MILWAUKEE: Milwaukee Chamber Theatre has announced its 2016–17 season, the company’s 42nd. The programming theme is “misfits,” and the season will feature Tennessee William’s A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, and more.
Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Aug. 11–28) will open the season. Inspired by Chekhov’s works, the play tells the story of Vanya and his sister Sonia, and the antics that ensue when their movie star sister Masha visits for the weekend along with her boyfriend, Spike. The production will be directed by JC Clementz and will feature Carrie Hitchcock, JJ Phillips, Rana Roman, Elodie Senetra, Jenny Wanasek, and C. Michael Wright.
Tennessee Williams’s A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (Sept. 21–Oct. 16) will be next. Set in St. Louis in 1935, the play is about a schoolteacher, Dorothea, who wants to marry the high school principal, but her friend wants to set her twin brother up with Dorothea. Leda Hoffmann will direct, and the production will feature Kay Allmand, Kelly Doherty, Karen Estrada, and Molly Rhode.
Next up will be Kenneth Longeran’s Lobby Hero (Nov. 23–Dec. 18), about a young Manhattan security guard in the middle of a murder investigation. C. Michael Wright will direct, and Chris Klopatek, Di’Monte Henning, Andrew Edwin Voss, and Sara Zientek will star.
The first production of the new year will be Samuel D. Hunter’s The Few (Feb 22–March 19, 2017). In the play, Bryan returns to small-town Idaho, after leaving four years ago with no explanation, to find everything has changed. C. Michael Wright will direct, and the production will feature Mitch Butman, Mary MacDonald Kerr, and James Ridge.
The season will conclude with Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations (April 13–30, 2017), adapted by Gale Childs Daly. The story is about Pip, an orphan boy, whose life is changed after helping an escaped convict named Magwitch. Molly Rhode will direct, the production will feature Andrew Crowe, Jonathan Gillard Daly, Karen Estrada, Chike Johnson, Josh Krause, Deborah Staples, and Zach Thomas Woods.
Founded in 1975, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre employs local artists and produces new and classic work.
