Parkside Theatre’s “Threepenny Opera” Oct. 19-28

Mackie is back! "Threepenny Opera" here Oct. 19-28!

Parkside Theatre, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside's award-winning theatre company, opens its 2012-2013 season with seven performances of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's musical "Threepenny Opera." Directed by Lisa Kornetsky, this razor-sharp satire is presented in the Black Box Theatre of the Rita Tallent Picken Regional Center for Arts and Humanities Oct. 19-28. Performances begin Oct. 19, 20, 25, 26, and 27 at 7:30 p.m. with matinees Friday, Oct. 19 at 10 a.m. and Sunday, Oct. 28 at 2 p.m. The campus is located at 900 Wood Rd. in Kenosha.

"'Threepenny Opera' is a great way to start the season--we're literally starting on a high note!" Kornetsky stated. "Musicals are always a challenge and 'Threepenny' is a great way to allow our young actors to stretch themselves."

Meet Macheath, better known to friends--and victims--as "Mack the Knife." He alternately charms and carves his way through London with impunity...until he decides to marry the daughter of a well-connected shopkeeper who objects to this union. Despite a longstanding personal relationship with the city's police chief, Mack's new in-laws manage to have him arrested--twice!--with a real possibility the second custody will end with Mack's demise.

The cast includes Ethan Hall as Macheath, Rachel Sandlin as his bride Polly Peachum, Michael Zimmerman and Brenna Kempf as Polly's protesting parents, Michael Pfeiffer as Police Chief Tiger Brown and Holly Thompson as the chief's daughter Lucy Brown. Music direction is by Dr. Bill Lavonis.

Filled with charismatic crooks, saucy ladies, and scheming scoundrels, "Threepenny Opera" combined Weill's acidic harmonies and the sounds of 1920s Berlin dance bands with Brecht's biting words to create a revolutionary new form of musical theater. Prominent theatre critic Walter Kerr called this play "The most wonderfully insulting music I have ever come across." It would later inspire the hit plays "Cabaret" and "Chicago." 

Tickets for Parkside Theatre's production of "Threepenny Opera are $17 for adults, $13 for seniors and UW-Parkside faculty and staff, and $8 for students. Money saving season tickets covering the entire 2012-2013 season, which includes the Irish memory play "Dancing at Lughnasa," the powerful docudrama "Columbinus," and Shakespeare's "12th Night," are available. For tickets, call 262-595-2564 or visit www.uwp.edu keyword tickets.

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ABOUT THIS STORY:

Story Status: Archived
Publish date: 10/9/2012

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