April’s MKE Creatives had another interesting group of attendees! There was a video producer, photographer, art consultant/writer, character performer, romance writer, software developer, and another photographer.
Stephanie is looking for women writers for an anthology she’s working on, and publishers to consult with.
Paul is prepping for his role at this summer’s Bristol Renaissance Faire, and enjoying the “intermediate” improv class he’s in at Comedy Sportz.
Liz has her first e-novella coming out in July – it’s part of her “Men At Work” romance series. She’s also been real busy preparing for this month’s Romance Writers’ Association of WI writer’s conference on April 24-26. There are a few public events at this conference – so noted on the schedule. See the schedule here. (and I’ll be at much of the conference, making photos!)
Michelle, Mark, Dave, and me are all keeping busy creating videos, software/web work and photos for our clients.
Our featured presenter was Susan Fry, artistic director of the Optimist Theatre, the company that puts on “Shakespeare In The Park” at Kadish Park in Milwaukee. SITP has been going on for six years, and for the past three, has been at Kadish Park – site of what many folks consider the “best view of Milwaukee”. Susan had a lot of neat information to share with us about their Shakespeare productions…
+SITP has >always< been free. It’s funded by individual donors and corporate sponsors. (if any local businesses would like to step up, Optimist would LOVE to hear from them!)
+SITP works with “union actors – there are no volunteers here – everyone is paid professionals. And, we only hire local actors and crew (keeping all talent coming from SE-WI!)”
+“we make Shakespeare accessible – it’s free, it’s in the park, it’s about communication, there’s live music, it’s very physical; it’s about people coming and having a better time than they thought you could have with a play that’s hundreds of years old and in Olde English!”
+Optimist has performed some of the Bard’s “greatest hits” – Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, the Scottish play, and this year, “A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHT’S DREAM”!
+this summer’s Midsummer’s Night’s Dream should be quite fun, as it will retain the original language, but be set in 1960s Haight/Ashbury! There will be at least eight performances of Dream. 🙂
+Susan also said, ”at Kadish, you really are part of the community. At one time last year, we knew the underwear bike ride was going to come through during our show. Sometimes you hear other city noises during the show – these things just become part of the performance.”
+”we stick with the original Shakespeare language.”
There are lots of opportunities for individuals and businesses to support the Optimists!
