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Arts & Entertainment Volume 17 Issue 1
Arts & Entertainment Volume 17 Issue 2
Michael Johnston Talks to Bruce Vailanch
Arts & Entertainment Volume 17 Issue 3
Arts & Entertainment Volume 17 Issue 4
Arts & Entertainment Volume 17 Issue 5
Arts & Entertainment Vol. 17 Issue 5 - PRIDEFEST Dance Pavillion
Arts & Entertainment Vol. 17 Issue 5 - N.E.W. PRIDE ALIVE in July
Arts & Entertainment Vol. 17 Issue 6
Arts & Entertainment Vol. 17 Issue 9
Arts & Entertainment Vol. 17 Issue 10
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Boulevard Studio Ensemble Theatre Launches its Silver Anniversary Season

By Paul Masterson

On July 28, the Boulevard Ensemble Studio Theatre opens its silver anniversary season. Few Milwaukee theatres, professional, community or black box, can boast 25 years of performance history. Artistic director Mark Bucher attributes his theatre’s longevity to its mission and audience.

“Our repertoire rivals New York City and Chicago’s most powerful theatre companies,” Bucher said. “We speak to a discerning audience. Over the years we’ve presented Shakespeare, Moliere, Albee, Manet, Gogol, Calderon and countless other classic, contemporary and established playwrights as well as new local ones. The Boulevard was diverse long before “diversity” was a catchword.”

The Boulevard’s mission as a learning theatre also plays a role in its 25 year existence. “We offer opportunities for talented new artists – young and old. They come here untried. Some go on to professional houses. Others make the Boulevard their base or return on a regular basis. Their experience teaches the novices. There’s always new energy – it’s always fresh,” Bucher said.

Its first season played in a Riverwest café. In 1986 the theatre moved to its present location, the intersection of Kinnickinnic, Howell and Lincoln Avenues in Bay View. “At the time we were the only sign of intelligent life here. There was a beat up coffee shop across the street and a rough and tumble beer bar down the block. It took a decade for things to begin to change. Now we’re coping with full-blown gentrification,” Bucher said.

Fourplay – 4 Comedies of Seduction
In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the Boulevard season’s selections fulfill Bucher’s mission. The opening show, Fourplay – 4 Comedies of Seduction, was devised as a learning opportunity. Paul Madden and Tom Dillon debut as directors while several actors appear on stage for the first time.

The quartet traces the pursuit of love from teen crush, through the strategy of the “pick-up” to long-term wedlock and finally confronts the very idea of marriage itself.

Paul Madden directs two works, Red Coat by John Patrick Shanley and Elaine Jarvik’s Dead Right. He spoke with QUEST after a rehearsal.

QUEST: How does it happen that you’re directing rather than acting?
Paul Madden: I’ve had an interest in directing so Mark gave me Red Coat and Dead Right. They’re short plays, 10 –15 minutes, with two characters in each.

QUEST: How do you feel about starting out directing comedies?
Paul Madden: My focus is more on script analysis – making sure the actors understand their characters. I want them to know what the play’s about and if there’s a moral lesson. Timing and delivery are comedy essentials. That’s always in the back of my mind but the scripts do a lot of the work themselves. Dead Right is just funny and the actors blend well together. The piece works naturally. Red Coat is a sweet, innocent, traditional comedy. The situation is familiarly awkward. I don’t want to detract from that. My goal isn’t to make it funny.

QUEST: You’ve worked on stage with some of the people you’re now directing. Does that affect your directing?
Paul Madden: That actually helps because I know what they do. The relationships have changed but there’s an understanding. They know I’m new at this but accept me as their director. It’s collaborative. Thankfully there are no egos. We have our roundtable discussions. I moderate and keep things on track. I just have one rule: I want the actors to feel comfortable and play truthfully.

QUEST: How do you enforce the rule?
Paul Madden: The veterans are patient and tolerant. I give them a certain liberty of interpretation. Hopefully, I’ll learn as much from them as they’ll take from my direction. In Red Coat the performers are 17 and 18 years old. They’re much more dependant on my input.

QUEST: Does Mark Bucher coach you through the process?
Paul Madden: Mark doesn’t micro-direct. Although I suspect he’ll offer advice if I really need it.

QUEST: The theme is seduction and love. How do your pieces fit into that?
Paul Madden: Both deal with beginnings. Red Coat deals with a teen crush– the first time you thought you were in love. It’ll be familiar to everyone. Dead Right has a first time quality about it as well. It’s about a 15-year marriage between an artist and a scientist.

QUEST: Not exactly a marriage made in Heaven…
Paul Madden: Opposites attract - but it doesn’t mean they’re not connected. Ultimately, it’s about communication and validation. That’s the basis for their new beginning.

QUEST: And the other plays?
Paul Madden: More variations on the theme - Tom Dillon directs David Ives’ Sure Thing and Mark Bucher takes on Harold Pinter’s satire The Lover.

The Rest of the Season!
The Boulevard’s 25th anniversary season also includes gay author Evan Smith’s The Savannah Disputation about two Southern sisters beset by a Baptist beautician intent on saving their souls. It runs November 24, 2010-January 9, 1011
Gina Gionfriddo’s study of blind date Hell, Becky Shaw, follows. It opens February 9, 2011. The season concludes with Luigi Pirandello’s Right You Are (If You Think You Are) in April. Pirandello explores the variances of veracity when a new family disrupts the equilibrium of a sedate village.

The 4-play season offers theatergoers longer runs. “Last year we had to add performances. It’s great to sell out and extend a run but it disrupts the season’s flow. This year I reduced the number of plays. Each runs longer. It gives the audience more time to procrastinate,” Bucher said.
Fourplay runs July 28-August 29, 2010 at the Boulevard Theatre, 2252 South Kinnickkinnic. FMI call 414-744-5757

Art Auction for Transgender Filmmaker

Milwaukee – For more than a year now, local transgender filmmaker Ashley Altadonna has been documenting her attempts to raise the approximately $20,000 needed for her sex change surgery. Many individuals and most health insurance companies view these procedures as cosmetic, and believe they should not be covered under health insurance. Through a series of interviews and fund raising events, ranging from rummage sales to drag shows, Altadonna hopes to explore the social, financial and personal pressures facing transgender individuals in her film “Making the Cut”. On Saturday July 17th she continues her efforts by hosting an art show and silent auction at the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center.

“This show is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while now,” said Altadonna. “One of my goals with the film is to see how much I could personally use art to make money. “This is probably the most direct approach to do it, ” explained the filmmaker.

Channeling creativity for profit is something Altadonna already has experience with. Her most recent fundraising event was a film night at the Borg Ward, where she and her friends created musical scores for the silent films, Un Chien Andalou and Metropolis. Other events featured local performers such as the Miltown Kings drag troupe or the Brew City Bombshells burlesque dancers.

Altadonna is again turning to her friends for help. Local artists, Anthony Weber, Bernadette Witzak, Kim Wiess, Laura Gorzek, Sean Kafer, Kristopher Pollard, Kate Balsey, Maria McKinney, Nico Bennett, Carrie Kim, Joe Kirschling and Pamela Villanueva have donated works to be auctioned. The show contains various media including painting, drawing, photography, collage, printmaking and film and video.

The success of the Racine Art Council show inspired the band to continue composing for the screen. “Originally I thought it would be a one time event, but it worked so great that we wanted to do it again,” added Weber. This time however their performance will also be for a good cause. “One of my goals with ‘Making the Cut’ is to combine art with activism, and I think this benefit does that quite nicely,” said Altadonna.

The “Making the Cut” Art Show and Silent Auction will open at the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center (703 S. 2nd St.) Saturday July 17th at 7-11pm, and run through July 30th. For more info please visit www.tallladypictures.com/makingthecut.html

ABOUT ASHLEY ALTADONNA
Ashley Altadonna (b. 1979 Houston, TX) is a transsexual filmmaker living in Milwaukee, WI. Her films, “Whatever Suits You” and “Playing with Gender” have been shown in numerous festivals from London, Berlin and Melbourne to New York, Seattle and San Francisco. Altadonna is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee film department, and owner of Tall Lady Pictures LLC. She has been making films since 1999.

SOLO HOMO’s Milwaukee debut @ MGAC

Milwaukee - Solo Homo 8 has just completed its windy city run! Chicago’s original Solo Homo now comes to the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center, Friday, July 9 at 7:30pm for a one-night-only performance.

Solo Homo is an ongoing project of New Town Writers (NTW), one of the oldest writing collectives on Chicago’s North Side. The group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered writers hold regular workshops and meetings. It also publishes a literary anthology called Off the Rocks and the e-zine Swell.

Originally produced by Mike Rogers and Timothy Rey, Solo Homo premiered in April 2003 in the Loft space of the old Bailiwick Art Center in Boystown. Over the years, it has moved downstairs to Bailiwick’s Studio Theatre, onward to Live Bait and Chemically Imbalanced, and now finally in 2009 to Strawdog. The series, along with its performance sibling, Working Stiffs, presented storytellers, monologists, & humorists, singers & musicians, dancers, performance artists and more.

Co-directed by Josef Steiff and Michael Van Kerckhove, this year’s installment again focuses on the performance of the written word. It includes several NTW regulars: Cookie Crumbles, Timothy Rey, Mike Rogers, Josef Steiff, and Michael Van Kerckhove. We celebrate the Solo Homo debuts of Archy Jamjun and Sissy Van Dyke.

The “anthology” show runs about 95 minutes with no intermission.  7 pieces (each approximately 10-12 minutes long) present a range of social and emotional situations. There’s a coming out story, a runaway tale that turns into a decade an a half of living with mom, a reunion with a once would-be husband, gender ambiguity, and awkwardness of a lost wedding ring, among other tales. The material is intended for mature audiences.

General admission tickets are $10 and may be purchased in advance at the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center, 703 South 2nd Street (one block north of National Avenue), in Milwaukee’s Historic Walker’s Point. Please call 414-383-3727 for information.
Solo Homo tickets may also be purchased at the box office prior to the July 9 performance. Doors open at 7pm.