I bet you didn't know Santa is a Renaissance man. Stuck up there in the sticks at the North Pole most of the time, he feels more than a little culture starved. Snowmobile and reindeer racing wears thin after a while.
The fat man really is an aficionado of the arts. He is as familiar with Edward Albee as NASCAR Barbie. He listens to Broadway show tunes in his sleigh. He thinks he would be a fine choice to play Falstaff at the American Players Theatre.
With that in mind, I decided to tap into Santa's gift giving expertise and offer some ideas for the theater and performing arts lovers on your Christmas list.
The end of 2010 marks the closing of Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday year. A big fuss was rightly made about him and his body of work during the past 12 months, and there are some permanent benefits from that for all of us to enjoy.
"Sondheim on Sondheim" is a clever musical revue and review of the composer's life that played on Broadway last spring. The master spoke on a giant video screen about his life, and a cast of singers that included Barbara Cook and Vanessa Williams responded by performing Sondheim songs that related to his comments and revelations.
The more you love Sondheim, the greater you love the show. A two-disc cast album of the Broadway production has been released, and it is so popular, the supply is currently short. If you order "Sondheim on Sondheim" online, you may have to wait a while for delivery.
You can feed your appetite for everything Sondheim with his book "Finishing the Hat," a compelling compilation of lyrics, priceless photos, anecdotes and commentary written by the maestro and published this fall. The first of two volumes, the book covers his career from 1954 to 1981.
"Finishing the Hat" offers an extended look at the daunting creative process of writing songs for musical theater. Readers get a sense of the trial and error nature of the job, including pictures of handwritten lyrics, with lines crossed out and replaced. The book gets its title from the name of a pivotal song in Sondheim's "Sunday in the Park With George," a musical about creativity.
But enough about Sondheim. You have stockings to stuff and perhaps a long list of artsy friends and relatives you want to remember at the holidays. That brings us around to an unusual little shop hidden in the shadow of the Allen-Bradley clock tower in Walker's Point. Opening Night Gifts is a small retail operation owned by longtime theater professional Ric Halterman and his partner, Chuck Arnold. A graduate of the stage management program at UWM's now defunct Professional Theatre Training Program, Halterman has been a director, choreographer and house manager as well as a stage manager.
Now in semi-retirement, he still house manages part time for the Marcus Center, but most of his energy is devoted to running the 600-sq.-ft. performing arts-themed gift shop on the third floor of the Antiques on Second antiques mall at 1039 S. 2nd St. A few of the items qualify as antiques. Most of merchandise relates in some way to the performing arts.
"Our price range is $2 to $200," Halterman says. "We are here to service a specific need and audience, and we price things so that people in the arts can afford them.
"If you are a performing artist, you don't have a lot of money. If you are the parent of a performing artist, you probably don't have a lot of money because you are supporting your child."
The shop carries small items and many greeting cards suitable for celebrating an artistic achievement. "You don't walk into Hallmark and find "Congratulations on your music recital, congratulations on your opening night,''" Halterman says. "We have that for you."
Many of the greeting cards are handmade by Halterman using vintage playing cards he has collected over the years. Where else can you find a greeting card specifically for a costumer?
The shop is a mix of old collectibles and new merchandise. An extensive clown section comes entirely from the home of Halterman's elderly mother.
Opening Night Gifts carries a lot of jewelry, including altered art items. What is altered art? "That is when you take old stuff and make new stuff out of it," the owner explains.
Necklaces made from old domino tiles fall into that category, as do bracelets crafted from old typewriter keys. The keys spell out "actor," "star" and "starlet."
The store does not sell much clothing, but you can buy a black baseball cap emblazoned with a musical note or a Hawaiian shirt decorated with the comedy and tragedy masks.
The edges of a new set of dishes are embellished with a piano key design. Wall art on sale includes 1940s and '50s ballet prints and framed Broadway cast albums from Halterman's personal collection. The record is inside the album sleeve.
Wall plaques inspire student performing artists. "Remember, when you're not practicing that someone somewhere else is, and when you meet them, they will win," says one. We'll forgive dancer and choreographer Jacques d'Amboise, the author of the quote, for his faulty grammar.
Opening Night Gifts and the entire Antiques on Second mall is open daily from 10 to 5.
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
