Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Presents INDECENT By Paula Vogel 

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre has announced full casting and production details for INDECENT by Paula Vogel directed by MCT's Artistic Director Brent Hazelton. INDECENT opens Saturday, March 12 at 8pm. Preview night is set for Friday, March 11th at 7:30pm. Tickets can be purchased via the MCT website, milwaukeechambertheatre.org/tickets or by calling 414-291-7800.

Paula Vogel's play, INDECENT, is inspired by Sholem Asch's THE GOD OF VENGEANCE. A sensation from its 1906 premiere, became the first play to be translated from Yiddish and professionally staged across Europe. Hailed on the continent for its rebuttal of religious hypocrisy and its honest, joyous depiction of a same-sex relationship, the play was shut down upon its Broadway debut. Following Asch's play through the first five decades of the Twentieth Century, Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel's celebration of love and art, featuring an onstage klezmer band, honors those who brought THE GOD OF VENGEANCE to the stage-and who paid for it, in some cases, with their lives.

INDECENT features an all-star cast of some of Wisconsin's most well-loved and accomplished theater makers. Headlined by APT Core Company Member James Ridge as Lemml the Stage Manager, four-decade member of Milwaukee Repertory Theater's former Resident Acting Company James Pickering, and MCT stalwart Angela Iannone (MEDEA, MASTER CLASS, WELL, among many others), the cast also includes rising star Wisconsin artists Elyse Edelman (Milwaukee Rep, APT, Forward Theatre, Renaissance Theatreworks, Door Shakespeare), Josh Krause (APT, Forward Theatre, Next Act, Renaissance Theatreworks), and Rachael Zientek (Skylight Music Theatre, Forward Theatre, Renaissance Theatreworks), and Wisconsin native Eric Damon Smith in his MCT debut. Performing INDECENT's rousing and deeply moving klezmer score live for every performance is a dynamic musical ensemble of Music Director and Accordionist Christie Chiles Twillie (Skylight Music Theatre, Milwaukee Black Theater Festival), oboist Jason Gresl, and violin/strings player Loediwijk Broekhuizen.

"MCT has always been a place where audiences can find Milwaukee and Wisconsin's best local theater makers, but assembling a group of artists this special, this accomplished, and this well-suited to the story is a truly rare thing," said MCT Artistic Director Brent Hazelton. "INDECENT demands incredible things from those who perform it-both in technical skill and emotional virtuosity-and I am beyond thrilled to have such an equally incredible group of artists taking on the challenge of creating Milwaukee's version of this one-of-a-kind play."

INDECENT is directed by MCT's Artistic Director Brent Hazelton, with scenic and video design by Madelyn Yee, lighting design by Noele Stollmack, costume design by Kim Instenes, properties design by Jim Guy, dialect coaching by Raeleen McMillion, scenic construction by Ron Scot Fry, stage management by Bailey Wegner, ASM/COVID safety management by Sydney Smith, dramaturgy by Joel Berkowitz, and Intimacy Choreography by Christopher Elst.

"INDECENT dramatizes some of our most fundamental human impulses: love and hate, good and evil," said Dramaturg Joel Berkowitz. "These characters and this story rise 'from the ashes' every night. The fact that those ashes exist reminds us that the Holocaust changed the world forever."

"INDECENT examines America's role in the censorship of same sex relationships and displays of affection. To see that story told on a stage is both a piece of history and a reflection of where we are today" said Jason Rae, MCT Trustee and President & CEO of the Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

INDECENT is presented by Producers Robert Balderson and Max & Marni Seigle, and Associate Producers Julie Anding & Lisa Kornetsky and Joseph & Gwenn Graboyes, with additional support from The Greater Milwaukee Foundation. MCT is also proud to partner with The Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, Jewish Museum Milwaukee, Holocaust Education Resource Center, and Center for Jewish Studies in an unprecedented community partnership aligning major Jewish organizations to create an expanded conversation around the play and its themes through unique events listed below.

INDECENT runs March 11-March 27, 2022, in The Cabot Theatre located inside the Broadway Theatre Center. To purchase tickets, go to www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/tickets , call 414-291-7800 or visit in person at 158 N. Broadway in the Historic Third Ward.

For more information about MCT, the 21/22 season, how to purchase tickets, and how to donate can be found at www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org.

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