Q&A With Rex Winsome

In the past couple of years, Insurgent Theatre co-founder Rex Winsome has become a bit controversial for his outspoken criticism of theatre, which fails to live up to its potential. His new show Paint The Town tells the story of a pair of revolutionaries in contemporary society. The show opens at the Alchemist Theatre on the tenth of this month. It's one of five shows to open in greater Milwaukee next week. At the end of the month, it packs up and moves out to our the east coast. Rex answered some questions about the show:

Paint The Town is a story about revolution. You have a beautiful revolutionary who is set free from an oppressively perfect family by a terrorist. Do I smell some sort of societal allegory here?

Societal allegory, maybe... I think I'd describe it as more of a hypothetical. If there were really fully committed revolutionaries living underground somewhere in america today, how would they do it, and what actions would they take? How would they interact with our society, down to the most basic unit of society, the family? What are the consequences of that interaction? Can we find options outside of the two obvious ones: dogmatic absolute rejection of society or compromise to a social order we know is flawed and destructive?


You've only got Kate Pleuss and Jason Hames listed for the cast. Am I to understand that the family in question is implied offstage, or are there others?

actually, i apparently failed to list myself on this cast list you are looking at. So much for my egomania, eh? Yes, I'm also in the play. Kate and I play the revolutionaries, and Hames plays her brother. So the family has a representative on stage. The action is also interrupted by frequent Brechtian narrations, which all three of us perform, that discuss the rest of the family in depth.

Well, there is a definitely a deal with the red paint, and it's a pretty big deal, but you'll have to come see the show if you want to get in on the deal.


Traveling on a budget doubtlessly requires you to keep things like set ad costuming to a minimum. What special considerations have you made in putting together a show designed to be performed on the road?

There are special considerations, but this isn't one of those minimal shows with no set and actors wearing all black or something, that'd be too easy. There will be a full set, costumes and props. The play is set in a cardboard shack, built in a subway. Kurt Hartwig (playwright, founder of Bad Soviet Habits, and former professor at UWM) is building this set for us, he's got ingenous ideas that allow us to fold up and fit his rather elaborate set into our touring van. The other advantage is any patching or repairs can be done on the road with duct tape and cardboard found in the alley behind the venue.
Costumes and other set peices will double as our own sleeping gear and clothing. It also helps that there are no light cues or sound effects, all transitions are handled in full light by the actors under the audience's watchful gaze (part of the brechtian aspect of the show). Peter J Woods is touring with us, performing a noise set as overture to the show. His amp will be used as a support for the stage. Lucky and Pozzo are also going on the tour, to keep more money and audience flowing in, and their stuff will double as set peices as well. Space is definitely a concern, but i think we can manage everything and the four of us in Peter's van, as long as we don't get pulled over and have to explain all the fake bomb-making material involved in the show.

Paint The Town runs July 10 - 27 at Alchemist Theatre