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The Wisconsin Wrights New Play Project, a program that debuted last year for developing new plays by Wisconsin writers, is continuing its work by selecting another group of three scripts to be workshopped. The final step of this process is a public reading at UW-Madison’s Hemsley Theatre in June, where audience members are encouraged to give the playwright feedback. This year’s playwrights include Gwendolyn Rice of Madison, plus Ludmilla Bollow of Glendale and Marcia Jablonski of Mineral Point. More information about the playwrights and the scripts is available from the Wisconsin Wrights Web page and tickets for the readings can be purchased here.

A lurid chronicle of John Mendels(s)ohn’s five-week stint editing Chic magazine, one-man show “Wm. Floggin’ Buckley” involves sex, drugs, some Elvis-inspired rock ‘n’ roll and enough crazed management to drive anyone nuts. Mendels(s)ohn begins his show with a manic stream-of-consciousness meditation on career-advice prompts (Do I work well with others? Where do I see myself in five years?), sounding a lot like a panicked recent graduate with a liberal arts degree – or a previously established writer experiencing the downfall of his career. Through a series of events and a series of introductions to specific characters, Mendels(s)ohn winds up with an editing position at Chic, working on an editorial about global warming and spinning a decaying story into a sensational prediction of the next ice age or imminent hellish sauna.

Cocaine, easy women, dreadful writing and "retouched labia" were all in a day’s work for John Mendels(s)ohn in 1980 when he worked for Chic magazine (an offshoot publication in Larry Flint’s Hustler enterprise).

The local actor/writer/critic will be performing his one man show about this experience at Restaurant Magnus tonight (and again on April 29 and May 6). He’s performed "Wm. Floggin’ Buckley" occasionally since the late 90s. The name of the show comes from a British character in the monologue who screams out, "I didn’t say we needed William floggin’ Buckley, did I?" When he performed the show ten years ago in San Francisco, the city’s alt weekly wrote, "Mendels(s)ohn throws himself into all these characters, and if the story is hard to follow it never lacks crazed energy or color."

Mendels(s)ohn sat down with me recently to discuss porn, bad writing, the unfair realities of the world and being a "universal object for female desire."

A Rob Matsushita play at the Stoughton Opera House? This pairing seemed intriguing if not downright twisted. The whiney playwright who seems to thrive on dramas filled with violence, heavy-duty weapons, and yucky fake blood staging a play at the elegant theater in the city where the coffee break was born and several generations of my family are buried? This I had to see for myself.

Matsushita's play, "The Family Caper: The Tank," was sharing the bill with "Fool Me Once" by Doug Reed, according to the poster I saw in the Middleton Library. Even better. The first time I recall seeing these two names together on a playbill was in 2002, when both men contributed short plays to the Mercury Players Theatre production of "Computers in Love." Their plays were the best of the batch – and in a moment of alliteration madness, I even dubbed "Tech" a Matsushita masterpiece.

With an infusion of cash from the sale of a chain of waffle houses owned by former Mercury Players Theatre artistic director Pete Rydberg, the local theatre company announced its acquisition of Spring Green's American Players Theatre (APT) today, April First. APT is well known and respected for its summer productions of plays by Shakespeare and other great playwrights, and both companies appear in the top three of the current Madison's Favorites - Local Theater Company results.

Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons until April 13 Broom Street Theater presents Leprechaun, an original play by BST artistic director Callen Harty. It’s a sort of theatrical version of a road movie, featuring a bus tour in Ireland, eccentric characters in both the travelling group and among the locals, and self-discovery. Like Harty’s play A Wake, which featured a U.S. family of Irish descent, the overall tone is comic with moments of insight and deeper themes, like the replacement of the historical aspects of a culture with the contemporary.

I consider myself a Bartell enthusiast. I’ve even started to volunteer there. It’s a down-the-street alternative to oftentimes expensive Overture escapades, and what’s more? For about the price of a movie ticket, you can be in the room while the story takes place. Sounds like a good deal to me. Like a movie theatre, and unlike many performance spaces, the Bartell actually lets you bring food and drink into the theatre; a great comfort to busy patrons.

I ventured to see Pulp at the end of a long day. I was stressed out. I just wanted friendly personable service and a great show, and that’s exactly what I got. Even when I rushed to my seat, hardly containing my casual anticipation, the usher calmly caught up with me and noted with a charming smile that I “got away” from her. She tore my ticket and I was whisked away to a distant land unscathed by the alterations time and children’s history books can make. I was in a 1950’s pulp novella.

This Friday and Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, MATC Performing Arts presents Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors at the Truax campus’s Mitby Theater. The story takes place in the city of Ephesus and involves the comic mishaps that take place when Antipholus and his servant Dromio, both of Syracuse, are mistaken for their long-lost identical twins, residents of Ephesus also named Antipholus and Dromio.

Scenic designer Frank Schneeberger, costume designer Rebecca Sites, and makeup designer Dawn Marie Svanoe have given the production quite a distinctive and fun look. Antipholus of Syracuse’s confusion over being mistaken for his twin causes him to wonder if he’s in a dream or some other fantastical world, and the play’s overall look makes imaginative use of distortions and fanciful elements.

Tonight the UW-Madison Memorial Union presents real-life humor from Ben Karlin and, at 7:30 p.m., fictional humor from the 17th Annual Marcia Legere Student Play Festival, taking place at the Fredric March Play Circle. Admission is free. The Wisconsin Union Directorate's Student Performance Committee issues a call for original scripts written by UW-Madison students, and faculty judges select three to be performed. Directors, actors, backstage personnel, and marketers are also all UW-Madison students.

With the acquisition of its MercLab rehearsal and storage space on 930 Fair Oaks Avenue, Mercury Players Theatre has also provided an occasional performance venue on Madison’s east side, and the only venue in the city where you can cover yourself with a quilt, recline on a couch that once appeared onstage in a “slasher comedy,” and see a live show.

Tonight, April 11 & 12, and May 9 & 10, 8 p.m., local comedy troupe Rabid Badger Theatre Company performs at the MercLab with a mix of new sketches and sketches previously seen at the Madison Center for Creative and Cultural Arts.

In a press release, Strollers Theatre has announced that it is not only fulfilling its original commitment to performing The Miss Firecracker Contest at the Gerald Bartell Community Theatre this spring, but it will continue as a Bartell Theatre Participating Theatre Company through the 2008 – 2009 season.

Tonight is a big premier night for Madison theatre: My Name is Rachel Corrie, a one-woman play successful in London and controversial in New York, based on the words of the activist killed in Madison’s sister city of Rafah; Madison Rep’s Permanent Collection, StageQ’s Pulp, Broom Street Theater’s Leprechaun, MATC’s The Comedy of Errors, and Kanopy Dance Company’s Dark Nights: Baba Yaga and Other Dreams. Last night, however, I went to Stoughton High School to see its TAG Drama production of Laughing Stock, a comedy about a theatre company performing a summer repertory program in a New England barn. Much of the play tends toward Noises Off style farce over its two-and-a-half hours but there’s some more serious reflection too about what makes participation in live theatre special.

Thursday through Saturday this week and next, plus this Sunday at 2 p.m., University Theatre presents The Bluest Eye, an adaptation of Toni Morrison’s first novel. The play, written by Lydia R. Diamond, is relatively recent, having premiered in 2005. The production is directed by guest artist Derrick Sanders. Both Diamond and Sanders were both on hand for a talkback after Saturday’s performance and the playwright was pleased with the production’s “heart.”

Mine! I don’t wanna! Why should I? Aren’t I needy? In a world that is oftentimes cruel, much effort goes into teaching children about sharing. Greed presents itself in childhood and rarely really leaves any of us. If you take your children to see The Quiltmaker’s Gift, I anticipate you’ll pleasantly simmer in reflections of adult toddlers you know personally and enjoy some quality connection time with your wee ones as well. MadCAP’s The Quiltmaker’s Gift is an uproarious share-fest that folks of all ages can enjoy.