Milwaukee Shakespeare, a non-profit, professional theatre company
devoted to the presentation of the works of William Shakespeare,
concludes its 2003-2004 partnership season with the Peck School of the
Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a production of TITUS
ANDRONICUS. The rarely-performed play, directed by Alec Wild, opens
April 23 and runs through May 9, 2004. All performances take place in
the Mainstage Theatre, 2400 East Kenwood Boulevard, on the UWM campus.
Tickets may be purchased by calling the Peck School of the Arts Box
Office at (414) 229-4308. (Please see attached Fact Sheet for details.)

The opening night performance, which coincides with William
Shakespeare's birthday, will be followed by an informal reception.
Birthday cake and a cash bar will be available.

Artistic Director Paula Suozzi has assembled a strong cast forTITUS
ANDRONICUS. David Cecsarini will play Titus, and Kim Martin-Cotten will
play Tamora, Queen of the Goths. Cecsarini, artistic director of Next
Act Theatre in Milwaukee, has performed with Milwaukee Repertory
Theatre, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, The Guthrie Theatre, Wisconsin
Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and spent several
seasons at American Players Theatre where he appeared as Aaron the Moor
in an earlier production of TITUS ANDRONICUS. Martin-Cottens credits
include Actor's Theatre of Louisville, the Humana Festival of New
American Plays, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Shakespeare
Festival, Utah Shakespearean Festival, and Kansas City Shakespeare.
Julian Rozzell, Jr. is Aaron in this production and he is joined by
Richard B. Watson (Saturninus), and Christopher Gerson (Marcus).
Returning Milwaukee Shakespeare actors include Joe Foust (Lucius),
Michael DiPadova (Bassianus/Nurse/Publius) and Mic Matarrese
(Chiron/Emilius). New to Milwaukee Shakespeare audiences are two UWM
students, Lindsey Fitzgerald (Lavinia) and Eric Cherney (Alarbus) as
well as Kern McFadden (Demetrius/Goth), Marcus Truschinski
(Quintus//Mutius/Caius), and Benjamin Eggebrecht (Young Lucius).

Although TITUS ANDRONICUS was the single most popular play in
Shakespeare's theatre during his lifetime, directing it in 2004 presents
something of a challenge as director Alec Wild is quick to point out.
It's nearly impossible to find a literary critic with something nice to
say about TITUS ANDRONICUS. Contemporary critics dismiss TITUS or
excuse it as the work of a young and not quite competent Shakespeare.
Wild notes that T.S. Eliot called it "the stupidest and most uninspired
play ever written," and Harold Bloom, arguably America's most
influential Shakespeare scholar, can concede no intrinsic value in
TITUS - indeed, he vows never to see another production unless it's
directed by Mel Brooks!

Rife with violence and brutality, from murder, rape and dismemberment to
live burial, feigned insanity and the feeding of a pie made up of the
bodies of her dead sons to a mother, TITUS has gained a reputation as an
overly graphic account of the revenge that ensues when Titus Andronicus,
a Roman general recently returned from ten years of war,
sacrificesaccording to traditional Roman practice--the eldest son of
his captive Tamora, Queen of the Goths. (The play is not recommended for
children under 13.) Yet according to Wild what makes TITUS a great play
is not its plot, its violence, its horror - although these are
magnificent in their realization. What moves us is Shakespeare's
unfailingly accurate portrayal of human beings responding to
extraordinary situations. For all of the atrocities committed in the
play, we are far more engaged by the characters' efforts to come to
terms with the emotional effects of the cruelty - and this they do with
Shakespeare's passionate, active, soaring language. Thus, Wilds TITUS
is a production that balances beauty and barbarity, humanity and atrocity.

Wild, the founder and artistic director of the critically acclaimed,
award-winning Folio Theatre in Chicago, is directing his first play in
Milwaukee. His work as a director and assistant director has been seen
at Bailiwick Repertory, The Old Globe, Yale Repertory, and the Chicago
Shakespeare Theatre. As the recipient of a 1997 Fox Fellowship, Mr. Wild
traveled to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to work as the Assistant Director
of The Revizor Project, an international, cross-cultural effort to
examine the work of Vsevolod Meyerhold, and to re-create his seminal
1926 production of Gogol's The Inspector General. He recently received
the Drama League Director's Project Fellowship to work on a production
at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York. He holds an M.F.A. in
Directing from the Yale School of Drama, and a B.F.A. in Acting from the
Goodman School of Drama. Shakespeare has been a major focus of Wilds
work. Among his directing credits are Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet,
and Henry IV, part 1. Wild was also a guest lecturer on Shakespeare at
New York University and currently teaches Shakespeare at the University
of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The production team for TITUS ANDRONICUS includes Evan Alexander (scenic
and property design), Jenny Mannis (costume design), Marcus Doshi
(lighting design), Kathy Koenig (stage manager), Robin McFarquhar (fight
choreography), and Leslie Brott (text coach).

Please see attached Fact Sheet.

For electronic files of photos, please contact Ellen Ash at (414) 229-5714. MILWAUKEE SHAKESPEARE 2003-2004 SEASON FACT SHEET

LOCATION: All performances take place at the UWM Peck School of the Arts
Mainstage Theatre, 2400 East Kenwood Boulevard, on the UWM campus. There
is ample parking in the adjacent underground structure, and the theatre
is accessible. (Patrons with accessibility questions should contact the
Peck School of the Arts Box Office at (414) 229-4308.)

TICKET INFORMATION: Season subscriptions are $50/$45 for seniors/$30 for
students. Single tickets are $20 (weekend evenings); $18 (weeknights and
Sunday matinees); $16 for seniors (all performances) and $12 for
students (all performances). Group rates available. For tickets, please
call the UWM Peck School of the Arts Box Office at (414) 229-4308. Box
office hours: Tuesday-Friday, 10 AM-5 PM. The Box Office is located in
the Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts, 2419 East Kenwood
Blvd. It opens one hour prior to each performance in its satellite
location in the lobby of the Mainstage Theatre.

TITUS ANDRONICUS
By William Shakespeare
April 23-May 9, 2004
Directed by Alec Wild
UWM Mainstage Theatre

Performances
Thursday, April 22 at 7:30 PM Invited Dress Rehearsal
Friday, April 23 at 8 PM Opening Night; Shakespeare Birthday Party follows Saturday, April 24 at 8 PM Monday, April 26 at 7:30 PM Pay What You Can Thursday, April 29 at 7:30 PM Friday, April 30 at 8 PM Saturday, May 1 at 8 PM Sunday, May 2 at 2 PM Thursday, May 6 at 7:30 PM Friday, May 7at 8 PM Saturday, May 8 at 8 PM Sunday, May 9 at 2 PM Closing