PSA: MILWAUKEE CHAMBER THEATRE SET TO PRESENT THE MILWAUKEE PREMIERE OF CLYDE’S BY TWO-TIME PULITZER PRIZE WINNER LYNN NOTTAGE!

MILWAUKEE, WI – Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) continues its 50th Anniversary 2024/25 season with the Milwaukee premiere of CLYDE’S, the Tony Award-nominated comedy by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage. The production will runfrom November 8 to November 24, 2024, at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre. Tickets can be purchased online at www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/clydes or by calling the Broadway Theatre Center box office at 414-291-7800 (M-Sa 12-6 pm and two hours prior to
BTC show times).

From the director of last season’s smash hit THE MOUNTAINTOP comes Lynn Nottage’s new “flavor-bomb of a comedy” (Variety) that’s “a spicy feast for the senses” (Chicago Sun-Times). Set in a diner kitchen that might be hell, limbo, or just a greasy spoon off the Pennsylvania turnpike, CLYDE’S follows four formerly incarcerated cooks striving for redemption by creating the perfect sandwich—all under the devilish gaze of Clyde, their hard-driving boss. Combining uproarious humor, fulsome heart, and generous hospitality, CLYDE’S delivers a delicious theatrical meal that showcases why Nottage is one of America’s greatest living playwrights.

“We’ve had an appetite to produce CLYDE’s since it premiered a few years ago, and I’m thrilled to be able to share it with Milwaukee audiences,” said MCT Artistic Director Brent Hazelton. “We’ve assembled the perfect team to tell this story, led by Milwaukee native and frequent MCT collaborator Dimonte Henning. Anyone who saw last season’s THE MOUNTAINTOP knows that Dimonte is one of Milwaukee’s best theater storytellers, and his warm sense of humor, big-hearted empathy, and commitment to community are the perfect lenses through which to tell this story.” Also a leading local actor, Henning last appeared at MCT as Actor Two in the 2023/24 world premiere of THE NOT-SO-ACCIDENTAL CONVICTION OF ELEVEN MILWAUKEE “ANARCHISTS”. Henning’s onstage work will also be familiar to audiences of Milwaukee Repertory Theater, First Stage, and Next Act Theater, among others.

“CLYDE’S provides us with more than delicious sandwiches, but a deep insight into the lives of formerly incarcerated people who are determined to make their second chance at life a fulfilling experience,” said Henning. “As the characters strive to make the perfect sandwich, we watch their humanity, aspirations, and redemptive qualities on full display as they navigate the tumultuous and sometimes hellish kitchen environment that is Clyde’s sandwich shop. Through
this transformational story, we are reminded of the power of forgiveness, perseverance, and the resiliency of hope even when the options seem limited.”


CLYDE’S will reunite Henning with the two stars of THE MOUNTAINTOP, Bryant Bentley and N’Jameh Camara, whom the Shepherd Express called “two powerhouse performers,” in the roles of Montrellous and Letitia, respectively. Camara also notably starred in MCT’s critically-acclaimed 2024/25 season opener AN ILIAD, where her performance was called “amazing…almost superhuman” (Ryan Jay Reviews), “Herculean” (Milwaukee Magazine), and “an
emotional display of genius” (CopyWrite Magazine). CLYDE’S will also feature the MCT debut of Milwaukee favorites Lachrisa Grandberry (First Stage, Northern Sky) as Clyde, Justin Huen (Milwaukee Rep) as Rafael, and Nate Press (Next Act, Sunset Playhouse) as Jason.

“I’ve been eagerly anticipating being a part of CLYDE’S with Milwaukee Chamber Theatre all year,” said Grandberry. “Returning home to Milwaukee to tell this powerful story is truly special. Telling stories that raise awareness of the challenges faced by marginalized communities is a mission I hold close, and CLYDE’S does just that. It’s a story of second chances, redemption, resilience, and the healing power of creativity. At the same time, it explores the tragic cycle of bitterness and control, and the complexity of being a Black or brown person—especially one impacted by the criminal justice system.”

Playwright Lynn Nottage is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and one of America’s greatest living dramatists. MCT’s production of CLYDE’S will be designed and created by an all-local team including Maaz Ahmed (Lighting Designer), Gina Cornejo (Intimacy Director Follow), KaiLee Evans (Intimacy Director Lead), Stephen Hudson-Mairet (Scenic Designer), Pia Russo (Assistant Stage Manager), Josh Schmidt (Sound Designer), Lauren Marie Stoner (Wardrobe), Simone Tegge (Properties Designer), Emily Marie Wilke (Stage Manager), and Trinae Williams-Henning (Costume Designer).

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of CLYDE’S is presented by Dwight and Marleen Morgan, Producers Pat Martin and Julie Anding and Lisa Kornetsky, and Associate Producers Keith and Paula Anderson and Kristy Nielson and William Lorber. CLYDE’S is produced in partnership with Kinship Community Food Center, the Milwaukee Freedom Fund, Food for Health, the Milwaukee Turners, and The Community.

PERFORMANCE AND TICKET INFORMATION:

CLYDE’S by Lynn Nottage will run from November 8 to November 24, 2024 at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre, 158 N Broadway, Milwaukee, WI 53202.

  • Preview: Friday, November 8 at 7:30 pm
  • Opening Night: Saturday, November 9 at 8 pm
  • Pay-What-You-Choose: Monday, November 11 at 7:30 pm (walk-up tickets available starting one hour before the show)
  • Talkbacks: Thursdays, November 14 and 21 following the 7:30 pm performances
  • SipStudio: Saturday, November 16, open to attendees of that day’s matinee and evening performances
  • ASL Interpretation: Friday, November 22 at 7:30 pm

  • Tickets can be purchased by phone at 414-291-7800 (M-Sa 12-6 pm and 2 hours prior to BTC show times) or online at www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org.

See you there!!

Marie And Rosetta: Two Voices Ready To Bring You Joy!

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a force of nature in the music business throughout the middle of the 20th Century. She is often called the Godmother of Rock And Roll and her influence on jazz and blues and rock musicians in the United States and the United Kingdom is well documented. And you will recognize the source of many rock sounds and tones during Marie And Rosetta, but that is not the focus of the play.

Instead, we will experience the developing relationship between Sister Rosetta Tharpe at the pinnacle of her career as she plucks a young singer/pianist from under the nose of Mahalia Jackson and makes Marie Knight her understudy and accompanist. They will both grow as musicians and will begin a life long friendship.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Marie and Rosetta in the Stiemke Studio, October 22 – December 15, 2024. Pictured: Bethany Thomas, Alexis J Roston. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

And there is an intriguing subtext here as well. Both women are devout Christians who are coming from a background of singing in church choirs and being soloists as well. So there is a struggle between being true to their spirituals and choral singing and the world of secular music. Sister Rosetta being older and more in tune with herself and her world has made it work but Marie isn’t yet comfortable where she now finds herself and presents a bit of push back. The resulting discussions provides opportunities for both women to reconsider their ideas and moral guidelines and find new ways to express themselves musically!

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Marie and Rosetta in the Stiemke Studio, October 22 – December 15, 2024. Pictured: Alexis J Roston, Bethany Thomas. Photo by Michael Brosilow

So what does that get us? Besides the conversations and exchanges of life being lived, we get an amazing panorama of songs and music from the Sister Rosetta Tharpe songbook. This isn’t quite a musical and not quite a cabaret piece either, but somewhere in between. But Director E. Faye Butler has made sure the music and the personalities are all front and center, every moment.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Marie and Rosetta in the Stiemke Studio, October 22 – December 15, 2024. Pictured: Bethany Thomas. Photo by Michael Brosilow

And as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, we have Bethany Thomas! This is a marvelous bit of casting because Thomas certainly has a voice that dominates just the way Tharpe’s did and an incredible stage presence that certainly illustrates that Tharpe diva persona as well. And it’s a joyous homecoming as Thomas also appeared in the Rep’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch and for me, most notably, Songs For Nobodies. I can’t think of any recent Rep performer who is more suited to play Sister Rosetta Tharpe than Bethany Thomas!

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Marie and Rosetta in the Stiemke Studio, October 22 – December 15, 2024. Pictured: Alexis J Roston,. Photo by Michael Brosilow

And Alexis J Roston is Marie Knight. Roston plays the younger Knight as a prodigious talent who is self-deprecating in the face of the famous and intimidating Tharpe. But she eventually starts to feel comfortable and slowly accepts her role in secular as well as Gospel music as Tharpe eases her along. There is a sort of big sister little sister relationship developed and at one point Tharpe starts calling her Little Sister. And Roston has every vocal chop needed to play Knight. She fills the stage with song and humor, although not always intentionally, and grows Knight’s stage presence and self confidence neatly and organically as the play progresses.

There are only the two actors and a single dramatic set of a funeral parlor that allows for the drama and the music to seamlessly be performed. Kudos to scenic designer John Culbert for that. And you may not be aware of the stage lighting…it is bright and dramatic for most of the spoken dialogue but will subtlety shift color and intensity to help express the moods for each of the songs performed. Lighting director Jared Gooding knows when to dim the lights. And although Rosetta and Marie are working with a piano and Rosetta a number of guitars, we are actually hearing Morgan E. Stevenson on piano and Benjamin Oglesby-Davis on guitar.

Marie and Rosetta is being performed in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Stiemke Theater. Opening night was October 22, 2024 and it runs through December 15, 2024. Additional information and tickets are available here.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Marie and Rosetta in the Stiemke Studio, October 22 – December 15, 2024. Pictured: Alexis J Roston, Bethany Thomas. Photo by Michael Brosilow

PSA: American Players Theatre Announces Its 2025 Season!!

AMERICAN PLAYERS THEATRE ANNOUNCES 2025 Season

To Run June – November in the Outdoor Hill Theatre and Indoor Touchstone Theatre

Artistic Director Brenda DeVita said, “First, I’d just like to say that I’m so proud of the season we produced this year. Our 45th season. The work was exquisite from beginning to end, and I’m so grateful to our artists and actors, and the staff that takes such great care of our amazing audience. An audience who comes to these shows, whether or not they’re familiar with the story, and puts their trust in us, and in the art we make here. It’s incredible the community that’s been created out here, in the middle of Wisconsin farmland – it consistently fills my heart and blows my mind.

This season has felt like a huge step in our growth as an organization. The company is gelling and maturing, which gives us confidence that the work we do here is special, and important, as well as being beautiful and engaging. We carry that confidence with us into 2025, when we will invite some exciting and new-to-us directors – especially female directors, the most we’ve ever had directing in a season – to work at APT for the first time. Shannon Cochran, who is an actor and director, will do Noël Coward’s Fallen Angels, a playwright she is very familiar with, and can deftly play with that wit and language. Shana Cooper, the talented director who created that indelible, creative production of The Taming of the Shrew at APT in 2021 will return to direct The Winter’s Tale.

And additionally, we continue to expand and grow the talents of our company. David Daniel, a member of the Core Company, and our education director, who directed Oedipus for us in 2021, will direct this Midsummer Night’s Dream. Gavin Lawrence, another Core Company member – he directed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom for us this season – will direct a play he has written – The Death of Chuck Brown. And John Taylor Phillips who you’ve seen on stage at APT in Private Lives and Born Yesterday and many other plays, will be back to direct The 39 Steps. And we have a number of wonderful returning directors – John Langs on Tribes, Robert Ramirez on Anna in the Tropics, I’ll be directing Picnic, which has been a dream project of mine. We’re already getting started, and I believe it’s a lineup that fits our foundation, while allowing the organization to continue to grow and evolve.”

In the Hill Theatre:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By William Shakespeare

Directed by David Daniel

Love weaves a tangled web in this iconic Shakespearean fairy tale. Hermia and her beloved Lysander flee into the forest to avoid Hermia’s arranged marriage to Demetrius. They’re pursued by Demetrius himself, along with Helena, who is, in turn, in love with Demetrius. In that same forest, Oberon and Titania – king and queen of the fairies – are having a quarrel of their own. And when Oberon enlists his accomplice Puck, aka Robin Goodfellow to throw some magic into the mix, everyone  – including a hilarious group of “rude mechanicals” led by Nick Bottom – gets caught up in the spell.

Fallen Angels

By Noël Coward

Directed by Shannon Cochran

Noël Coward’s sparkling wit returns to the Hill for the first time since 2015. Jane and Julia are happily married to charming men when a message arrives from a former flame, sending their perfect lives into a tizzy. It appears a man with whom they’d each had a passionate tryst in the past is planning a visit, and they are both questioning whether they can – or want to – withstand his charms. As the husbands golf, the ladies plot and plan over copious glasses of champagne, with some “help” from a very worldly housekeeper, while awaiting the arrival of their former lover in this decadent and utterly entertaining comedy. Contains adult themes

Picnic

By William Inge

Directed by Brenda DeVita

It’s almost time for the annual Labor Day picnic in Independence, Kansas. But the town buzz is all about Hal – the young handyman hired by sweet Helen Potts. Her neighbor, Flo, is less than enthusiastic about having Hal in the vicinity of her daughters, Madge and Millie. When it turns out Madge’s steady guy, the steadfast Alan, is an old friend of Hal’s, Flo relents, and plans are made for Hal to stick around town more permanently. But young love may have other ideas, and hearts will be filled and broken in this play about desire, expectations and the sacrifices and settlements people make when it comes to love. Contains adult themes & language

Anna in the Tropics

By Nilo Cruz

Directed by Robert Ramirez

In the heat of Florida, a Cuban-American family spends long days rolling cigars for a factory. They carried with them many traditions from Cuba, including employing a lector to read to them as they work. But with automation on the rise, money is tight, and there are differing opinions on whether that tradition should continue. Still, matriarch Ofelia hires a new lector, Juan Julián – a charismatic young man who captures the attention of her daughters, Marela and Conchita. Juan Julián begins his reading sessions with Anna Karenina. As the book’s story unfolds, the family’s lives run parallel, bringing secrets and lies to the forefront and threatening their livelihood and relationships. Contains adult themes

The Winter’s Tale

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Shana Cooper

Shakespeare’s sweet and complex romance returns to the Hill. When King Leontes suspects his pregnant wife Hermione of having an affair with his good friend Polixenes, he jealously hides Hermione away in the palace. He has become so enraged that Leontes orders their infant daughter to be abandoned in the wild, leading Hermione to die of a broken heart. But all may not be as dire as it first appears, as a shepherd saves the young girl to be raised as a shepherdess, with help from a pair of ridiculous clowns, setting in motion a series of events that opens up paths to forgiveness, love and redemption.

In the Touchstone Theatre:

The World Premiere of

The Death of Chuck Brown

By Gavin Dillon Lawrence

Directed by Gavin Dillon Lawrence

A local icon’s death signals the end of an era and the beginning of a new look for a once-predominantly African American neighborhood in Washington, DC. A barbershop is the backdrop for conversations about gentrification, race and family as the owner, Kofi, considers selling his beloved establishment while keeping his son Prince on the path to success. A funny, touching and devastating world-premiere from APT Core Company Member Gavin Dillon Lawrence. Contains adult themes & language

Art

By Yasmina Reza

Director TBA

Reza’s philosophical comedy comes to APT at last. Three long-time friends – Serge, Marc and Yvan – ponder art, class and love; fraught and funny discussions sparked by Serge’s extravagant purchase of a painting that is simply a white canvas with a few thin lines. As the conversation progresses, cracks form in the men’s relationships as they question whether they are who they think they are, or if they are who their friends think they are, in a play that has been awarded the Tony, New York Drama Critics’ Circle, and Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Contains adult themes & language

Tribes

By Nina Raine

Directed by John Langs

There is the family we choose, and the one we’re born to. And neither are perfect. When Billy, Ruth and Daniel – Beth and Christopher’s adult children – all move home, the rivalry is intense among this group of “creatives.” But not for Billy, who is the sole deaf member of this hearing family. The family made the decision long ago that Billy should not learn sign language, and instead learn to read lips. But when he meets Sylvia, who comes from a deaf family and is coping with losing her own hearing, Billy’s world opens up as she teaches him to sign. What his family makes of this new world is another thing entirely, as they try to elevate themselves while holding Billy at status quo in this funny, biting play. Contains adult themes & language

Opening in October

The 39 Steps

By Patrick Barlow

Directed by John Taylor Phillips

Richard Hannay’s adult life has taken a decided turn for the boring, when one night he decides to go to the theater. There he meets a mysterious woman (and a couple of clowns) during a performance by Mr. Memory. When shots are fired, Hannay finds himself hurtling toward a hilarious adventure built from a foundation of all the most famous noir, and into a delightful parody of the genre itself. A theatrical and hilarious send up of Hitchcockian thrillers, with four actors playing every character – a special event perfect for fall in the Touchstone Theatre.

About American Players Theatre:

APT is a professional repertory theater devoted to the great and future classics. It was founded in 1979 and continues to be one of the most popular outdoor classical theaters in the nation.

The Theatre is located in Spring Green, Wis., on 110 acres of hilly woods and meadows above the Wisconsin River. The outdoor amphitheater is built within a natural hollow atop an oak-wooded hill. Under the dome of sky, 1,075 comfortably cushioned seats encircle three sides of the stage. In 2009, APT opened the 201-seat indoor Touchstone Theatre, offering a different type of play and experience.

For more information, visit www.americanplayers.org

The 2025 schedule will be available in January, and tickets will go on sale to returning patrons in March. More information at www.americanplayers.org.