Review: Next Act's MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD Celebrates Life's Creation and Future

American's national Mother's Day arrives, Sunday, May 8, and Next Act Theatre presents a heartwarming, poignant and powerful production to close their season at exactly the right time of year titled Motherhood Out Loud. Conceived by Susan R. Rose and Joan Stein, more than a dozen playwrights revisit motherhood through a series of themed vignettes beginning with "Chapter One: Fast Births" and finishing with "Chapter Five: Coming Home." Directed by Milwaukee's acclaimed Laura Gordon, each chapter features four actors--Doug Jarecki, Michelle Lopez-Rios, Deborah Staples and Tami Workentin--who play the numerous mothers/fathers of various ages and stages throughout the evening.

Each of these chapters begins with a "Fugue," a scene where several actors offer their experiences through a chorus of voices, sometimes singularly and at others speaking together, in an effective theatrical device. Scenic, Lighting and Projection Designer Jason Fassl shifts the stage background using a picture frame style screen, similar to a collage, that allows the actors to use minimal props while creating a warm ambiance for each vignette.

This includes the weary first time mother, Staples, sleeping next to her baby on the floor with only a blanket covering her, extremely anxious and tired, unsure she is up to the task of motherhood in "Next to the Crib" (Brooke Berman). Or enjoy this "mother-dad," a winning Doug Jarecki in "If We're Using a Surrogate, How Come I'm the One with the Morning Sickness (Marco Pennette). In this scenario, Jarecki plays mommy/daddy to his three-year old daughter who has two loving daddies. Motherhood Out Loud often reaches to the the depths of a million miniscule moments in a mother's, or parent's, life, and while seemingly insignificant, each one precious.

In an especially heartbreaking scene titled "My Almost Family" (Luanne Rice), Staples reminisces the two daughters she grew to love while dating a divorced man she eventually broke up with. A reminder to the audience the blended family can be a continual challenge for mothers and stepmothers. Lopez-Rios speaks to adoption in "Baby Bird" (Theresa Rebeck), when answering the endless questions posed by insensitive people regarding her Chinese daughter. And viewed in the same chapter, Staples tackled the issue of her six year old Jewish son preferring to dress up as "Queen Esther" (Michele Lowe), a royal from an Old Testament tale, by wearing a dress and barrette to the synagogue instead of a male costume....and her mother's love radiates warmth for her son when people laugh at him.

Workentin elevates the Thanksgiving Day Fugue acting the mother who watches football games with the family and serves Chinese take out. In another vignette, the actor also dealt with an autistic son on his first romantic excursion in "Michael's Date" (Claire LeZebnick). The heartbreaking "Stars and Stripes," (Jessica Goldberg) asks Workentin's character to mourn the death of a son, a young soldier sent to the Middle East. Who would not struggle to survive, understand, a child's death, whether this happens by miscarriage, a stillbirth, sudden infant death syndrome, leukemia, auto accident, a rock climbing incident or when an adult daughter dies of breast cancer? Through life, these experiences resonate on a personal level-and Motherhood Out Loud whispers or calls every audience member to remember their cherish own memories.

The original Mother's Day (a singular possessive in Woodrow Wilson's 1914 proclamation designating the second Sunday in May a national holiday) originally honored a mother who aided both wounded Confederate and Union soldiers, sons of many mothers .in the Civil War. Her daughter began a campaign in 1906 to commemorate these acts, along with other mothers, for one day specifically to be recorded in the singular possessive so each person could celebrate their unique mother, the person who gave them life. A crucial line in the production comes from one mother to her teenage daughter:"Without a woman's suffering, they (men), would not exist."

The fact is, much of the world honors mothers, usually on a day designated in March through May. different for each country. A women's egg, as one playwright wrote, holds the potential for life in which a man must participate initially while the woman carries and bears the child for the future. Women hold and raise the future first in their womb, and then hold their hands outside in a cold, often unkind world. While countries across the globe celebrate this process, the United States remains one of the few industrialized, first world countries without an extended paid parental leave.

Mothers in America can barely achieve six weeks at home with a new born baby-the future of the world--while most businesses remain less than family friendly for sick children, work-sharing programs for either parent, or accommodations for employees with families. Pregnancy and maternity leaves create more nuisance for corporate America than a sincere willingness to accommodate this life altering experience for employees. Yet, this celebrated event, motherhood, and subsequently parenthood, because some fathers become mother and father to a child, represents the future of civilization. While each single person also has valid life experiences, they, too, were born from a mother who nurtured them to become the person they are.

Raise a enthusiastic voice in praise of Motherhood Out Loud this spring. See this enriching, life-honoring production for the sheer insight and joy of celebrating mothers--young and old, of every color skin and culture, in every socio-economic class and spiritual persuasion, and value who each one is. A woman who created a life whether for the best or less best, often outside her control, to be admired, esteemed and loved. Ultimately, the future of the world will be determined by mothers, their health and welfare, their causes and voices, for their children and their children's children...Thank heaven for little girls... little boys....and mothers.

Next Act Theatre presents Motherhood Out Loud through May 7 at 255 North Water Street. The playwright's names appear in parentheses after the title of their vignette. For further information on the 2016-2017 season, or tickets please visit: www.nextact.org.

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