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2011 / 2012 Season

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2011/2012 Shows at the Bartell Theatre

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Playwright

Company

Director
08/26-09/17 2011 Rabbit Hole David Lindsay-Abaire Strollers Casey Sean Grimm
The Corbett Family is struggling to find their way in the wake of a tragic loss. Each individual deals with loss in their own unique way, but the family must find a way to do it together or risk falling apart.  David Lindsay-Abaire guides us adeptly through the stages of grief. Alternating between humor and sorrow, light and dark and ultimately bringing us to a better understanding of what it takes to survive.
09/17 2011 Laughter Against the Machine Nato Green, W. Kamau Bell, Janine Brito Laughter Against the Machine Tour NA
Laughter Against the Machine, anchored by W. Kamau Bell, Nato Green and Janine Brito, has built a space for a comedy where the comedians and the audience to expect to be challenged, to laugh, and think at the same time. It's an issue-oriented, no-holds-bar show with no preconceived expectations, no party lines, and certainly no cheerleading - because they have beef with everybody, including themselves.    The show kicks off LATM's tour to the most polarized places in the USA. LATM will bring a comedic peace-keeping mission to the front lines of American political controversy to find out if comedy can illuminate truth and bring people together. More P-Funk All Stars than the Beatles, LATM brings like-minded comics to throw down. The group recently returned from delivering one of the biggest shows of the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, which included Margaret Cho, Jimmy Dore, Hari Kondabolu, and Aparna Nancherla.
09/23-10/08 2011 Three Tall Women Edward Albee Madison Theatre Guild Betty Diamond
Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize winning play is one of his most personal.  Based on the playwright’s strained relationship with his adoptive mother, the play examines the meaning of a woman’s life from the perspective of three women of different generations.  THREE TALL WOMEN centers on the ruminations of a 90+ year old protagonist whose life is portrayed with searing honesty, caustic wit and compassion.
09/30-10/15 2011 Z-Town, the Zombie Musical Megan Rose & Sarah Mucek StageQ and Madison Performance Collective Esther Schwarzbauer
Long kept a secret from the rest of the world, all that separates Zombies from the living is a little thing called death. In Z-Town, Zombies of all ages laugh, cry, sing, dance, love, and hate in a place where “living” is a dirty word and a neighboring town’s suspicions carry the threat of violence. When one high-minded Zombie invites an unsuspecting family of tasty Breathers to town, will the undead find the rest they’ve been denied? Or have these Zombies bitten off more than they can chew?
10/21-11/5 2011 Ghost of a Chance Carol Mullen StageQ Tara Ayres
A fast-paced comedy with mistaken identities, ghostly possession, and quirky characters. Love, lust and laughs ensue when six women and a ghost are snowed in at a historic B&B during a freak Halloween snowstorm.
10/28-11/19 2011 The Good Doctor Neil Simon Strollers Theatre Tony Trout
Anton Chekhov Collaborates (posthumously) with Neil Simon in this uproarious and fast paced collection of vignettes. Simon has captured the essence of some of “the good doctor’s” (an affectionate reference to Chekhov) many works. Including references to “The Seagull” and “Three Sisters”, but you needn’t be a fan of, or even familiar with Chekhov’s work to enjoy this light hearted romp through the stolid Russian’s library. All you need is a sense of humor and possibly a shot of vodka!
11/11-11/19 2011 The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker Doug Reed Mercury Players Theatre Deanna Reed
Tragic times call for tragic measures. There are dark deeds afoot under our Capitol dome. How do the people respond? Some carry signs in protest, and some sign petitions – and if you are a playwright, you write a play. Mercury Players Theatre is proud to present The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker, written and directed by Doug Reed. Penned in a “Fakespearian” style, The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker is an account of Wisconsin’s recent political upheaval, complete with soliloquies, swordfights, and codpieces.
12/1 - 12/17 2011 Clapptrapp: The Sound of Musicals Joe Godfrey StageQ TBA
A hilarious adult send-up of the beloved classic "The Sound of Music". This is NOT a musical! Playwright Joe Godfrey maintains the basic plot of the original story but creates spoken dialogue using lyrics from more than 40 other Broadway musicals. The result is an altogether original comedy production. Think Mel Brooks meets Rodgers and Hammerstein and you'll be on the right track. This production is NOT for children so get a babysitter and get ready for a campy romp through the Austrian countryside.
12/2 - 12/18 2011 Rent John Larson MTG with Four Seasons TBA
Rent is a rock opera with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.
1/6 - 1/21 2012 Talking Out of School: Progressive Plays by Wisconsin Teachers Various Mercury Players Theatre Monty Marsh
Wisconsin teachers tell all about the secret world of public schools in this collection of short plays—everything we don’t know about teaching, but should.
1/20 - 2/11 2012 Black Comedy Peter Shaffer Strollers Theatre Greg Harris
When a blackout appears to foil the ambitious plans of an aspiring young artist to impress both a potential benefactor and a future father-in-law, hilarity ensues. This one act play performed without intermission will leave you breathless with it’s fast paced slapstick humor and delight you with it’s inventive twist, staging action that takes place entirely in the “dark”.
2/18 A Mining Protection Benefit with Tom Neilson NA Sierra Club NA
Known locally as the Bard Insurgent, Tom is a veteran of stage and street theater with his writing, acting, and directing. His music reflects his involvement with heroin addicts, the poor, human rights, safe energy, and liberation movements from Nicaragua to Eritrea. His original works, parodies of popular tunes, well known freedom songs, and poetry draw the listener into his musical response to globalization. Tom is the winner of multiple awards for his music and writing, most recently in 2011 the IMA People’s Choice Song of the Year for Social Action, IFA War & Politics, and a Finalist, Music for the Earth. All proceeds go to support mining protection work by Sierra Club and the Wisconsin Mining Impact Coalition, so you can choose your level of support. All tickets are general admission, $10 is the base ticket price, but please feel free to pay what you can to support our work. Get your tickets now! Then join us after the show for a gathering at The Great Dane Pub at 5:30 with Tom Neilson as our special guest!
2/24 - 3/10 2012 Yankee Tavern Steven Dietz Madison Theatre Guild Greg Harris
A stranger walks into a bar....  This is not the beginning of a joke, but the set up of Steven Dietz’s acclaimed dramatic thriller.  He sits silently through the comic and convoluted conspiracy theories of one of the tavern’s idiosyncratic regulars. But when the stranger opens his mouth, a young couple who own the place find themselves caught up in what might be the biggest, strangest, and most alarming conspiracy of all.  Steven Dietz's acclaimed and already widely produced dramatic thriller is a fierce, funny and ultimately mind-bending work of theatrical power that grips you until the final word. What you don't know can hurt you!
3/9 & 3/10 Go GREEN or go Home NA greenTONE a capella NA
A night of women's a cappella concert event, presented by greenTONE a capella. greenTONE a cappella is an all-female, professional-level contemporary a cappella group based in Madison, WI. We have devoted our vocal talents and contagious sense of fun to serving up pop, folk and jazz favorites, from doo-wop to hip-hop. Our "aca"-adventure began over the fall of 2007 when a few UW Tangled Up In Blue alums got together and decided to form our own group, which is now a part of the Contemporary A cappella League, housed under CASA's umbrella. Since that fall, we have had the privilege of singing for a variety of functions that include weddings, holiday parties, the annual Wisconsin Counties Association Annual Convention, and most notably, a Brewers game at Miller Park where we performed the National Anthem for a sold-out game!
3/30 - 4/14 2012 This Beautiful City The Civilians StageQ TBA
A provocative play with music, This Beautiful City explores the rise of Evangelical Christianity, and the shifting line between church and state, changing ideas about the nature of Christianity, and how different beliefs can either coexist or conflict within a community. Critics called it funny, astonishing and wicked smart.
4/6 - 4/28 2012 Beautiful Bodies Laura Shaine Cunningham Strollers Theatre TBA
We are invited to be a fly on the wall at a baby shower where six longtime girlfriends get together to toast and roast the mommy-to-be, Claire. They come together for an evening of wine, fun and gossip that quickly forces their true feelings to the surface in all their wonderful, funny, endearing and heart-wrenching glory! However, they all find out a little more about each other than they had bargained.
5/4 - 5/19 2012 Becky Shaw Gina Gianfrido Mercury Players Theatre Michael Herman
A newlywed couple fixes up two romantically challenged friends. When the evening takes a dark turn, all four characters upend one another's expectations. The New York Times called Becky Shaw "as engrossing as it is ferociously funny, like a big box of fireworks fizzing and crackling across the stage from its first moments to its last."
5/4 - 5/29 2012 Up Bridget Carpenter Madison Theatre Guild Joan Brooks
On the best day of his life, Walter Griffin built a flying machine that reached the clouds. Ever since, he's tried to recapture that moment of feeling completely free. His son Mikey dreams of a different path to freedom: getting rich. And his wife Helen just dreams of a husband who will keep his feet on the ground. UP is a quirky, bittersweet tale about an American family trying to escape the boundaries of the everyday by harnessing the power of the imagination.  Comic, touching, vividly theatrical, the play will leave you thinking.
5/31 -6/9 2012 Queer Shorts 7 Various StageQ Various
The seventh installment of our annual playfest. 10-12 short plays in one evening, heavy on the comedy, served up by a huge cast and crew. An audience favorite!