Northern Sky Theater Artistic Director and Milwaukee native Molly Rhode, the production will run from February 28 to March 16, 2025, in Goodman Mainstage Hall at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. Tickets are available online at www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org or by calling the Broadway Theatre Center box office at 414-291-7800.


1: Ice cream. 2: Kung Fu movies. 3: Staying up past your bedtime to watch TV. Those are just the start of a list of every brilliant thing that makes life worth living, created in this luminous mix of theater and stand-up and delivered in alternate performances by two of Milwaukee’s best-loved actors in James Carrington (First Stage, Northern Sky, Next Act, others), and Elyse Edelman (MCT, Next Act, First Stage, Forward, others). Described by The Guardian as “one of the funniest plays you’ll ever see about depression—and possibly one of the funniest plays you’ll ever see, full stop,” this beloved coming-of-age story celebrates each of our capacities to delight in the little things and our resilience in going further than we think we can for those we love.

“I couldn’t be more excited to share EVERY BRILLIANT THING with our community. It carries on MCT’s long tradition of exceptional solo performance plays featuring some of Milwaukee’s finest artists while ideally exemplifying how theater can bring our community closer together,” said MCT Artistic Director Brent Hazelton. “By starting from the awareness that everyone has at some point felt less than their best or lived through mental and behavioral health challenges with family or friends, the play reminds us that none of us can go through our lives alone—and that that’s actually perfectly natural.”

ALL-LOCAL CREATIVE TEAM LEADS EVERY BRILLIANT THING
Director Molly Rhode returns to Milwaukee Chamber Theatre after leading a well-loved production of GREAT EXPECTATIONS in 2017, about which On Milwaukee.com proclaimed, “Chamber’s masterful GREAT EXPECTATIONS exceeds every single [expectation]…an
inventiveness I have rarely seen on a stage.” John Jahn for Shepherd Express called it “something to cherish and celebrate…well-acted, amusing, touching, sprightly paced, and superbly staged…a truly enjoyable evening at the theater,” while Urban Milwaukee’s Dominique Noth said, “Rhode has set a high bar.”


While written and performed as a solo-actor play, MCT’s production of EVERY BRILLIANT THING has been double-cast, offering audiences a chance to see both Edelman (INDECENT, THE NOT-SO-ACCIDENTAL CONVICTION OF ELEVEN MILWAUKEE “ANARCHISTS”) and Carrington (MCT Debut) in alternating performances. Milwaukee native Edelman was last seen at MCT in …”ANARCHISTS”, for which critics lauded her as “impressive, skillful” (Ryan Jay Reviews) and “start-to-finish fabulous” (Milwaukee Magazine). “I think this is a beautiful play. It’s a dream project, really. Milwaukee Chamber Theatre is honestly one of my artistic homes,” said Edelman. “It’s a communal and celebratory activity to be able to tell this story together.” Edelman will perform on Feb 28, March 2, 6, 8 (8pm), 12, 14, 15 (4pm), and 16.


Longtime Milwaukee artist Carrington makes his MCT debut in EVERY BRILLIANT THING. “I love this play,” said Carrington. “I love the message, the theme. I think it’s so funny; it’s so warm. It disarms you a little bit with how funny and touching it is. When the world is difficult and feels relentless, this show reminds you that things can be okay. It invites you in—regardless of where you come from, regardless of who you are. Theatre is for everybody; this show is for everybody. I think in Milwaukee in 2025 we need to remind ourselves of the joy in life, of the simple things in life, but also that we are in this together.” Carrington will perform on March 1, 5, 7, 8 (4pm), 9, 13, and 15 (8pm).


The production will be designed and created by Jim Guy (Properties Designer), Martilia Marechal (Sound Designer), Ellie Rabinowitz (Lighting Designer), Beck Trumbull (Assistant Stage Manager), and Emily Marie Wilke (Stage Manager), rounding out the all-local team.


MCT RETURNS TO “PERFECT” GOODMAN MAINSTAGE HALL

EVERY BRILLIANT THING will be performed at Goodman Mainstage Hall in the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, the same venue where MCT opened the season with its critically acclaimed production of AN ILIAD. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Jim Higgins noted upon seeing AN ILIAD, “Goodman Mainstage Hall is the perfect venue for this storytelling approach… one of the best small venues in Milwaukee; I hope more companies discover it.” Built in 2005 and renovated in 2021, MYAC provides exceptional facilities with state-of-the-art features, including the warm and welcoming Burke Commons, where patrons can gather in comfort before performances and the recently renovated 142-seat Goodman Mainstage Hall, offering audiences an intimate and immersive experience through its arena-style seating. “We’re thrilled to return to MYAC, and to drop this inherently communal play in the Goodman’s in-the-round orientation. It’s such a comfortable, accessible venue and as we saw with ILIAD ideally suited to this sort of solo performance where the actor is in direct conversation with the audience,” said Hazelton.


The Milwaukee Youth Arts Center is located at 325 W Walnut St, at the corner of Walnut and Dr Martin Luther King Jr Dr. It is across the street from Milwaukee Public School’s Golda Meir School, with a parking lot that faces the Golda Meir Upper Campus. Additional parking is available in the Golda Meir School lots outside of school hours. More information is available at www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/every-brilliant-thing


KEY DATES + EVENTS


EVERY BRILLIANT THING by Duncan McMillan and Jonny Donahoe, will run from February 28 toMarch 16, 2025 at Goodman Mainstage Hall in the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W Walnut St, Milwaukee, WI 53212.

  • Preview: Friday, February 28 at 7:30 PM
  • Opening Night: Saturday, March 1 at 8:00 PM
  • Pay-What-You-Choose: Monday, March 3 at 7:30 PM (walk-up tickets available starting one hour before the show)
  • Talkbacks: Thursdays, March 6 and 13, following the 7:30 PM performances
  • SipStudio: Saturday, March 8 (complimentary drinks and exclusive experiences for matinee and evening attendees)
  • ASL Interpretation: Friday, March 14 at 7:30 PM

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The Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s A Doll’s House

editor’s note: my mid-winter vacation prevented me from covering a couple of things that I normally would have written about. And it also meant that I didn’t see two important plays until their closing weekend, The Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s A Doll’s House and The Lake Country Players’, The Dining Room. So my apologies as you read my responses, these shows have already closed.

After Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen is the classic playwright that I most look forward to seeing on local stages. But given his place as a father of modern theater, is Ibsen’s work actually classic? Well, absolutely. So here we have the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre presenting a new adaptation by Amy Herzog of A Doll’s House!

Herzog’s interpretation leaves nothing behind from Ibsen’s exposure of misogyny and the cultural and societal subjugation of woman in a male dominated society. But she does bring the language to a cleaner and more enjoyable contemporary feel that makes this version flow smooth and more easily understood for the modern audience. Unfortunately we can relate to the story of Nora Helmer as she tries to move from her position as a ‘doll’ to one of a complete and independent human being…as we see start to sense regressions in our current society.

Director Leda Hoffmann has taken full advantage of the new text and has put together a fluid and engaging presentation completely putting front and center the conflict that Nora experiences. Her blocking and timing of the play work perfectly and she pulls out the full implications of the story.

Front and center is Nora Helmer of course…and she is wholly embodied by Jennifer Vosters…who amazingly moves from being the ‘doll’ to realizing how much more life has to offer. Vosters’ Nora is lucid and aware and brings us into her corner immediately and holds us there until that very last door slam. But even in the early scenes where she plays to the ‘doll’ to her domineering husband, you can feel that she is aware that she deserves more in life than this. And given she is on stage for all but a few moments for some simple costume changes, I have to admire Vosters’ stamina and stage presence. Without Vosters as Nora, this play wouldn’t have worked nearly as well.

Josh Krause plays it hard and cold as Torvald Helmer. And despite his continual declarations of love for Nora and the cute nicknames, it never seems to go beyond his own identification of self and his own sense that he deserves ‘her’ and her devotion to him and his family. Krause certainly is able to bring that sense of entitlement to the role…and completely locks Torvald into that entitlement as Nora initiates her new sense of self…again, right down to that fatal door slam.

Matthew Bowden is Nils Krogstad…a loan shark who lends money to Nora and a bank manager with a past who is fired by Torvald. Bowden gives us a Krogstad who wants to find redemption from his past but isn’t quite sure how to do it. He eventually does in a very round about way and through the intervention of Kristine Linde, boldly played by Kat Wodtke. But when he is threatening Nora, I didn’t feel that he was quite sinister enough. And Anand Nagraj is Dr. Peter Rank, a best friend of both Nora and Torvald…and a daily visitor to the Helmer residence. And he has a secret too which is somewhat apparent but I don’t think it quite worked. But I put that to the words that Amy Herzog provided for Rank and not on Nagraj.

Normally I would close with information about tickets and additional information, but instead let me share this YouTube video about A Doll’s House from the actors and director: