Finding hope and solace through art

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As Isthmus’ arts and culture editor I have the privilege of viewing the works of many different artists working in diverse media. I’ve found inspiration and hope, despite the devastating blows that have been aimed at science, democracy and humanity.

On Jan. 20, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, I watched the sun go down on the National Mall as an orange glow lit up an impromptu art exhibit of thousands of anti-Trump and pro-democracy signs propped up along chain link fence and the border securing the White House. I reported on the Madison contingent of the Women’s March on Washington the next week. This massive show of creative resistance — which spawned satellite protests in Madison and cities around the country — launched us into a new era.

In April, comedian/podcaster Marc Maron stopped at the Orpheum with a bit about the the anxiety of waking up every single day to some new chapter of the horror/reality show that is the Trump administration.

As one of my heroes, James DeVita, put it in his program notes for American Players Theatre’s Cyrano de Bergerac: “I cannot think of a time when we need Cyrano more than now.” How is it that a romantic tragedy written in 1897 could speak to today’s moment? Imagine a world where kindness, loyalty and ethical purity rule the day. DeVita’s adaptation hit all the right notes.

The only play that dealt with Trump trauma head on was a little-publicized reading at the Bartell Theater in June. Written by Los Angeles playwright Ray Richmond, Transition imagined what it was like when Barack Obama met with Trump in the Oval Office 36 hours after the election. Maxton Young-Jones expressed a combination of kindness, generosity and suppressed rage as Obama. And Sam White hit the nail on the head as an egocentric and insecure Trump. Both actors avoided caricature and sought some deeper truths. I wish more people had seen it.

We’ve got plenty of fresh examples of how tough it is for women in the entertainment business. So I was delighted to see Overture host a touring production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, a show that tells the story of how nerdy Brooklynite Carol Joan Klein became one of the world’s top hit songwriters. A luminous Julia Knitel embodied King, throwing herself into her singing. Yes, I refrained from jumping out of my seat and singing along. But it wasn’t easy. Same situation when Bonnie Raitt, another living legend, played Overture Hall in August.

I was mesmerized by Chele Isaac’s video art installment, the understory, at MMoCA in September. Isaac artfully combined nature images and abstract film techniques projected onto a series of round video screens in a circular tower she repurposed from a Milwaukee science museum. Imagine a drug trip without the drugs.

Forward Theater hit a home run with I and You, a play about two teenagers who connect while working on a school project on Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. The leads, Chantae Miller and Alistair Sewell, dove deeply into their characters’ inner lives, showing us the rewards of accepting each other and expressing ourselves. It had a shocker ending — which I’m still not giving away.

I hate to state an obvious fact, but musicals can be pretty stupid. There’s a delicate balance in getting the audience to accept the bizarre fact of people breaking into song, and my favorite example of one that succeeds was Four Seasons Theatre’s The Spitfire Grill. It’s a simple story about acceptance and redemption set in a small-town in Wisconsin. I loved the folk-based score (accordion!), and the singing was tremendous.

Speaking of stupendous women, get to a theater and see my Oscar picks, Lady Bird and Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. Lady Bird is Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age masterpiece starring the stunningly real Saoirse Ronan. Three Billboards is an unflinching look at a mother’s grief and anger. Amid her ass-kicking, Frances McDormand shares an unexpectedly tender scene with Woody Harrelson, who is also at his finest as the ailing Chief Willoughby.