American Players Theatre in Spring Green will inaugurate the Touchstone Theatre, its new indoor venue, on July 10 with In Acting Shakespeare, a one-man show adapted by and starring Jim DeVita. The intimate 200-seat space will bring the audience closer to the drama, and this...

Beatrice Urich, who recently celebrated her 92nd birthday, has experimented with art for most of her life. Over the years she’s produced paintings, drawings, furniture and textiles from coast to coast, from Burlington, Vt., to Carmel, Calif., garnering many awards along the way. Yet her...

Nik Kovac was sworn in as Milwaukee alderman for the diverse Third District more than a year ago. This area on the East Side ranges from condos on the lake to the UW-Milwaukee campus to the bohemian streets of Riverwest. Kovac spoke about his first year in office over a drink at the...

Milwaukee native Elvis Thao, an actor in Clint Eastwood’s recent film Gran Torino, also lists rapper, community activist and record-company owner among his credentials. We talked to him about his multiple careers. How real to life was Gran Torino? I think the critics would know...

Jerry Homan was a star center for the Marquette University basketball team during the glorious Al McGuire era, when Marquette went to the NCAA tournament every season. In 2006, Jerry and his wife, Patti, suffered a tragic loss when their only child, Luke, who was a student at UW-La Crosse...

Michael Coleman began his path in martial arts at the age of 4, instructed by his uncle in karate. Nineteen years ago he opened the Futen Dojo at 1338 E. Brady St., and a second dojo followed at 2234 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Coleman was the subject of the 2008 documentary The Gift of Traditional...

Franks Diner in Kenosha opened just before the Great Depression. Little has changed except the prices. Narrow as a railroad car and looking like a downmarket set from The Sting, you half expect to find Robert Redford and Paul Newman in one of the booths plotting their next move over coffee.

For most people, gender identity is not a question. We have the parts that fit. But what does it mean to have a penis or a vagina? Ashley Altadonna, a Milwaukee transsexual filmmaker, has been exploring gender identity through films like Whatever Suits You, which has screened at LGBT film festivals such as San...

Solarand Multimedia is an organization committed to creating and promoting culture and arts in Wisconsin and the Midwest Great Lakes region. Ron Schaefer, an independent filmmaker with a staggering 19 films in his repertoire, spearheads the group. With its recently announced Spring Fling Series on Tuesday evenings...

The term “community leader” has gained added respect since Barack Obama’s presidential run, especially among the nation’s youth. However, it’s an organization named Public Allies, set up by two women in Washington, D.C., well before Obama’s political ascent, that has helped to turn community development...

Growing up in the retail fashion industry, boutique owner Clai Green watched as his grandparents ran clothing stores in Brooklyn, N.Y., from the 1950s through the late '70s. In 1986 Clay decided to pursue his own career in retail, opening his first store in St. Louis, then Chicago and now Milwaukee. Currently...

Within the sphere of fashion, readyto-wear has been popularized as an efficient and economical way to produce garments. Its antithesis, haute couture, incorporates client-requested features made to exact measurements. Milwaukee’s Safronia Ivory, a fourth-generation seamstress, caters exclusively to size 12...

On the surface, the YMCA may be about swimming pools and treadmills, but the mission driving the organization is built on a foundation of programs that meet the needs of the community. Sponsor-A-Scholar Milwaukee is a collective effort to help urban high-school students overcome the educational...

Ralph Larsen was in the thick of all things countercultural in Milwaukee in the ’60s and has been active in interesting endeavors in the years since, usually under the radar, as befits a man of his humility and integrity. Larsen’s day job has long been social work, but he operates a parttime business, Cranky...

Most of us never get to work inside a think tank. Michael Zimmer, assistant professor at UW-Milwaukee’s School of Information Studies, has enjoyed that rare opportunity. The thoughts that germinated inside his recent New York University submersion have become fodder for his new approaches to teaching media...

Jim Godsil could be called many things, but “philosopher roofer” is one handle that should stick. When he’s not fixing roofs for a living, Godsil can be overheard in engaging conversations at coffee shops, seen around town as a community activist and read on his Milwaukee Renaissance Web site, whose mission is encapsulated...

Work, family, a social life, politics, intimacy and religion can be hard to balance. Many times people end up giving all of their attention to one aspect of life and disregarding the others. In her book Lifewheel, Kathy Kouzmanoff, a former Franciscan nun and psychotherapist, helps people see where they stand...

It’s 6:30 p.m. on a bone-chilling Monday night. I arrive at the Hi Hat Garage to meet up with Keegan Trester, a custom bike builder. Trester began “tinkering” on motorcycles in 2002 after deciding that he needed an outlet for his creative energy. His first bike was a stock Honda Shadow VLX 600, which he later rebuilt...

Twenty years ago Tom Pilarzyk began a daily regimen of yoga and meditation as an antidote to an energy-stealing illness. Today, his health is strong and he is touring the country with a new book, Yoga Beyond Fitness, featuring an age-old philosophy and tradition that is widely spread yet sometimes misunderstood.

Twenty years ago Tom Pilarzyk began a daily regimen of yoga and meditation as an antidote to an energy stealing illness he suffered from. Today, his health is still good and he is touring the country with a new book titled Yoga Beyond Fitness, featuring an age-old philosophy and tradition that is both widely spread...

Working from her office at 2266 N. Prospect Ave., Mary Ellen Pride says she gives her clients a glimpse into what the future holds with the use of both astrology and tarot cards. She recently talked to the Shepherd Express about her work. Shepherd: What do you use to make astrological readings?

Like all successful entrepreneurs, Wisconsin-born Barry Bursak knows opportunity when he sees it. Unlike many in the business world, however, he chooses projects that benefit the environment as well as his bank account. With his newest and perhaps most significant venture soon coming to fruition, Bursak and I...

Milwaukee-area native Joe Holland is one busy individual these days. In addition to working at Flanner’s Home Entertainment in Brookfield and part-time for the Wisconsin Athletic Club, Holland is co-manager of The Coffee House, an acoustic music and poetry joint located on the corner of 19th Street and Wisconsin...

Last spring Frank Almond, concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, learned that a Stradivarius violin built in 1715, which some experts believed had disappeared, was in a bank vault in Milwaukee.The undisclosed owner offered Almond the opportunity to play it on long-term loan. “Strads,"...

On Nov. 2 Celeste Spransy celebrated her 90th birthday by exhibiting her watercolors and prismatics (durable Lucite pieces with fade-resistant dyes) at Milwaukee's Elaine Erickson Gallery. This inventive artist and her late husband...