News @ the Peck School of the Arts

UWM Center for Celtic Studies Events

By Ian Staff
UWM Center for Celtic Studies

...Starting Wednesday, October 27, the Peck School of the Arts presents By the Bog of Cats by noted Irish playwright Marina Carr. This is a modern retelling of Euripides’ Medea, told in a Midland Irish dialect, and tells the tale of one woman’s journey through murder, betrayal, and abandonment.

On Thursday, October 28th, the show will begin at 7:00 with a pre-show talk by CCS’s Jose Lanters.  Mention the Center for Celtic Studies when purchasing or reserving tickets to receive a discount.

The play runs through Sunday, October 30th, ending with a 2:00 p.m. matinee.  To reserve tickets, contact the PSOA box office at (414) 229-4308...

Visit the UWM Center for Celtic Studies to read the full article.

Food for thought at the LGBT Film & Video Festival

By Ashley Altadonna
Third Coast Digest
October 20, 2010

Lately, it seems that  I can’t turn around without seeing another heartbreaking news article, blog post, or tweet about some injustice against LGBTQ folk.

Headlines and status updates are filled with attacks against gay marriage, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, or worse — against queer and trans folks themselves. At times, it’s almost enough to make you want to crawl into a dark room and hide.

For me, that dark room is a theater and solace comes from the glimmering lights of a movie screen. Thankfully, this year’s LGBT Film Festival is just around the corner and is packed with more than enough cinematic cures to heal the soul...

Go to Third Coast Digest to read the full article.

Strong Cast Powers UWM’s ‘As It Is in Heaven’

By Russ Bickerstaff
Shepherd Express
October 20, 2010

UW-Milwaukee begins its Labworks series with Arlene Hutton’s As It Is in Heaven, an emotionally gripping show about a group of women living in a Shaker village in 1838. It’s a clever choice for UWM’s intimate space at Studio 508. The nine-woman ensemble dresses in plain period garb and there is no set, so the focus of the production is entirely on the characters.

Simple interactions render solid emotional detail as conflicts begin to arise when some of the women see angels beyond the edge of the community. The setting provides an interesting challenge for the ensemble because the community exists within a culture of uniformity. Individuality is looked down upon, even though each woman has a distinct, irrepressible personality. The cast does an admirable job of delivering the complexities that develop between the women in the village. Any desires to scream out into the shadows are subdued. Instead, director Jenny Wanasek allows the emotional intensity of the drama to develop on a lower register. The show has no difficulty capturing audiences in the intimate space of the bare studio theater.

Visit the Shepherd Express online to read the full review.

Senegalese dance troupe brings old, new to Milwaukee

By Elaine Schmidt
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
October 14, 2010

...Compagnie Jant-Bi, the Senegalese dance troupe run by African dance icon Germaine Acogny, will be in Milwaukee and in Sheboygan over the next few days, performing the rich, meaningful traditional/modern dance fusion for which Acogny, who is known as "the mother of African dance," is famous...

Ferne Yangyeitie Caulker-Bronson, director of the African Diaspora Program in the Peck School's dance department and founder and artistic/executive director of Milwaukee's Ko-Thi dance company, described Compagnie Jant-Bi's trademark style as a "fusion of traditional steps and modern dance."

"They are doing modern scenes using African vocabulary and contemporary costume, combined with Western sense of proscenium staging," she said, "dealing with contemporary and historical issues."

She added that the group's fusion style reflects the African dance roots and modern dance training of Acogny, who founded the International Centre of Traditional and Contemporary African Dances in Senegal...

Go to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to read the full article.

Previews from Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Fest

By Gregg Shapiro
Wisconsin Gazette
October 17, 2010

“Eyes Wide Open”
(New American Vision)

Like the Tel Aviv of gay Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox’s “The Bubble,” the Jerusalem in Haim Tabakman’s award-winning “Eyes Wide Open” exists in a world unto itself. Streets and buildings are as ancient as the fundamentalist rituals of the Orthodox Jews who populate the Jerusalem neighborhood.

Shortly after devout Aaron (Zohar Shtrauss) reopens the kosher butcher shop that was run by his late father, he meets itinerant Yeshiva student Ezri (hot Ran Danker). Ezri, who was tossed out of his previous Yeshiva, has come to town to be with a male lover who refuses to return his phone calls. In need of help, Aaron hires the inexperienced Ezri. He also gives Ezri a place to stay, in a room above the butcher shop...

Go to the Wisconsin Gazette to read the full preview.

WEEKLY PREVIEW - Oct 15-21@The Peck School of the Arts

The Peck School of the Arts Raises the Curtain on its 2010-11 Theatre Season

Labworks Series

October 15-24 - As It Is in Heaven
7:30pm Friday-Saturday; 2pm Sunday
Kenilworth Studio 508

Set in a Shaker settlement in the 1830s, the community is forced to question what is divine amongst them - and from where it appears.
Directed by Jenny Wanasek.

Tickets: $5

ART & DESIGN FACULTY - European Design since 1985: A Knockout at MAM

By Lee Ann Garrison (Chair of the Department of Art & Design)
Third Coast Digest
October 8, 2010

When does design become art?

That’s hard to say, but we do know where design becomes art: In the smashing new European Design Since 1985: Shaping the New Century, which opens Saturday (Oct. 9) at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

The best artworks bear witness to their times. To understand the art and design of a period is to understand that period. Conversely, we cannot understand art or design without a broader sense of history. R. Craig Miller, curator of this exhibition and lead author of its beautiful catalog, is a true historian. He and his show tell a riveting story of the recent past through the designs he chose, the way he grouped them physically, and the way he structured the show conceptually...

Go to Third Coast Digest to read the full article.

Unruly Music breaks sound barriers

By Sarah Elms
Marquette Tribune
October 7, 2010

Some call it postclassical, some call it avant-garde and some call it experimental.

Unruly Music, a production of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts and the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, will showcase its cutting-edge sounds Oct. 7 to 9.

The concert series began in 2006 as a way to represent a broad spectrum of contemporary music styles and has since continued to host two festivals each year, one in the fall and one in the spring. The festivals include three or four nights of music, all with different performances...

Go to the Marquette Tribune to read the full article.

WEEKLY PREVIEW - Oct 8-14@The Peck School of the Arts