Theatre Gigante is a non-profit performance arts organization and, as such, is supported by the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts, Milwaukee Arts Board, CAMPAC, and by the generous support of other foundations, corporations, and private donations, including UPAF, of which Theatre Gigante is an Affiliate Member.

Pre-Season Opener Opener

Theatre Gigante pre-empts its own 32nd Season Opener, The Beggar’s Opera, with a monologue performance by Gigante Artistic co-Director Mark Anderson, at the upcoming Fourth Milwaukee Fringe Festival.

I JUST WANT TO SAY… features excerpts from three of Anderson’s twisted, witty monologues: 80 Words for Snow (1986), Who (1995), and White Clown (1999). The solo performance takes place at 3:30pm, Saturday, August 24, in the Todd Wehr Theatre at the Marcus Center.

For over 30 years, Mark Anderson has been writing and performing monologues that playfully and poetically examine the anxieties and harmonic tremors of modern living. His work has been seen in many cities across the USA, including Houston, San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, New York City, Boston, D.C., Atlanta, and closer to home, Milwaukee, Madison, Appleton, Green Bay and Sheboygan. He has toured with PS122 Field Trips, has received several commissions for new works, and has twice earned the Wisconsin Arts Board Interdisciplinary Arts Fellowship. His book of monologues, Making a Living, was published by Woodland Pattern. He has performed six of his monologues under the auspices of Theatre Gigante.

What critics have said:
Washington Post – Alan M. Kriegsman
Mark Anderson, tall and pencil-thin, is a natural wit whose mock metaphysical disquisition on the human life cycle pitted an almost schoolmasterish text and delivery against an undertone of wry, wistful and mordant observation.

Pittsburgh Press – Lynne Conner
Anderson’s “speaker” moved through a self-conscious stream of observations on the big themes – birth, marriage and death – with a calculated humility…

Milwaukee Magazine – Paul Kosidowski
Anderson has a knack for making “the everyday” interesting—and even pleasantly perplexing. When he talks about art, after all, he is talking about decades of a life devoted to it—its questions, joys, challenges and frustrations. And, of course, its rewards. …it is informed by artistry, thought and reflection—the willingness to discover or uncover something new, original and even beautiful.

Third Coast Daily – Tom Strini
Time seemed to stop within Anderson’s loopy, spiraling mind — and yes, we were as much into Anderson’s brain as he was into ours.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Mike Fischer
…material this good and delivered this well is bound to sustain, long after the lights come down and we walk back out into the night, no longer alone.

I JUST WANT TO SAY…
Saturday, August 24, 2019, at 3:30pm
Todd Wehr Theatre, Marcus Center for the Performing Arts
ticket information: http://mkefringe.com/tickets/