SPONSORED CONTENT
Next Act Theatre
Spring
SPOTLIGHTS Milwaukee’s arts scene has an exciting lineup over the next few months. Don’t miss these dance performances, exhibitions, plays and much more.
Swing State FEB. 11-MARCH 8 It’s hard to know who your friends are in a world that’s more divided than ever. Recently widowed, Peg tends to the native plants in her 40-acre rural Wisconsin prairie backyard. Her solitary days are interrupted only by visits from Ryan, a family friend with a checkered past. When a mysterious theft brings in the authorities, a string of events unfold that forever changes their lives and their community. Pulitzer Prize finalist Rebecca Gilman questions how we help each other when it feels like our way of life is in danger of disappearing. Directed by Next Act Artistic Director Cody Estle and featuring Elyse Edelman, Jack Lancaster, Kelli Strickland and Tami Workentin.
255 S. Water St. NEXTACT.ORG
Center for 21st Century Studies
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Aesthetics, Art, & AI
Rest.Rise.Move. Nourish.Heal.
FEB. 12-MARCH 12 The Aesthetics, Art, & AI series explores what creativity means when artistic agency moves between people and algorithms. Check out the multimedia exhibition “Generation to Generation: Conversing with Kindred Technologies” by artist-technologist Nathaniel Stern and poet-researcher Sasha Stiles from Feb. 12-20. Join Stern, Stiles and The Brooklyn Rail editor-at-large Charlotte Kent for a gallery walk, panel on AI and contemporary art, and reception on Feb. 12. Catch a talk by Kite, an Indigenous artist whose work spans Lakota ontologies and machine learning, on March 12.
FEB. 19
Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra Founders Concert FEB. 21
For its debut at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Red Clay Dance Company will present their latest compelling work that highlights the company’s commitment to artistry, activism and community. Rest.Rise.Move.Nourish.Heal., choreographed by Vershawn Sanders-Ward, is a site-responsive dance ritual and embodied journey of reclamation, healing and spiritual return. Drawing from Black/African-Indigenous traditions and ancestral technologies of nourishment, the work confronts the legacies of food apartheid and racial inequity while envisioning a decolonized practice of collective care and agency. The program offers audiences an evening of resilience, memory and transformation.
MYSO’s Senior Symphony presents a powerful and richly expressive program that showcases storytelling through vibrant orchestral color. The concert opens with Aram Khachaturian’s “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia,” a sweeping movement from his ballet Spartacus, known for its soaring melodies and cinematic beauty. The orchestra then brings to life Zoltán Kodály’s Háry János Suite, a spirited, humorous work inspired by the fantastical tales of a legendary Hungarian soldier. Concluding the program is Dmitri Shostakovich’s monumental Symphony No. 5, a gripping and transformative masterpiece that journeys from brooding intensity to triumphant resolve.
Multiple UW-Milwaukee Campus Locations
608 New York Ave., Sheboygan
Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts 3270 Mitchell Park Dr., Brookfield
UWM.EDU/C21-ART-AI
JMKAC.ORG
MYSO.ORG
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SPONSORED CONTENT
Jewish Museum Milwaukee
The Florentine Opera
Renaissance Theaterworks
48 Jews
Tales of Hoffmann
M A R C H 2 0 -A P R I L 1 2
Barefoot in the Park Newlyweds Paul, a proper young lawyer, and Corie, a romantic free spirit, are thrilled to move into their new Manhattan apartment – a tiny, sixth-floor walk-up with no heat and a hole in the skylight. Bliss turns to chaos after a blind date between Corie’s mother and their dashing upstairs neighbor forces the couple to confront their differences in this side-splitting romantic comedy by the prolific and sharp-witted Neil Simon. Don’t miss Suzan Fete’s final production as Artistic Director, marking the culmination of her extraordinary 33-year leadership of Renaissance Theaterworks.
M A R C H 6 - S E P T. 6
MARCH 13, 15
The plurality and complexity of modern Jewish identity is explored in this vivid portrait series by artist Jac Lahav. Drawing on images of Jewish cultural icons, Lahav translates them into paintings with shifting stylistic choices that move fluidly between blurry photorealism, abstraction, expression and erasure. The portraits reveal both the individual and cultural narratives they carry. Featuring figures ranging from historical to contemporary, “48 Jews” highlights diverse creative, intellectual and cultural contributions. Challenging assumptions and offering space to consider what it means to be Jewish today, the series maps a constellation of lived experiences, inviting reflection, dialogue and contemplation of identity as both inherited and constructed.
The Tales of Hoffmann (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) is a haunting opera that dives into the stormy, occasionally uncanny, love life of poet Hoffmann. In a series of flashbacks (after perhaps a bit too much wine), Hoffmann recounts three romantic escapades, each with its own fantastical twist – and each disastrously interrupted by a shadowy villain determined to ruin his good time. The opera is a blend of romance, heartbreak and just the right dose of the surreal, proving that in Hoffmann’s world, if something seems too good to be true, it probably involves an evil doppelgänger or a mechanical doll.
1360 N. Prospect Ave.
929 N. Water St.
255 S. Water St.
JEWISHMUSEUMMILWAUKEE.ORG
FLORENTINEOPERA.ORG
RTWMKE.ORG
Wild Space Dance Company
Marcus Performing Arts Center
Next Act Theatre
Beyond the Shimmer
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
A P R I L 2 2 - M AY 1 7
APRIL 10-11 Step into a world where the ordinary becomes extraordinary. This evening-length dance theater work uses the vastness of outer space as a metaphor to explore distance, connection and possibility. Through bold movement, evocative text and stunning imagery, audiences are immersed in a dazzling, multisensory experience. The evening also features a captivating new work by guest artist Alexandra Barbier. Join us at the beautiful Jan Serr Studio, where the Milwaukee skyline becomes our backdrop, and the performance emerges from a wondrous shimmer of light.
A P R I L 2 1 , 7: 3 0 P M Founded by visionary choreographer Alvin Ailey in 1958, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is one of the world’s most acclaimed dance companies. Today, it continues to captivate audiences worldwide, expanding its repertory with works by new choreographers while upholding Ailey’s enduring legacy. The return to Marcus Performing Arts Center for a one-night-only performance is a highlight in Milwaukee’s spring arts calendar and is not to be missed. “Nothing prepares you for the totality of Alvin Ailey: the aural, visual, physical, spiritual beauty. … Heaven. … Everywhere you looked: sensory pleasure…” – Zadie Smith, The New York Times
Dinner with the Duchess At the end of a storied career, violin virtuoso Margaret gives her final interview to a young reporter. As the evening wears on, Margaret must confront secrets and ghosts of the past to face an impossible question: How will she be remembered? Boundaries are drawn, lines are crossed and tensions reach a crescendo as a simple dinner becomes a battleground in the fight for the truth. Nick Green’s tense, personal drama explores whether the artist or her art defines a legacy. Directed by Samantha Martinson, featuring Laura Gordon, Andrew May and Emma Schuld.
2155 N. Prospect Ave.
929 N. Water St.
255 S. Water St.
WILDSPACEDANCE.ORG
MARCUSCENTER.ORG
NEXTACT.ORG
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