Tag: Mark Clements

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PSA: Milwaukee Rep Looking For Actors and Musicians For Original Musical: Run Bambi Run

A very interesting and intriguing email hit my in box this morning…if I still had my rock star skills from the previous century, I’d be applying immediately! And there is a Violent Femmes connection here!

RUN BAMBI RUN Actor/Musician Open Call for Local Submissions

We are looking for local actor/musicians to join the cast of the world premiere musical RUN BAMBI RUN featuring a book by Academy Award-winner Eric Simonson (LOMBARDI) and an all new score by Grammy-nominee Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes! We welcome submissions from all who are interested, regardless of formal theatrical experience.

We are specifically looking for skill in the following instrumentations: Bass, Guitars, Strings, Accordion, Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion . Multi-intrumentalists are encouraged!

Please fill out the form (see links below) with all of the requested information, and our Casting team will be in touch to schedule an audition time. Auditions will be held on April 5, with invited callbacks on April 6. Note: NYC Auditions will be posted March 17 via Actor’s Access and will be held in mid-April in New York City.

For the audition, performers will be asked to sing a song of their choosing in the spirit of a rock, power ballad or folk (no musical theater selections) and demonstrate versatility by playing one or more instruments.

Details on the production can be found below. Thank you for your interest!

SYNOPSIS: An outrageous ‘true crime’ saga that took the nation by storm, Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek’s fall from Milwaukee Police Department cop to Playboy Bunny lands her in the slammer, convicted of a murder that she didn’t commit. Or did she? This rollicking hometown story about truth and justice is a wild ride that you have to see to believe.

Run Bambi Run Book by Eric Simonson Music & Lyrics by Gordon Gano Directed by Mark Clements (LORT B) 1st Rehearsal – August 4, 2023; 1st Preview – September 13; Opening – September 22; Closing October 22.

More information and application for here:

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PSA: Milwaukee Repertory Theater Announces Their 2023/2024 Season!

During a thirty minute streaming event last evening, Milwaukee Rep Artistic Director Mark Clements announced the Rep’s 2023/2024 season. Here is the recording of Mr. Clements presentation and listed just below are the full descriptions from their press release:

To celebrate our 70th Anniversary Season, an extraordinary milestone, we’ve hand-picked a season of exceptional plays including our first World Premiere musical on the mainstage, beloved literary adaptions, the return of Milwaukee Rep favorites and exciting new works.

Energizing moments, empowering stories, passionate performances – with bold theatrical experiences to captivate the heart and stir the soul. Our 2023/24 Season has something for everyone! 

The Quadracci Powerhouse season will open with Run Bambi Run, a new musical about America’s most infamous woman turned American folk hero Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek, written by Oscar-winner Eric Simonson (Lombardi) with music by Grammy-nominee Gordon Gano of theViolent Femmes. Following will be the celebrated mystery Dial M for Murder, which inspired Hitchcock’s masterpiece. The new year brings two celebrated adaptations – Louisa May Alcott’s endearing Little Women and Chaim Potok’s The Chosen. Closing the season will be Nina Simone: Four Women, a play with music recalling events that shifted Simone’s career from artist to activist.

The Stackner Cabaret features four blockbuster shows starting with Country Sunshine: The Legendary Ladies of Nashville With Katie Deal, featuring songs from the Queens of country music and Nuncrackers our favorite nuns return to film their first TV special filled with songs and hijinks. Last seen eight years ago, Guys on Ice returns for a special anniversary production as one of our most popular shows ever, followed by Piano Men 2, a smash hit with audiences, in which no two performances are the same as our dueling pianists take requests live! 

The Stiemke Studio features two ground-breaking new works – the World Premiere of Parental Advisory: a breakbeat play from award-winning storyteller Idris Goodwin (HBO’s Def Poetry Jam) and direct from a sold-out Broadway run What the Constitution Means to Me, called “the best and most important new play” by The New York Times.

Subscriptions On Sale Now! Get the BEST Seats at the BEST Price before the individual tickets go on sale to the public. Call 414-224-9490 or visit www.MilwaukeeRep.com/Subscriptions.

And here are the details!

And the one annual event that we all are waiting for:

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PSA: Milwaukee Rep Theater’s New Year’s Flash Sale!!

Start 2023 out right and save up to 50% on four amazing productions filled with heartfelt storytelling, incredible voices and hilarious comedy. 

Kick off the New Year with The Heart Sellers, Seven Guitars, God of Carnage and The Greatest Love for Whitney and get the best seats at an amazing discounted ticket price – our special gift to you. Don’t wait – this special offer must end Monday, January 2!

And to get tickets and read more about these performances, click here: Lloyd Suh’s The Heart Sellers; or here August Wilson’s Seven Guitars; or here Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage; or here: The Greatest Love for Whitney (Whitney Houston)!

Hopefully, I will see you there!!

But wait, some extra credit reading!

The Heart Sellers: Funny and deeply moving, this World Premiere by Lloyd Suh (The Chinese Lady) gives voice to the Asian immigrant experience in the 1970s when the landmark Hart-Celler Act granted thousands of professional workers a new path to citizenship. But for new Americans Jane and Luna, life in the USA with their workaholic husbands has left them feeling isolated and invisible. One Thanksgiving – over sips of wine and a questionable frozen turkey – they reminisce and dream of spreading their wings together in the land of opportunity: disco dancing, learning to drive and even a visit to Disneyland. With grace and dignity, this powerful play asks: “Would you give up your heart to make a new home?”

Seven Guitars: What would you do for a chance to live out your dream? In 1940s Pittsburgh, struggling singer Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton’s shot at stardom comes when a major recording studio offers an unexpected opportunity of a lifetime. Armed with newfound hope and a second chance, Floyd and his friends discover that dreams are heartbreakingly fragile when confronted by a world set against them. This riveting play, Milwaukee Rep’s eighth production in August Wilson’s iconic 10-play American Century Cycle, explores faith, artistry, humor, oppression and love set to the fiery rhythms and intense lyricism of American blues music.

God of Carnage: Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, this explosive comedy is all fun and games – until the grown-ups get hurt. When two sets of parents politely meet over coffee and cake to settle a schoolyard spat between their sons, the gloves come off as neighborly decorum disintegrates into laugh-out-loud, no-holds barred mayhem. This “first class” (The New York Times) and “scabrously funny” (USA Today) send-up of middle-class manners gives a brutally entertaining look at what happens when the little things end up pushing us over the edge.

The Greatest Love For Whitney: Created by Milwaukee Rep’s Mark Clements: From her powerful anthems to her glamorous elegance on the silver screen, Whitney Houston’s breathtaking voice helped her become one of the most beloved artists of all time. The Greatest Love for Whitney celebrates the amazing career and legacy of this Grammy Award-winning icon by taking audiences through a journey of her record-setting hits, performed live and in-concert. Featuring songs like “I Will Always Love You,” “Saving All My Love For You” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go,” this superstar’s warmth and magnetism takes center stage in a fitting tribute to the woman known simply as “The Voice.”