Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Omnium Gatherum Ticket Special

OMNIUM GATHERUM

FRIENDS OF WINDFALL TREMENDOES TICKET SPECIAL CONTINUES!


Thursday, October 6; Friday, October 7 and Saturday, October 8. All shows at 8pm.
TICKETS $15.00! ($5 off the ticket price!)
(Tickets subject to availability, preference given to reservations)


Mention this offer when making reservations by calling the box office at 414-332-3963
OR --- Guarantee your $15.00 seats today by purchasing tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/199310 enter event discount code: FFOG15


Check out the critical accolades for Windfall’s production of Omnium Gatherum:
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Shepherd Express Online
Third Coast Digest
On Milwaukee

Thursday, September 1, 2011

FEARLESS 2011-2012 SEASON 19 -- OMNIUM GATHERUM

The cast of OMNIUM GATHERUM. Top photo from left: Ben George, Amy Hansmann, Mohammad ElBsat, Toni Martin and Kevin Hogan.
Bottom photo from left: Ben George, Mohammad Elbsat, Amy Hansmann, Kevin Hogan, Shayne Steilga and Toni Martin

FEARLESS 2011-2012 SEASON 19 --- OMNIUM GATHERUM



Monday, June 20, 2011

AUDITIONS FOR 2011-2012 SEASON OPENER:

Windfall Theatre is casting its 2011-2012 season opener:

The Milwaukee premiere of the Pulitzer Prize nominated
Omnium Gatherum by Theresa Rebeck.
Directed by Maureen Kilmurry.

Saturday, June 25th 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
at Village Church Arts 130 E. Juneau Avenue
Please prepare:
2 contrasting contemporary monologues not exceeding 4 minutes.
Call 414.332.3963 to schedule an audition.
Omnium Gatherum runs September 23 – October 8, 2011
(Performance Dates: 9/23, 9/24, 9/30, 10/1, 10/3, 10/6, 10/7, 10/8)
Rehearsals begin in mid-August.

Omnium Gatherum is an impassioned often hilarious and timely ensemble piece in which a gourmet hostess who believes that lively debate is the perfect accompaniment to any dinner party, invites a diverse assortment of opinionated guests to a surreal feast of food and argument with topics including the global implications of September 11th and the US role in the world and beyond.

Diverse cast: African American actresses and Arab American actors are encouraged to audition.
Please prepare 2 contrasting contemporary monologues.
Contact Windfall Theatre at 414.332.3963 to make an audition appointment.


Monday, April 25, 2011


WINDFALL THEATRE PRESENTS MILWAUKEE PREMIERE OF
RICKY IAN GORDON’S GREEN SNEAKERS
Windfall Theatre concludes its all premiere 18th season of Fearless theatrical adventures with the Milwaukee premiere of GREEN SNEAKERS an opera for baritone, empty chair, string quartet and piano by Ricky Ian Gordon in a limited engagement 4 show run staged in the company’s intimate performance space located at Village Church Arts, 130 East Juneau Avenue, in the heart of Milwaukee’s downtown theater district.

GREEN SNEAKERS continues Windfall’s mission of bringing little known theatrical gems to Milwaukee audiences. It was commissioned by the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival and received its world premiere on July 15, 2008. The much anticipated recording of GREEN SNEAKERS premiered on World AIDS Day 2009. The score was published in February, 2011.

About the opera: Ricky Ian Gordon’s GREEN SNEAKERS an opera for baritone, empty chair, string quartet and piano is an intimate and deeply personal song cycle recounting Gordon’s coming to grips with his partner dying of AIDS as his operatic adaptation of the TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD was coming to life in 1996. Gordon’s poetic lyrics and hauntingly beautiful music play tribute to his partner and speak with poignant truth to anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one.

Gordon describes the genesis of GREEN SNEAKERS:
“On August 1, 1996, my late partner, Jeffrey Grossi, passed away. There was a day when I was staring into our closet…and his sad little green sneakers suggested to me a text, about the day we bought them together…what ended up becoming a cycle of poems, tell the story of that day, and the period after, leading up to his death. They end with my…pilgrimage to a place where I had hoped I might find others, who had gone through what I had just gone through, and could empathize."

Critical praise for GREEN SNEAKERS:
“A triumph, superb mini-opera and masterpiece.” ~ Opera Today

“Gordon’s musical setting is heartfelt …it just perseveres onward, not unlike the work of a caretaker or survivor…There’s no politics nor hardly any anger in this work… It’s part diary, part memory book and requires immersion and preparation for its emotional wallop.” ~ DenverPost

“Gordon's musical style is tonal and non-dissonant, classical tinted with Broadway and pop. This eclectic combination gives the work immediacy and makes each individual listener a participant” ~Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

About the composer: Ricky Ian Gordon is an artist of diverse talent writing vocal music that spans art song, opera, and musical theater. His songs have been performed and recorded by internationally renowned singers Renee Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Audra MacDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Frederica Von Stade, Andrea Marcovicci, Harolyn Blackwell, and Betty Buckley, and many others. His recent works include: SYCAMORE TREES and THE GRAPES OF WRATH. He is currently working on commissions for New York's Metropolitan Opera with Playwright, Lynn Nottage, and is also writing a new musical for Playwrights Horizons with Richard Nelson.

He has taught Master Classes and Composition Classes in Colleges and Universities throughout the country including Yale, NYU, Northwestern, Juilliard, Carnegie-Mellon, Michigan State, and San Francisco Conservatory. He has been the featured Composer-in Residence at various festivals including The Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and Ravinia. His honors include many awards from ASCAP, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Shen Family Foundation award and the Stephen Sondheim Award.

About the ensemble: Windfall ensemble member Larry Birkett (baritone) is joined by gifted Milwaukee based musicians Nancy Maio (violin), Jessicca Williams (violin), Maria Gesiorak (viola) and Beth Bender (cello). Adam Baus is musical director and Shawn Gulyas directs.

GREEN SNEAKERS is an intimate cathartic song cycle that must be experienced by all those have known love and lost it for whatever the reason.


PURCHASE ADVANCE TICKETS TODAY AT:

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Nurture's Wonders cast Ben George, Thomas Dillon, Robert WC Kennedy, Michael Gau and Amy Hansmann
     Windfall Theatre continues its all premiere 18th season of Fearless theatrical adventures with the world premiere of NURTURE’S WONDERS a disturbingly depressing comedy by Thomas Rosenthal staged in the company’s intimate performance space located at Village Church Arts, 130 East Juneau Avenue, in the heart of Milwaukee’s downtown theater district.
     About the play: Rosenthal’s NURTURE’S WONDERS a disturbingly depressing comedy for our times revolves around Marti & George Parker a typical American couple raising their children in South Fondy, USA until a mysterious young man named Marshall with ambitions of being a rap music star arrives in town on the same day that the school principal Hipple shows up at the Parker’s home with a gun found in their oldest son’s locker. Now Marti & George are determined to make sure their youngest son, Isaac, avoids the same fate so they try to find him a hero…even if all he really needs is a parent.
     NURTURE’S WONDERS contains adult language and content and its message is best suited to those 17 and over. It is a powerful and achingly current play. The show’s edgy comedy with unexpected pop culture twists and turns speaks to our troubling times. With headlines about gun violence and bullying in our schools riddling the news on nearly a daily basis and in the wake of the AZ shootings Rosenthal’s play will touch those who understand that the proliferation of guns is a detriment to our society and taking a tragic toll on our children’s safety, security, innocence and future.
    About the playwright: Windfall Theatre ensemble member Thomas Rosenthal has a Master’s degree in playwriting from Indiana State University. He came to Milwaukee as an acting intern at the Milwaukee Rep where he received playwriting consultation from award winning playwright Steven Dietz. Windfall has produced three other critically acclaimed world premieres of Rosenthal’s scripts the comedies TAN LINES and NAUGHTY ANGEL and the love story mystery/drama WHEN I GIVE MY HEART.
    About the ensemble: Windfall has assembled a talented ensemble of Milwaukee theatre artists to weave this irreverent comedy’s prescient and too timely tale: Amy Hansmann (Marti Parker), Robert W.C. Kennedy (George Parker), Michael Gau (Marshall), Ben George (Hipple), Thomas Dillon (Sarge) and Carol Zippel (Yvonne). Maureen Kilmurry artist in residence and guest lecturer at Marquette University directs.