{image1} The Village Playhouse of Wauwatosa does more than just put on an act. It offers a dramatic voyage, bound for the land of award-winning talent.
And 2005 marks the 20th anniversary of the Annual Wisconsin Playwrights Original One-Act Festival when playwrights from all over the state strive to have their scripts make the cut. The festival wraps up in the Studio Theatre at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts March 18-19 after having started the weekend previous.
Success has been brewing for the Playhouse for quite some time.
The Village Playhouse of Wauwatosa's production of "Two Rooms," a play by Lee Blessing and directed by Tom Zuehlke, won this year's Wisconsin Association of Community Theatre's biannual AACTFest competition in February, with Zuehlke directly in the center of the Playhouse's success.
"It's a real privilege to work on the show with new scripts and their work. It's like handling their babies," Zuehlke says.
Since winning the AACTFest in February, the Playhouse will represent Wisconsin at the Regional AACTFest April 8-10 in Grosse Point, Mich., going up against winning productions from Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The winner will advance to the National AACTFest sponsored by the American Association of Community Theatre.
Zuehlke realizes its importance. "We've produced playwrights who've gone on to bigger and better things," he says.
This year, Jennifer Najoom of Muskego, Leifa Butrick of Wauwatosa and Emory Churness and Mark Wyss of Milwaukee will have an opportunity to soak up the spotlight as their one-act plays are performed during the festival.
Zuehlke is currently directing Wyss' "Godot, Part Deux," and says, "It tells its message in a fun way. The audience gets to think and laugh at the same time. I like to direct stories with meaning and a little punch."
He adds, "I want to put the audience on an emotional roller coaster. The best one-act plays do that and this one does it very well."
Churness' one-act play, "Interview with the Psychic," is about a woman who "channels" her dead uncle, with humorous and surprising results.
"The psychic character is based on my late mother, Carolyn Mathews," Churness says. "She was once a well-known psychic in Toledo where I grew up before we moved to Milwaukee."
With the variety of acts presented, it's no surprise the community theatre has been quite successful as of late.
"We're just so pleased," Zuehlke says. "Words fail me."
The 20th anniversary of the Annual Wisconsin Playwrights Original One-Act Festival is March 18-19 at 8 p.m. in the Studio Theatre at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, just south of 198th Street and Capitol Drive in Brookfield's Mitchell Park. Tickets are $15 for adults and $13 for students and seniors. Call the box office at (262) 781-9520 for tickets or purchase them online at wilson-center.com/tickets.html. The Playhouse's Web site is villageplayhouse.org.
