Boulevard Theatre Ends 25th Anniversary Season with TWO 2 GO, 4/20-5/27

The Boulevard Theatre, located at 2252 South Kinnickinnic, closes its 25th anniversary season with "TWO 2 GO," a double-bill of two rarely staged one-act plays, including celebrated playwright George Bernard Shaw's delightful marital romp A VILLAGE WOOING and noted playwright Thornton Wilder's soulful comedy PULLMAN CAR HIAWATHA. These rarely produced works both deal with travel, romance, love and "transition" and will play from Wednesday, April 20, 2011 through Sunday, May 27, 2011.

For more information or to make reservations, please call the Boulevard's 24-hour voicemail system at 414.744.5757. Visit www.boulevardtheatre.com for more information about the playwrights, actors and histories of production.

"TWO 2 GO" is the perfect production to close two and one-half decades of "all things Boulevard." As the Boulevard's mission is to promote opportunities for new and returning artists from all theatrical disciplines as well as champion neglected literary works, this charming double-bill succinctly embodies this ambitious goal. The playwrights and scripts selected for this closing production celebrate a rich vein of literary talent while showcasing two of their (woefully) overlooked works.

Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1865 - 1950) is best known as both a recipient of the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature as well as the author of such theatrical touchstones as MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION, MAJOR BARBARA and PYGMALION. Opening Boulevard's double-bill is Shaw's A VILLAGE WOOING (1934), which is a delightful (to use Shaw's own term) "comedietta" about love and marriage. In the very concentrated one-act (three scenes), Shaw has concocted a more whimsical courtship in which the woman leads. This sprightly play is enough to justify Shaw's idea that "Men and women are always driving one another mad"--or perhaps into a deeper sanity. Shaw's recalcitrant lovers are a cranky, independent travel writer and a garrulous village shop girl. They meet on a cruise ship, but however unromantic their first encounter--she pursues, he retreats--it changes his life, from curmudgeonly creativity to a state of domesticity (blissful or otherwise!).

Neither, however, seems suitable for the other--just the sort of mating challenge Shaw delighted in. The unnamed male character is a confirmed widower, a spiritual cousin to Henry Higgins--prickly, cynical, and serious. She is common and decisive--as he puts it, "positive, masterful, and acquisitive," a casebook study in what Shaw called the "Life Force" in the cool pursuit of its mate (or, as the unnamed female character puts it, "I could put up with him").

Actress, singer and performer Liv Mueller makes her Boulevard debut as Shaw's "femme fatale with a mission" and noted actor Michael Keiley also debuts with the Boulevard as her "target." Ms. Meuller and Mr. Keiley have worked together previously in many productions at Milwaukee's CARTE BLANCHE Studio Theatre. These previous "couplings" have won both critical accolades as well as audience ovations with appearances in CABARET (as Fraulein Kost and Herr Ludwig), A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (as Titania and Oberon), and THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (as Katherine and Petruchio). Their previous appearances have demonstrated a theatrical "magic" which bespeaks of a stage chemistry rarely witnessed in Milwaukee theatre. Ms. Meuller is a respected recording artist (THE LOVELIES) and Mr. Keiley has appeared with numerous other theatres.

Completing the program is American author and playwright Thornton Wilder's (1897-1975) wistful theatrical travelogue PULLMAN CAR HIAWATHA (1931), which tells the story of over three dozen passengers on a train car in 1930. Wilder, recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes, is best known as the author of the perennial theatrical classic OUR TOWN, as well as such plays as THE MATCHMAKER and THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH.

HIAWATHA, a one-act comedy set in a Pullman car on a train traveling from New York to Chicago in December, 1930, introduces techniques Wilder would use in future three-act plays. The stage is virtually bare and the play is narrated by a Stage Manager. One of the characters speaks words that foreshadow Emily's words in Our Town. The play includes a character representing Grover's Corners, Ohio -- a forerunner of Our Town's Grover's Corners, New Hampshire.

The cast includes the hours of the day, the weather, the planets, and supernatural beings. Conventional time is suspended, and the only true measures of existence are life and death. Pullman Car takes audiences on a metaphorical journey by train through the American landscape, a diverse band of travelers encapsulated in a Pullman car hurtle through time, space and a range of emotions.

Appearing in this unusual production are two Boulevard favorites, Jaime Jastrab and Michael Weber. Mr. Jastrab directed Boulevard's acclaimed November, 2009 production of CLARENCE DARROW and has also appeared many times in past Boulevard shows, including Maughm's THE CONSTANT WIFE, Moliere's THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES, Gurney's INDIAN BLOOD and many others.

Mr. Weber appeared with the Boulevard in both its early years and later seasons, in such varied shows as Shakespeare's PERICLES, Mamet's REUNION, and Durang's THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE & BOO. Other actors appearing in this rarely-produced script will be announced later.

 

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