Optimist Theatre / News (as it Happens)

Look for Comedy of Errors Cast/Crew in...

8/2/2019

We've wrapped The Comedy of Errors, but if you'd like to enjoy more from our amazing cast and crew, look for them here:

The next project for Libby Amato, our Luciana, is exercising her creativity in the form of her handmade soap shop, Abbondanza Soap Co.

Set Designer and Scenic Charge Posy Knight is moving on to work on the 53212 Presents Open House during the Center Street Daze Festival, Saturday, August 10, 1-10 pm
731 E. Center Street (upstairs of Company Brewing).

Jim Pickering, who appeared as Egeon and Balthazar, can be seen next as:

Doc in West Side Story at the Milwaukee Rep (Sep. 17- Oct. 27)
Mr. Fezziwig in A Christmas Carol at the Milwaukee Rep (Nov. 26-Dec. 24)
Peter Michaels in No Wake, a new play by Erica Berman, at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (Feb. 21-Mar. 15, 2020)

You can see Nate Press, the Messenger and part of the Ensemble, as:

Leo in In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) for Outskirts Theatre Co. (Aug. 30-Sep. 8) at Danceworks 1661 N. Water Street
Ensemble in The Beggar's Opera for Theatre Gigante (Sep. 27-Oct. 12) at UWM Kenilworth Studio 508, 1915 E. Kenilworth Place

Please support theater in Milwaukee by checking out these and other performances!

SitP, 10th Anniversary & Comedy of Errors Tee-Shirts!

6/24/2019

We are offering tee-shirts at the show this year! We have three styles: classic Shakespeare in the Park, 10th Anniversary "Concert-Style" with the list of our first 10 productions on the back, and The Comedy of Errors logo!

Each design comes in a fitted and straight cut, and we have a range of sizes. The two SitP shirts are $20 flat and the TCoE shirts are JUST $15 -- if you'd rather buy ahead and pick up at the show, you can order here on our shop page!

Finally, we also have Sharpie markers and fabric paint pens so that if you'd like your shirt autographed, or to mark which of our plays you've been to, you're invited to do so!

As always, proceeds help us to produce Shakespeare in the Park!

ShakeSelfie Back for 2019!

6/18/2019

The ShakeSelfie drawing has been such fun, we're continuing it in 2019!

If you haven't participated before, or are new to Shakespeare in the Park, here's the scoop:

We give away some prizes after each night of the show.

To enter the drawing, just post your selfie taken at the show to any of social media: our Facebook Page, or Twitter or Instagram using #ImAtSitP19 -- we'll enter each of you in the daily drawing!

(Note: your privacy settings on your post must be set to public if we're to see that you've entered!)

Also, we want you to have a good time with this, HOWEVER pictures of the cast are strictly prohibited (union rule).

Come as a Twin!

6/8/2019

Given the premise of The Comedy of Errors -- not one but TWO sets of identical twins causing all manner of confusion and mistaken identity...we've set aside 10 seats for every evening performance for those who come to the show as twins!

How does that work?

Come up with 5 points of twinning (clothing, accessories, some other characteristic(s)). Be imaginative!
Present yourselves at the Information Booth to have a member of SitP staff verify your "twinhood."
If you are one of the first 5 sets of "twins," we'll give you a wristband that will allow you to sit in the Twins Section!
What if you are ACTUALLY a twin? If you both come and prove your twinship, that will count as ONE of your twinning points -- you'll still need to come up with four other elements to express your twinship, just to keep things fair!

Footlights Wishes SitP a Happy 10th!

5/30/2019

Thank you, Footlights, for your interview with Executive Director Susan Scot Fry to talk about our 10-year anniversary.

In Memoriam: Greg Stanford

4/20/2019

Thank you, Greg Stanford. You are and will be missed.

If the outpouring of sentiment and sorrow is any indication, Mr. Gregory Stanford was well-loved and highly regarded by so very many people. Optimist Theatre is right there with them as we mourn his passing on April 8th.

Since 2015, Greg served on the Optimist Theatre board of directors, offering insight, support, and sheer good will and enthusiasm. His friendship and mentorship was warm and inspiring.

Executive Director Susan Scot Fry remembers meeting Greg for the first time at his art gallery in the Grand Avenue mall. "A fellow former Journal Sentinel reporter and mutual friend introduced us. As we got to know each other, it became apparent that Greg would make an excellent addition to our board of directors and he happily accepted. We had so many things in common – from his love of theater to his devotion to the community."

Greg was always one to step up and get involved. In his long career as a columnist, he tackled tough subjects with stories about racial segregation and took the federal justice system to task. Yet, he never lost his wry sense of humor. He saw a lot of things – experienced a lot of change – and always with that sideways smile.

Yes, Greg will be missed. Thank you for your service to Shakespeare in the Park and to all of Milwaukee.

You can find Greg's Journal Sentinel obituary here.

Hale and Well Met...!

2/18/2019

Column by Executive Director Susan Scot Fry

Hale and well met, gentle cousins,

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” (Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2)

February is a special time of year: most of our major grant applications have been submitted and we wait with “bated breath” (Merchant of Venice, Act 1, sc. 3). In the meantime, Optimist Theatre embraces our name and moves forward.

Auditions have happened and the casting puzzle is being pieced;
The production design team is being assembled;
Community outreach is underway;
Marketing materials are in design;
Workshops are happening;
Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

There is a great deal of faith that goes into producing theatre. Launching our 10th season, I find myself meditating on just how much. It was quite an ‘aha’ moment when I began to trust that we always do find a way. How? It’s a mystery. (Shakespeare in Love)

This milestone season engenders so much reflection about how far we’ve come, from the quad at Alverno to Kadish Park to the Peck Pavilion. About how much has changed. These reflections inform the perspectives that will take us into the future. Thank you (yes, you...and you...and you, too!) for investing in that!

So, what’s next? Even though it was last week, “Good morrow, 'tis Saint Valentine's Day, All in the morn betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your valentine.” (Hamlet, Act 4, sc. 5). The day may pass, but the love remains. ♥♥

Until next time,

Susan

Bard News Round-Up

2/14/2019

We will very soon be deep into our production of The Comedy of Errors, with all of the news that related directly to i, so it seems like now is the best time to share some other bits and bobs of Shakespeare news with you:

From last fall, a sheaf of previously undiscovered John Shakespeare (Will's father) documents were turned up in the UK's National Archives:

Professor Glyn Parry of London's University of Roehampton uncovered the 21 documents that illustrate some financial difficulties that the Shakespeare family experienced during William's youth.

There's a brief write-up here and a very substantive interview with Professor Parry here on the podcast That Shakespeare Life, providing a ton of context for what he found, as well as how he came to do so.

Speaking of documents related to the life and work of William Shakespeare (including this new find), quite a few primary documents have been digitized and are available to all of us, courtesy of a partnership between the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Bodlien, the British Library, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the National Archives. Check it out here!

During Black History Month, we have the opportunity to learn more and think about African American performance and production of the works of Shakespeare, which reaches at least to the early-19th century. An exhibition presented this month by Houston's Harris County Public Library seeks to amplify those "unsung artists."

SIR LAURENCE OLIVIER, RICHARD BURTON, AND PAUL SCOFIELD—all three were legendary Shakespearean actors, and all three were white men. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t long been outstanding black Shakespearean counterparts.

That’s why the Harris County Public Library, in partnership with Main Street Theater, created Speak of me as I am: A Celebration of African-American Contributions to Shakespeare as part of its African American History Month programming. The reading series has actors from ...
Read more here

Ira Aldridge as Othello, by James Northcote

The article namechecks Henrietta Vinton Davis and Ira Aldridge as two of those unsung theatrical greats, the latter of whom was forced to leave the United States for his theater career to flourish. Read more about each them by clicking through their respective names.

The first of two episodes of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast delving into the same subject can be found here.

We'll be back soon with lots and lots of Comedy of Errors goodness!

Mistaken Identity and Separated at Birth

1/23/2019

Pre-production of The Comedy of Errors (TCOE) necessarily has us pondering some of the comedy tropes on which this play -- and several of Shakespeare's others -- relies.

TCOE was one of Shakespeare's earlier plays. It's his shortest and generally considered to be his most farcical: not one, but two -- TWO! -- pairs of twins, separated at birth, who "coincidentally" each fall into parallel Lord-Servant relationships with each other, and when everyone eventually finds themselves in the same city...hilarity, of course, ensues.

It would be easy to think that it has been the enduring popularity of Shakespeare himself that rendered these devices into the tropes that we find permeating popular culture today. But, as so often happened, Shakespeare was borrowing a concept and then turning it up to 11.

Castor and Pollux, the Gemini twins

Titus Maccius Plautus, for whom a single set of twins was sufficiently ridiculous (!), wrote his play Menaechmi in approx. 254 B.C. Plautus was a typical part of the grammar school curriculum in Shakespeare's day, so he may have encountered the play as a schoolboy in the original Latin. In any case, a translation into English was published in 1595, and was dedicated to Lord Hunsdon, who was also the patron of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Source material achieved, Will set to work.

Shakespeare himself fishes in this pond again throughout his work, adding the nuance of fraternal twins (and losing the second pair) in Twelfth Night, and using the mistaken identities of the lovers in A Midsummer Nights Dream as the catalyst for much of the midsummer madness. Other plays use the mistaken identity concept in more isolated moments for character or plot exposition (and, usually, a laugh): As You Like It, Measure for Measure, Merchant of Venice....

Of course, as we know, Shakespeare at his most effective operates on several levels at once. While on the surface, a trick to elicit laughter or to advance the plot, "mistaken identity" of the various kinds that he offers us through his works also act as a meditation on the nature of identity itself: who are we, really? What does it mean to know someone? Can something intrinsic in one character eventually come to see past the exterior disguise or presumed identity to get at the intrinsic self of another character?

While the Shakespeare in the Park script of The Comedy of Errors is still being edited, and actors only just being cast, it remains to be seen exactly how our production will address these and other deeper questions.

Will there be laughs a-plenty? Oh, yes! But, beneath the knee-slapping, there's always heart and humanity and some truths that touch both. We hope you find those, too, during your short hour-glass with us this summer.

Check AMC's top 10 cases of mistaken identity in the movies!

...visit list

TVTropes.com has a robust list of examples of mistaken identity throughout popular media.

...visit site

The state of "science" being what it was in Shakespeare's day, there were some wild (and often pejorative) ideas about twins.

...learn more

Hale and Well Met, Gentle Cousins!

12/6/2018

Column by Executive Director Susan Scot Fry

As usual, I forgot to get photos... Mea culpa.

I got so wrapped up in having fun with my fellow enthusiasts that I forgot to step back, put on my staff hat, and snap some snaps at the Shakespeare in the Park Member’s Salon* on Friday, November 30th.

In homage to 2019’s upcoming production of The Comedy of Errors, the topical topic was “What is Comedy?”

Needless to say there were plenty of laughs that night as we explored what makes us laugh and why. Everyone had a story. So lively was the conversation, there were even some clips shared later on the member’s Facebook page.

2019 will mark the 10th anniversary of Shakespeare in the Park. Even more salons, outings and special recognitions are in the works. (Hint, hint – Membership makes a great gift. It’s the gift that gives and gives.)

So, this newsletter’s missive from me is a special thanks to all 120 of our Members. We could not offer Shakespeare in the Park for free to 96% of our audience if we didn’t have members. Whether you join for the group activities and special invitations, discounts at local businesses, or just knowing that you can reserve a seat ahead of time for any show date you like, your membership makes a huge difference.

Our challenge is to be 300 strong in 2019! Spread the word!

Optimistically,
Susan

*Special thanks, again, to Founding Members David HB Drake and Jennifer Esh for hosting that salon!

Susan Fry is the Executive Director for Optimist Theatre. Contact her at ssfry@optimisttheatre.org. Most of the time, she works alone and talks to her dog. Your email would be a welcome human interaction!

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