By Mary Boyle

In the late 1990's, psychologist Arthur Aron created a quiz consisting of 36 personal questions and gave the quiz to couples who were complete strangers to see if they would fall in love.  The remarkable thing?  They did.  Some even got married.  The quiz, Aron found, even helped married couples rekindle their romance.  This is the premise behind Jennifer Lane's new play, To Fall in Love, presented by The Constructivists at the Underground Collaborative in Milwaukee.

Merryn (Madeline Wakley) and Wyatt (Matthew Scales) are a couple on the verge of divorce, but agree to meet and "give it one last shot" by taking Aron's quiz over Arnold Palmers and chips and dip at Wyatt's apartment.  Well, make that bourbon and pizza.  As the questions become more personal, they uncover pain and fears, as well as love and passion, but which one will win?

Directed by Jaimelyn Gray, The Constructivists' Founder and Artistic Director, To Fall in Love explores the complexities of love and loss, but the playwright's extremes of these conditions creates a loss of empathy from the audience; the concept is brilliant, but the work would have been more powerful if the characters and situation were more average.  A plain old ordinary marriage has enough trials for anyone.

Earlier this season, I saw The Constructivists' production of The Pillowman.  Although the production was great, overall, I did not care for the violence for the sake of violence nature of the play; the shock value made me uncomfortable -- not in the manner of a hard lesson being learned, but uncomfortable in the manner of watching something I wasn't supposed to be watching.  Like The Pillowman, To Fall in Love has a similar shock value in that the level of intimacy between Merryn and Wyatt feels like something you shouldn't be witnessing, and the enclosed space of the UC heightens that sensation.  Pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable in live theatre seems to be The Constructivists hallmark.  Nonetheless, the play is well cast, well acted, and anyone who has been in a relationship will undoubtedly relate to these two characters whose interaction is alternately funny, intense, disturbing, and passionate; the messy, beautiful, horrible, magical, difficult thing that is love.

To Fall in Love runs through April 13th at the Underground Collaborative, located in the basement of the Grand Avenue Mall at 161 W. Wisconsin Ave. in Milwaukee.  Tickets are available online at theconstructivists.org or by calling the Box Office at (414) 858-66874.
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About The Constructivists
Milwaukee's new Non-Equity Theatre company, The Constructivists, are committed to creating accessible, viscerally-driven live theatre, exposing and exploring the complexity of human nature and the perils it creates in an effort to challenge, enlighten, educate, and entertain a diverse, mature audience.  The Constructivists are excited to announce their second season! Coming in Fall of 2019, The Constructivists will take on the rarely-produced dark comedy "God of Hell" by Sam Shepard, as well as "The Nether" by popular contemporary female playwright, Jannifer Haley.

By Mary Boyle

If I say, "The Man in Black," chances are you'll know who I'm talking about.  Although the roots of Johnny Cash's music are in Gospel and Country, his fans come from all ages and all walks of life, which is why Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash should prove to be a very popular show this season at The Rep's Stackner Cabaret.  

Born in 1932, Johnny grew up steeped in music on a farm in Arkansas.  Working and singing alongside his parents and 6 siblings in the cotton fields, it wasn't long after he left the farm and joined the Air Force that he started his first band.  After his discharge, he married his first wife, Vivian Liberto, and worked a variety of odd jobs while he tried tirelessly to break into the music business.  Finally, Johnny got his chance with Sam Philip's Sun Records, and went on to release several successful singles, including "Cry, Cry, Cry," "Folsum Prison Blues," and his biggest hit, "I Walk the Line."  Johnny's success continued throughout the 1950's and 60's, playing the Grand Ole Opry and making appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, among other programs, but the success came with a terrible price: a divorce and a drug problem.  With the help of his singing partner, June Carter, Johnny overcame his addiction, married June, and enjoyed continued musical success throughout the rest of his life.

Back by popular demand after a sold-out run in 2013, Ring of Fire was created by Richard Maltby, Jr. and conceived by William Meade and adapted from the Broadway Production by Richard Maltby, Jr. and Jason Edwards.  Featuring a cast of five immensely talented "quadruple threat" performers who tell Cash's story through his songs, this is one show you do not want to miss! Kent M. Lewis and Corbin Mayer are both Johnny Cash in different stages of his life, and both have the voices and musical skills to pull it off.  Alex Keiper returns to The Rep as the only woman in the cast, and takes her turn as all of the women in Cash's life: his mother, his first wife, and June. James David Larson and Paul Wyatt round out the band, playing a multitude of instruments between them, including  stand-up bass, harmonica, guitar, mandolin, banjo, violin, and more; in fact, all five performers take turns playing multiple instruments over the course of the show.

Dan Kazemi, a New York-based composer, actor, director, music director, and educator, as well as being an Associate Artist and frequent collaborator at The Rep, is both the Director and Music Director of the show, and just about everything musical this man touches at The Rep turns to gold, including this season's In the Heights and The All Night Strut!,  as well as past shows such as Murder for Two, Guys and Dolls, Man of La Mancha, and Dreamgirls.  

With so many hit songs to cover, Ring of Fire focuses more on Cash's music, particularly in the first half of his career, without being able to get too deep into the details his life, which is the only disappointing aspect of the production.  After Johnny married June, he landed his own show on network television called The Johnny Cash Show, where he crossed generations and genres by featuring musical greats like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and used his platform to address social issues, such as the plight of Native Americans, prison reform, and the Vietnam War.  He was the youngest living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame and one of only a handful of musicians who was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  His career continued to be successful right up until 2003 when, in May of that year, June unexpectedly passed away; Johnny followed shortly after her that September.  Johnny Cash remains one of the very few artists to sell over 90 million records, and will likely go down in history as one of the most popular American musicians of all time.

Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash runs through May 26th at the Stackner Cabaret,  located within the Patty & Jay Baker Theater Complex at 108 E. Wells St. in Milwaukee.  Tickets can be purchased by calling (414) 224-9490, in-person at the Box Office, or online at www.MilwaukeeRep.com.

About Milwaukee Repertory Theater
The Milwaukee Rep is the largest performing arts organization in Wisconsin, in terms of audiences served, and one of the largest professional theaters in the country.  Each year, The Rep welcomes up to 275,000 people at nearly 700 performances of 15 productions, ranging from compelling dramas, powerful classics, new plays, and full-scale musicals in its three unique performance venues: the Quadracci Powerhouse, Stiemke Studio, and Stackner Cabaret.  Now in its 65th Season, The Rep has gained a national reputation as an incubator of new work, an agent of community change, and a forward-thinking provider of .vital arts education programs.  Under the leadership of Artistic Director Mark Clements and Executive Director Chad Bauman, Milwaukee Repertory Theater ignites positive change in the cultural, social, and economic vitality of  its community by creating world-class theater experiences that entertain, provoke, and inspire meaningful dialogue among an audience representative of Milwaukee's rich diversity.

Riveredge Nature Center is participating in A Community Thrives, a program through the USA Today Network that allows communities across the country to share their ideas for improvement and earn the chance to receive a portion of the $2,000,000 in grants to make their idea a reality.  If Riveredge succeeds in fundraising $6,000 between now and April 12, the organization has the possibility of being awarded $50,000 through A Community Thrives for The River Connection Program.

The River Connection Program was established in 1998 to provide socioeconomically disadvantaged children access to environmental educational experiences that would likely be unavailable to them otherwise. The River Connection Program is a collaborative undertaking of two well-respected environmental education organizations within the Greater Milwaukee area: Riveredge Nature Center and The Urban Ecology Center. This collaboration optimizes the opportunity for students to compare and contrast the rural Milwaukee River location of Riveredge Nature Center and the urban Milwaukee River location of the Urban Ecology Center (UEC).

Exposure to both nature centers provides a broad portrait of Wisconsin’s natural landscape, illuminating the rural (Riveredge) and the urban (UEC). This diversity in exposure is critical, in both enhancing the learning experience through comparison and opening new doors to nature that students may not have considered before. 

"The River Connection Program is important on so many fronts," explained Jessica Jens, the Executive Director of Riveredge.  "Through this program, children have the opportunity to compare a variety urban and rural environments, observe what is different and what they have in common, and then explore how those differences affect the health of our waterways. It’s critical that students take part in learning experiences outside of textbooks, and through The River Connection Program, we welcome children from all over the region to learn and care about the ecosystems we all share." 

To donate, go to the Riveredge A Community Thrives page at this link: 
https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/riveredge-nature-center-wisconsin

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On Thursday, February 21st, Ozaukee Washington Land Trust (OWLT) officially finalized the acquisition of the remaining portion of 104 total acres of land that was lovingly stewarded by members Dave and Karen Kinnamon for nearly 50 years.  Combined with the organization’s 2017 acquisition of 60-acres owned by Ed and Janet Beimborn, and a contiguous 110-acre privately owned property on which it already held a conservation easement, OWLT now protects 274-acres of significant habitat and scenic beauty in its defined Cedar-Sauk project area.

“We are excited to add this to the growing list of now 32 nature preserves under the
stewardship of Ozaukee Washington Land Trust,” said Tom Stolp, Executive Director. “Beyond our commitment to caring for these ecologically significant places forever, we are also committed to keeping this land 100% free and open to the public for recreation and renewal.”

Dave and his wife, Karen, bought the land back in the early 1970s, and invested a significant amount of time and financial resources to transform it into the special place it is today. After restoring many acres into high quality prairie and keeping the property clean of many invasive plants, the Kinnamons began planning forward in the late 1990s for eventual sale of the land to OWLT so it could be protected and preserved.

“One of our primary considerations in partnering with the Land Trust was that this property, which has remained undisturbed during our 47 years of ownership, will be carefully tended by talented and dedicated stewards,” said Dave. “In fact, the OWLT Team is already hard at work with invasive removal, and that is the kind of hands-on care we are elated and grateful to have.”

The Kinnamon property features a spring fed pond that has served as a fish hatchery for many native fish species and a wetland habitat that provides refuge to many migratory warblers. A vast array of tree species also call this land home, with beech, white birch, yellow birch, cedar, shag bark hickory, and tamarack among them.  

The acquisition of this property was made possible with support from Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s Greenseams Program, and the Wisconsin DNR’s Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. Additionally, many individual members and foundation supporters made critical investments in the acquisition through OWLT’s “Great Rivers, Great Lakes Campaign,” a multi-year effort focused upon land and water resource conservation. The Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Fund for Lake Michigan, Nast Family Foundation, Brookby Foundation, and James E. Dutton Foundation provided extraordinary leadership-level gifts to help make this once-in-a-generation land protection opportunity possible.

By Mary Boyle

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is widely considered to be one of the greatest American novels ever written.  Published in 1885, the story was modeled after Twain's own childhood in Missouri prior to the Civil War, where he saw his share of the horrors of slavery.  The book was just one of the many ways Twain spoke out against the racism and injustice he continued to see in our Country.  At the same time, it is an ode to the Mississippi River, which played such an important part in Twain's life.  The book has been consistently banned since its publication, mainly due to Twain's way of writing how the people actually spoke; consequently, there are many schools who do not include the book in their curriculum.  In the early 1980's, William Hauptman and Roger Miller wrote a musical based on the book, sticking to the heart of the story while removing some of the most controversial bits.  The show opened on Broadway in 1985, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book.  Now, First Stage has brought Big River:  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to Milwaukee audiences, and it's the perfect way for the whole family to experience this classic.

Directed by Marti Gobel, Big River is slightly scaled down from the full Broadway production, while still keeping the story intact.  The show begins as the story does:  Huck (double cast as Luke Brotherhood/Ben Kindler) has been made a ward of the Widow Douglas (Kat Wodtke) and, having no wish to be civilized, he runs off down the Mississippi River.   Days later, hiding out on an island, Huck runs into Jim (DiMonte Henning), the Widow Douglas' slave, who overheard the Widow talking to a slave trader and ran away when he believed he was to be sold.  Huck agrees to go with Jim down river to where the Mississippi meets the Ohio, so that Jim can make his way north to the free states but, along the way, they meet up with two bad men, the King (Matt Daniels) and the Duke (Chris Klopatek), who would like nothing more than to get their hands on the money they could make by selling Jim.  Before they do, the swindlers meet a strange fellow (Elliott Brotherhood) and learn about a young lady, Mary Jane (Georgina Pink/ Mackenzie Ross), in a nearby town who was awaiting the arrival of her late uncle's brothers to help settle her uncle's estate.  Recognizing a great opportunity, the two impersonate the brothers and set about getting as much money as they can.  When it seems they may be caught, the King and Duke sell Jim to buy tickets for a river boat, but Huck decides to help Mary Jane and find Jim and free him, even if it is wicked to free a slave.

The music, played live on stage by several of the actors and directed by Paul Helm, who also plays piano for the show, is in the style of the time period and the highlight of the show.  The songs range from foot-tapping, hand-clapping, triumphant romps to powerful, emotional ballads, with only the actors and ensemble to sing, and accompanied by two guitars, a violin and a piano.  Andrew Crowe, who plays a number of characters in the show, is a phenomenal violinist, and plays a hauntingly beautiful intro to the show's first song, "Waitin' for the Light to Shine.'  Milwaukee favorites, Matt Daniels and Kat Wodtke, both play guitar to round out the band, as well as lending their vocals.  Milwaukee actor, DiMonte Henning, who lent his voice to the scarecrow in The Wiz at First Stage last season, delivers a powerful and moving performance as Jim, while Chris Klopatek, who is an excellent sidekick to Matt Daniels, returns to his hometown and First Stage this season to play Duke as well as Smee in the upcoming production of Tinker Bell.

I cannot think of a better way to introduce children to this powerful tale and the unlikely hero that is Huckleberry Finn than Big River.  Mark Twain's humor in the face of injustice is exactly what the world needs, right now.  Along those lines, First Stage is hosting a special event, which is free and open to the public, in partnership with Hours Against Hate, a program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.  The event is called Uncommon Friendships, and features special guest speakers, Pardeep Kaleka and Arno Michaelis.  Kaleka lost his father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, in the August 5th, 2012 Sikh Temple of Wisconsin shooting, while Michaelis is a former white supremacist who helped to start a gang in the late 1980's that produced the August 5th shooter.  Together, the two co-authored the book , The Gift Of Our Wounds: A Sikh and a Former White Supremacist Find Forgiveness After Hate, and work together through Kaleka's organization, Serve 2 Unite, which engages communities in peacemaking to address violence conflict, and radicalization.  The event will be facilitated by Dominic Inouye, the founder and director of ZIP MKE, and a former teacher at Marquette University, Pius XI High School, and The Prairie School in Racine.  The event takes place at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, located at 325 W. Walnut Street in Milwaukee, on Friday, March 29th from 5-7 p.m.  Space is limited, and registration is required (click here for the link).

Big River:  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn runs through April 14th at the Marcus Center’s Todd Wehr Theater, located at 929 N. Water Street in downtown Milwaukee. Tickets can be purchased in person at the Marcus Center Box Office at 929 N. Water Street, by phone at (414) 273-7206 or online at www.firststage.org. 

About First Stage
First Stage is one of the nation’s leading theaters for young people and families. First Stage touches hearts, engages minds and transforms lives by creating extraordinary theater experiences through professional theater productions that inspire, enlighten and entertain. Its Theater Academy, the nation’s largest high-impact theater training program for young people, fosters life skills through stage skills and serves over 2,100 students each year. As Wisconsin’s leader in arts-integrated education in schools, First Stage’s dynamic Theater in Education programs promote literacy, character building and experiential learning throughout the curriculum, serving over 20,000 students each year. First Stage was selected to participate in the Partners in Education program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (2012), and was the recipient of the Milwaukee Business Journal’sEureka Award, recognizing creativity and innovation in business, education and the arts for its Next Steps program for students on the autism spectrum (2013, 2015). First Stage is a member of TYA/USA, the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, the Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Education, Milwaukee Arts Partners and is a cornerstone member of the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF).
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By Mary Boyle

What would it be like if you could tell your family's story as a play?  Not the story you want to tell people, mind you, but the real story — the things that only the people in your family really see.  The arguments and painful words you can't take back; the secrets that only your family really knows.  This brutal reality is what you see in acclaimed Australian playwright Andrew Bovell's Things I Know To Be True, which makes its American Premiere at The Milwaukee Rep this season.

Directed by Mark Clements, The Rep's Artistic Director, Things I Know To Be True is one year in the life of the Price Family:  Bob (Bill Geisslinger) and Fran (Jordan Baker) and their four adult children, Pip (Kelley Faulkner), Mark (Kevin Kantor), Ben (Zach Fifer), and Rosie (Aubyn Heglie).  Rosie is on the traditional post-school European Tour and, when things go wrong, the first thought she has is that she needs to go home.  She surprises her parents, who know immediately that something is amiss and proceed call her older siblings to come over, which they do.  They appear to be a very close-knit and typical Midwestern family in their middle class backyard, and they are: they are also broken, dysfunctional, and struggling to figure out their place in their family and in the world. 

While the description may seem unremarkable, the play is quite remarkable in it's brutal reality, which the playwright does not shy away from, and which every audience member will recognize, in at least some aspect, from their own families.  Each member of the Price clan suffers a personal crisis, in turn, and the way they handle it, and the way the rest of their family handles it, is influenced by their relationship with their family.  The course of the play runs much like life:  from sweet and tender to harsh and raging, and everything in between, with a dance-like quality to it; cast members flowing in and around scenes in a way that beautifully represents the push, pull, give, and take of being a part of a family.  

This is a play quite unlike anything else I've seen at The Rep, which is thanks to the A John (Jack) D. Lewis New Play Development Program, that helped playwright Andrew Bovell make the journey to Milwaukee and adjust the play from its original Australian setting to a Midwestern one.  Kelly Faulkner, a Milwaukee Rep favorite who was seen last season in Always... Patsy Cline and Guys and Dolls, is usually found playing more upbeat roles that involve music and dancing, but proves that she's just as adept in a dramatic role.  Every other cast member is new to The Rep, though their chemistry as a group would suggest otherwise.  Bill Geisslinger as Bob and Jordan Baker as Fran deliver particularly stunning, heart-wrenching performances.

Excellently cast and passionately and beautifully performed, Things I Know To Be True is powerful, emotional, raw, and so terribly beautiful.  This is a play that will be with you for a long time.

Things I Know To Be True runs through March 31st at the Quadracci Theater, located located within the Patty & Jay Baker Theater Complex at 108 E. Wells St. in Milwaukee.  Tickets can be purchased by calling (414) 224-9490, in-person at the Box Office, or online at www.MilwaukeeRep.com.

About Milwaukee Repertory Theater
The Milwaukee Rep is the largest performing arts organization in Wisconsin, in terms of audiences served, and one of the largest professional theaters in the country.  Each year, The Rep welcomes up to 275,000 people at nearly 700 performances of 15 productions, ranging from compelling dramas, powerful classics, new plays, and full-scale musicals in its three unique performance venues: the Quadracci Powerhouse, Stiemke Studio, and Stackner Cabaret.  Now in its 65th Season, The Rep has gained a national reputation as an incubator of new work, an agent of community change, and a forward-thinking provider of .vital arts education programs.  Under the leadership of Artistic Director Mark Clements and Executive Director Chad Bauman, Milwaukee Repertory Theater ignites positive change in the cultural, social, and economic vitality of  its community by creating world-class theater experiences that entertain, provoke, and inspire meaningful dialogue among an audience representative of Milwaukee's rich diversity.

By Mary Boyle

Critics of Shakespeare have often said that As You Like It is a second-rate play in that it is not a good example of the exemplary writing the Bard was capable of.  The play, they say, was merely written as a "crowdpleaser."  Crowdpleaser is right  — over 400 years later, and this romantic comedy still brings in the audiences.  Mistaken identities, love at first site, and a thrilling wrestling match — there's something for everyone, and this is especially true when it is being performed by the First Stage Young Company.  Possibly Milwaukee's best-kept theatre secret, these high school-aged young performers deliver professional-quality performances for an unbelievably low cost, which means you can bring your whole family to experience As You Like It.

At its heart, As You Like It is a love story primarily focused on Orlando (Molly Boyle) and Rosalind (Sylvie Arnold).  The youngest of three brothers, Orlando's eldest brother, Oliver (Magdalyn Rowley-Lange), is charged with seeing his two younger brothers properly raised and educated as gentlemen after their father's death.  Jealous of Orlando's goodness, Oliver keeps him home and idle while their middle brother is away at school.  While Orlando endures his brothers hate, the country is also in turmoil:  Duke Senior (Zora Allison) has been overthrown and banished by his brother, Duke Frederick (Eloise Field), and has fled to the forest of Arden with several of his loyal nobles (Megan Grizzle, Isabel Bastardo).  Rosalind, Duke Senior's daughter, was allowed to remain at court with her cousin, Celia (Kayla Salter), as the two are closer than sisters.  Orlando decides to try to gain a name for himself by challenging Duke Frederick's wrestler, Charles (Kamani Graham), where Celia and Rosalind happen to meet him.  One look, and Rosalind and Orlando fall hopelessly in love.

Duke Frederick's servant, Le Beau (Sam Mulvey), warns Orlando that he has made an enemy of the Duke and, if that weren't bad enough, now his brother is plotting to kill him, so he flees with his faithful old servant, Adam (Lindsay Nelson), to the forest of Arden, where they meet up with Duke Senior, his nobles, and the melancholy Jaques (Mary Jensik).  Orlando, in his lovesickness, spends his time covering the forest with poetry written to his true love, Rosalind, and carving her name into the trees.  Meanwhile, Duke Frederick has a change of heart and also banishes Rosalind from the court.  Her and Celia devise a plan to escape by disguising themselves as a peasant man and his sister:  Rosalind becomes "Ganymede" and Celia becomes "Aliena."  Along with the Duke's fool, Touchstone (Bradley Nowacek), the three flee to the forest of Arden, where they purchase a cottage from the poor shepherd, Corin (Kate Ketelhohn), and eventually run into Duke Senior, his men, and Orlando, as well as meeting Silvius (Kamani Graham), a shepherd hopelessly in love with the proud shepherdess, Phoebe (Morgan McKinnis), and Audrey (Addy Grace), a naive and innocent shepherdess who Touchstone wishes to wed. 

​While the story is set in France, Director James Fletcher chose to move the time-period to the 1940's.  The costumes, designed by Lyndsey Kuhlmann, are marvelous, and the music between scenes really helps to ground the play in the period.  The play is edited for time and content, but none of the language is changed, so audiences will get the true Shakespeare experience.  Three of the young performers hail from Oz:  Morgan McKinnis of Grafton, Kate Ketelhohn of Cedarburg, and Molly Boyle of Port Washington.  All three  are Sophomores in high school and in their second year in Young Company, the First Stage Theater Academy’s award-winning training program for advanced high school actors.  Molly and Kate were seen in Young Company's production of Henry V last season, Molly was in Girls in the Boat earlier this season, and Morgan is making her YC debut.  

​Both Morgan and Kate agreed that the best scene of the play is the wrestling match ("It's fun to watch," Kate said), while Kate and Molly both agreed that working with friends was their favorite part of working on the play.  Molly, who plays Orlando, is a unique role in that, historically, female roles were played by men in the time Shakespeare's plays were performed, but Molly, as well as several other female cast members, get to do the reverse.  "It's actually an extremely freeing outlook to take," said Molly about being cast as Orlando.  "Just thinking about what you can and can't do, what people think about you, what you think about other people, and how that informs our physical character so greatly."

Young Company is strongly steeped in Shakespeare:  not only do they perform at least one of the Bard's works each season, members compete in the annual Utah Shakespeare Festival each summer and the YC's yearly (and only) fundraiser, the Bardathon, consists of members getting pledges to memorize as many Shakespearean monologues as possible.  Nonetheless, they never fail to amaze me with their grasp of these great works and their ability to perform them.  Come watch the hijinks of all these lovers in the forest of Arden — you won't be disappointed.

As You Like It runs through March 24th at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, located at 325 W. Walnut St. in downtown Milwaukee.  Tickets are $14 and available online at www.firststage.org or through the First Stage Box Office at (414) 267-2961. Performance runtime is approximately two hours and fifteen minutes, including intermission. Suggested for families with young people ages 12+.

About First Stage
First Stage is one of the nation’s leading theaters for young people and families. First Stage touches hearts, engages minds and transforms lives by creating extraordinary theater experiences through professional theater productions that inspire, enlighten and entertain. Its Theater Academy, the nation’s largest high-impact theater training program for young people, fosters life skills through stage skills and serves over 2,100 students each year. As Wisconsin’s leader in arts-integrated education in schools, First Stage’s dynamic Theater in Education programs promote literacy, character building and experiential learning throughout the curriculum, serving over 20,000 students each year. First Stage was selected to participate in the Partners in Education program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (2012), and was the recipient of the Milwaukee Business Journal’sEureka Award, recognizing creativity and innovation in business, education and the arts for its Next Steps program for students on the autism spectrum (2013, 2015). First Stage is a member of TYA/USA, the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, the Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Education, Milwaukee Arts Partners and is a cornerstone member of the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF).

Philippe Coquard, winemaker for both Cedar Creek Winery and Wollersheim Winery, along with merchants of The Shops of Cedar Creek Settlement, invite guests to the 29th Annual Open House, Saturday, March 9 and Sunday, March 10 from 10-5.  The Winery will be celebrating two delicious  wines, the 2018 Marquette and a brand new Dry White from Wisconsin grown St. Pepin grapes (and as yet un-named until it’s tasted)!
 
The Open House event is free and open to the public and features two festive days with barrel tasting a 2018 vintage, music, cooking-with-wine, in-shop demonstrations/samplings, wine tastings, self-guided tours, Wisconsin cheese samplings from 10-4, spring showcases and more throughout the Shops of Cedar Creek Settlement. 
 
The Winery, nestled in the three story 150 year old restored limestone and tamarack timber Wittenberg Woolen Mill, will offer guests the opportunity to barrel-taste the 2018 Marquettewith Winemaker Philippe Coquard at 11:00 & 2:00 Saturday and Winery General Manager Steve Danner, Sunday at 11:30 & 2:00 as well as sampling Cedar Creek Winery’s many award-winning wines. Philippe will also demonstrate Grapevine Pruning Saturday at 1:00 p.m.  
 
Enjoy live music 12:00-4:00 daily. Saturday enjoy the music and songs of our favorite entertainer Joey LaVie, formerly of rock bands Bad Boy, Moxy Roxx and The Rage.  On Sunday, musician and singer Marr’Lo Parada, a WAMI Male Vocalist of the Year nominee, will entertain. In the Wine Cellar.  Guests can savor delightful Cooking-with-Wine demonstrations and samplings using Cedar Creek Wines. Saturday at 3:00 p.m., Chef Andrew Wilson from Cedarburg’s new, highly acclaimed restaurant, Brandywine, will be cooking. Sunday at 3:00, Chef John D’Amico from The Anvil Pub & Grille will cook, and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Chef Stephanie Baldwin of Cedar Creek Winery will be creating a wonderful Syrah Plum Sauce, perfect with grilled meats using the Winery’s Syrah.
 
A special treat this year is the Winemaker’s Special.  For every purchase of a 12 bottle case, a 13th bottle of Waterfall Riesling will be added.  In 2018, the Waterfall Riesling was awarded the Best of Class at the Pacific Rim International Wine Competition in San Bernardino, Platinum (94 points) at the Critics Challenge in San Diego , as well as a Double Gold and other Gold and Silver Medals in 2018 competitions.
 
Settlement merchants will be giving guests a free reusable Settlement logo tote (one per family) to help carry all the wonderful spring purchases to be found in the shops. The 25 retail merchants at the Settlement will host in-store special features, discounts, demonstrations, samplings and fresh new merchandise from the Settlement’s many boutiques and galleries. There will be a daily drawing for a Gift Basket loaded with Settlement items and gift certificates worth $200 or more.  Enjoy a delicious meal at one of three Settlement restaurants: Anvil Pub & Grille, Cream & Crepe and Tomaso’s.
 
Plan a trip to the Winery/Settlement Open House and make a day of it. Find out why readers of Wisconsin Trails Magazine have named Cedarburg “the best place to spend the day shopping”.