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picture: Patrick McGoohan from the Prisoner for my story

Leave it to Teatro Zuccone to have some fun, cheap, even free stuff goin’ on. Monday nights you can   be onstage as part of Renegade Theater’s $5 adult improv class. Improv students will join Jordan, Jody, Amanda and other performers to be put through some paces.

For an hour, the teachers will lead a set of novel exercises like the mildly physical “Whoosh/Bang/Ramp” or the more verbal “Three Line Dialogue”. There’s no doubt that you’ll be kept on your toes and at the tip of your tongue.

Adults of any age are welcome and no previous acting experience is necessary. Class begins at 7pm.

You’ll have an hour’s wait till the next Zeitgeist event. You can grab a brew, glass of wine or a cocktail from the Zeitgeist Cafe, or just relax in Zuccone’s spacious lounge where Patricia Kanelaki’s paintings grace the walls. Copies of The Reader, The Transistor, and the Zenith City Weekly are available and make that hour fly. Then it’s downstairs to the cinema complex for the next two episodes of “The Prisoner” with Patrick McGoohan.

The free showing of this 1968 cult classic starts at 9pm. In it, a kidnapped McGoohan finds himself in a village where everyone is named by number. He is #6.  In the episodes I saw, he repeatedly attempts to escape the “20th Century bastille that pretends they are a democracy.” I couldn’t help but think of our own nation with its corrupt elections, newly signed National Defense Authorization Act that confers the power to ‘disappear’ folks, Guantanamo and other secret prisons, and the militarized police.

Waterboarding and use of chemical agents is comparable to 6’s abuse. #1 wants some information #6 has, and stoops to many a low to get it. When six is continually punched in the gut, I couldn’t help but think of the NYPD.

“The Prisoner” will be screened on Monday nights till the end of the 17 episode series.

Camp Update

The South Shore’s Positivity Children’s Theater Camp actually takes place on Madeline Island. Beginning Monday, July 23, it ends with a final 2pm matinee performance on Sunday, August 5. Other performances are at 2 pm and 7pm on Saturday, August 4. All classes and shows take place at La Pointe School on the Island.

Each year an original play is written from a story board created by Positivity Theater staff member, Marty Curry. Rick Gillman and Sherry Milburn write original music and the kids come up with the lyrics.

The themes are often environmental. Last year, “Mine, Mine, Mine” was about proposed mining in the Penokee Mountains. Founder, Julie Stryker, says some years the children have written the play. A dance component is taught by choreographer Regina La Roche.

Madeline Island is accessible only by water. The Madeline Island ferry makes arrangements so students from the mainland aren’t burdened with a $13 daily fare. For more information, call Stryker at 715-209-0417 or look up Positivity Children’s Theater on facebook.