Since its first production 25 seasons ago, the Boulevard Ensemble has had a certain and steady mission: Provide a safe and helpful environment for local theater artists to grow. Learn, improve and move on, if you want.
Some have done that very well. Actors Jacque Troy, Bill Clifford and Jonathan Wainwright, and director Susan Fete advanced to working regularly with larger and more professional companies.
It's very appropriate that the Boulevard kicks off its silver anniversary season with a production chock full of another class of upward bound artists. "Fourplay" is a collection of four short single-act romantic comedies written by three accomplished dramatists -- David Ives, John Patrick Shanley and Harold Pinter -- and emerging playwright Elaine Jarvik.
Breezy and bright, "Fourplay" is among the Boulevard's most pleasing recent offerings. Not only does it showcase a number of interesting actors, but guest directors Paul Matthew Madden and Thomas Mertz-Dillon, along with artistic director Mark Bucher, contribute solid staging for the quartet of comedies.
Ives' "Sure Thing" is the best of the bunch. A man and a woman randomly meet at a table in a cafe, and over a few minutes a relationship blooms. The path to love may be short in time but it is extremely crooked.
Whenever a line of dialogue thwarts the romantic outcome, a bell immediately rings and the conversation is altered to better accommodate the desired conclusion. It's a fun and clever device.
The Boulevard production gives "Sure Thing" a little twist of its own. As written, the male is the initiator of the contact, approaching the reading woman who sits alone at a table, and he appears to be much more interested in pursuing the connection.
Those roles are reversed here, and Brooke Wegner is quite marvelous at energizing the comedy with her ability to suddenly shift tone and temperament when that bell rings. Ken Dillon is an effective foil as the man.
The pleasure of watching a young actor develop over time is one of the perks of regular theater going, and Ericka Wade has been making some impressive leaps of growth lately. In Pinter's "The Lover," she ably blends English reserve and propriety with a touch of coyness. Wade speaks with a remarkably good British accent.
Jason Will contributes calm poise and polish to the role of her husband.
Pinter would have done his play a favor by trimming it.
Recent high school grad Hugh Blewett is skilled way beyond his years, as seen in his acting in the Shanley comic cutting "The Red Coat," and fellow teen Keigan Vannoy holds her own in the piece. Jarvik's "Dead Right," a married couple's kitchen table discussion of their future obituaries, is labored.
Bucher appears to be approaching his company's 25th anniversary season with renewed vigor after confiding a year ago that the burdens of the Boulevard owning its own performance space were wearing him down. He spoke then of selling the troupe's Bay View building if a good offer came along. The company would look to mount its shows on other stages.
But a new and fresh squad of volunteers has eased Bucher's workload a bit, and the sale of the Boulevard real estate, while still on the stove, seems to no longer be on the front burner.
Bucher has been experimenting with his company's programming format in recent seasons. Two years ago, the Boulevard mounted seven shows, and least season it did five. There will be four full productions this year, and they will have longer runs -- five or seven weeks -- than shows in the recent past.
Comedy is dominant in the 2010-11 season. "Fourplay," which continues through Aug. 29, will be followed by "The Savannah Disputation," by Evan Smith, Nov. 24 to Jan. 9; Gina Gionfriddo's "Becky Shaw" Feb. 9 to March 13, 2011, and Pirandello's "Right You Are, If You Think You Are" April 20 to May 22, 2011. "The Savannah Disputation" and "Becky Shaw" had off-Broadway productions in New York last year.
As a bonus, the Boulevard will also present a heavily directed staged reading of Clifford Odets' "Awake and Sing!" next May.
Bucher noted that the Boulevard staged "Right You Are" as one of its initial productions. The company mounted a standard production then. Next spring's offering will be set in Arizona as a reflection of the immigration controversy in that state.
The Hoop Is Back
The nostalgia-heavy musical revue "Hula Hoop Sha-Boop" was born at the Milwaukee Rep's Stackner Cabaret in 1991, and its enduring popularity prompted the company to revive it four times. The Hoop is back again, this time with a touch of Broadway.
The production that opened last weekend is being commercially produced by Judy Hansen and Kathy Seidel, Waukesha County sisters who are also Broadway producers and investors. While they would be the first to tell you they are small fish in the big Broadway pond, Jeffrey Richards, one of New York theater's major producers, came to town over the weekend to see "Hula Hoop" and offer advice on future productions of the revue Hansen and Seidel hope to mount around the country.
More big time credentials are supplied by Tony Clements, who cast and directed the current staging. Clements, a former Milwaukeean who still spends quite a bit of time here, toured in the national road company of "Mamma Mia" for several years.
Hansen is a former president of the Milwaukee Rep's board of directors, and she learned the commercial -- as opposed to non-profit -- theater business interning in Richards' New York office. Seidel and she, operating as JK Productions, are proud owners of Tony Awards for being among the producers of the recent Broadway revival of "Hair," and they have been financially involved in numerous high profile shows including David Mamet's "November" and "Race." They are partnering with New York's West 30th Productions on "Hula Hoop."
This is the first time the sisters are functioning as lead producers on a project. That means they are responsible for every detail, from contracting with a payroll service to pay the actors and crew to renting microphone head sets for the performers. They are renting the Stackner from the Rep, which is also providing advice on marketing and advertising, and loaning them props.
"Hula Hoop" contains bits and pieces from 72 pop-rock hits of the 1950s and ‘60s, and gaining the rights to them for a new production was a monumental task. About 20 percent of the original material was dropped and replaced with other tunes because of rights issues. That included a chunk of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons numbers that are now off limits because of the immense popularity of the musical "Jersey Boys."
The show's narrative has also undergone some changes.
The production here runs through Sept. 4, and a Chicago booking is in the works. The sisters are also looking at Las Vegas and Florida as other possible locations for "Hula Hoop" productions.
Director Clements says working with Hansen and Seidel has been easy. "They could not have been more supportive throughout the entire process. Love them both."
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
