Insurgents, Bananas and Holidaze
There had just been an attempted mugging outside and inside there was an orange tabby cat that understood French but didn’t seem to care. A number of directors were assembling to discuss a number of scripts. Suffice it to say, this was all going on in Riverwest on a Monday night, but I’m probably getting ahead of myself. Things have been lightly out of focus lately. This is perfectly understandable: I’ve been busy.With over fifteen shows opening in the greater Milwaukee area this past month, November’s been a frantic rush from one theatre to the next. It was a bit strange heading out to Spiral Theatre’s new space on West National straight out of the Pabst Theatre where I was covering the Rep’s annual Christmas Carol. The Spiral Theatre show was my fourth in two days. In Tandem’s A Cudahy Caroler Christmas was followed by The Skylight’s White Christmas on Saturday. The Rep show started at 4pm on Sunday, which meant a very late night and something of a rush to get everything written Monday morning before a looming deadline.
The other side of Monday was considerably less frantic. A fashionable mélange of DIY theatre types, one longtime Milwaukee theatre icon and a few cats got together in a living room in Riverwest to discuss 8 ½ x 11—Insurgent Theatre’s upcoming shorts program that will be running for a couple of weekends in January at Darling Hall. The title comes from the length of the scripts being produced for the show: each of them has to fit on a single side of a single sheet of paper. If this sounds at all strange, then you’d probably be surprised at what can fit on one page. Most of those assembled in the tiny Riverwest living room Monday night were directing pieces they’d written. Orphan scripts without a director were passed around the living room and read aloud. It was interesting to hear what other people decided to do with such a limited space. I’d decided to keep it simple with the piece I wrote: He and She and the Door—a brief dialogue between a man, a woman and a photograph. There are those who would have things a bit more complicated, though. John Manno, for instance, wrote a dialogue between a man, another man and . . . a urinal that should be an interesting challenge for one of Insurgent’s co-founders to direct. As a director, Manno is off the hook. He will not be directing his Urinal, as he will be appearing onstage with Milwaukee Shakespeare for their production of Twelfth Night. Milwaukee Shakes’ new show opens the weekend 8 ½ x 11 closes. Open auditions begin at Darling Hall at 7pm on December 6th (A Thursday)
Ahem:
Later on this Spring, local DIY group Pink Banana Theatre will be doing a shorts program as well. Founder Juanita Cordova is back in charge of the Banana. She’s booked the show in the clever little space off the highway that In Tandem Theatre calls home. Cordova is also planning to do a published work this summer with long-term dreams of becoming an official non-profit arts group. Pink Banana is accepting scripts and other bits of help for the spring show. Submissions, queries and such can be sent directly to Pink Banana. Those with questions for Juanita and/or Pink Banana can visit: http://www.pinkbananatheatre.com/contactinfo.htm
Posted by rfindley on 11/30 at 09:09 AM