Recent Press Releases
Perfect Arrangement by Topher Payne
January, 2024
Beauty and the Beast, as told by Marty Duhatschek
September, 2023
I Am My Own Wife, by Doug Wright
May, 2023
Perfect Arrangement
Presented by Rebel Alliance Theatre
Friday and Saturday, January 5th and 6th
Friday and Saturday, January 12th and 13th
7:00 pm (doors open at 6:30)
First Congregational Church
137 Algoma Blvd, Oshkosh 54901
This show contains themes that may not be comfortable for all audiences – parental guidance is encouraged.
Tickets are $18 to $25
Purchase tickets at the door or at ko-fi.com/rebelalliancetheatre
The Rebel Alliance Theater 2023 season was underwritten by a generous grant from the First Congregational Church in Oshkosh.
“If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.”
(Norma – Perfect Arrangement)
We would all like to believe this statement to be true. But, for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, it often is not. The artists of Rebel Alliance Theatre, aided by a generous grant from the First Congregational Church in Oshkosh, have devoted their 2023/2024 Season to amplifying LGBTQA+ voices and issues, shining a light on the ways in which queer people are affected by the fear and prejudice of those around them.
The third show of the Rebel Season, Perfect Arrangement by Topher Payne, is set during the infamous “Lavender Scare”. The story takes place in 1950, in an increasingly polarized United States at the outset of McCarthyism. With homosexuality considered a mental illness, gay men and lesbians were barred or removed from government employment over concerns of “deviance” and “general moral turpitude” . At the center of this upheaval, two gay men and two lesbians have found a way to avoid discovery by presenting themselves as heterosexual couples, living next door to each other. But when their employer, The U.S. State Department, asks them to target men and women just like themselves, they are forced to choose between the increasingly tenuous living arrangement required by their government and the right to live in dignity without shame or fear.
Perfect Arrangement will be presented on Friday and Saturday, January 5 and 6 and 12 and 13. All shows start at 7 pm (doors open at 6:30). Tickets for Perfect Arrangement may be purchased at the door on show nights, or online: ko-fi.com/rebelalliancetheatre. Ticket prices are on a sliding scale: $18 – $25. This show contains mature themes and parental guidance is recommended. All shows will be performed at the First Congregational Church, 137 Algoma Blvd, Oshkosh. The Rebel Alliance Theatre 2023/2024 Season has been underwritten by a generous grant from the First Congregational Church.
Beauty and the Beast
Presented by Rebel Alliance Theatre
Friday and Saturday, September 22nd and 23rd
Friday and Saturday, September 29th and 30th
7:00 pm (doors open at 6:30)
First Congregational Church
137 Algoma Blvd, Oshkosh 54901
This show contains themes that may not be comfortable for all audiences – parental guidance is encouraged.
Tickets are $18 to $25
Purchase tickets at the door or at ko-fi.com/rebelalliancetheatre
(The Binary is a Curse)
The Rebel Alliance Theater 2023 season was underwritten by a generous grant from the First Congregational Church in Oshkosh.
What is the story we are telling with this play? That is the question the theatre artists at Rebel Alliance Theatre ask themselves constantly as they work to bring the words on the pages of a script to life. Because they never truly understand the story they are trying to tell until they begin to tell it. It is the process of rehearsing, designing, planning and sharing thoughts and ideas about a play that give a story (their story) its meaning. And so it has been with their current production, Beauty and the Beast by Marty Duhatschek.
But, you may say, Beauty and the Beast – everybody knows THAT story. It’s been around forever! So it has – but Rebel Alliance Theatre challenges the idea that we “know what the story is about” with their current production of the oft-told tale. On the surface, Beauty and the Beast may seem a fairly simple narrative, one that any child can understand. But, look beneath and things may not be so familiar, comfortable, and predictable.
The 2023 Rebel Alliance Theatre Season is devoted to exploring the experience of LGBTQ+ people. With this in mind, the Rebel crew has taken the deceptively familiar beats of the old fairy tale and worked to see what lies beneath. As Keegan Burnett-Connelly (this season’s program director) states, “Our production isn’t your grandmother’s Beauty and the Beast”. The play begins with a Storyteller telling one of the characters, “You aren’t in this story.” How many LGBTQ+ people feel this everyday? How many marginalized groups of people (Queer, Neuro-divergent, members of racial minorities) feel that the story “everyone knows' ' doesn't include them?
The majority of the cast of this production identify as LGBTQ+ and have crafted a performance designed to encourage the audience to think about how this timeless classic changes when "Beauty" is not what you expected. Questions of identity and who you think you are, how others perceive you, toxic masculinity, autonomy, as well as generosity, empathy, and accepting those that are different are all core elements of Rebel’s production of Beauty and The Beast.
Rebel Alliance Theatre’s production of Beauty and the Beast will be performed in Oshkosh’s First Congregational Church (137 Algoma Blvd, Oshkosh 54901). Shows will be performed on Friday and Saturday, September 22nd and 23rd, and Friday and Saturday, September 29th and 30th. Shows begin at 7 pm (doors open at 6:30 pm). Tickets for the show are $18 to $25 and may be purchased in advance (ko-fi.com/rebelalliancetheatre.com) or at the door. Because of the themes explored in this production, parental guidance is suggested. Consult the Rebel Alliance Theatre website for more information.
Rebel Alliance Theatre would like to thank the First Congregational Church of Oshkosh for their support and for financially underwriting Rebel Alliance Theatre’s Current Season ~ “Let’s Be Theatre Queers”.
Rebel Alliance Theatre invites you to come and help them tell a Tale as Old as Time in a new way. Set aside your torches and pitchforks, keep a level head, and remind yourself, we are all people with different "once upon a times" and "happily-ever-afters". Not everyone's story needs to be the same as yours.
I Am My Own Wife
June 9, 10, 16, 17
First Congregational Church Oshkosh, 137 Algoma Blvd
June is Pride Month, a fitting time for artists to explore ideas about identity, representation, and the experience of marginalized groups suffering both personal and systemic persecution. On June 9th, 10th, 16th and 17th, the artists of Rebel Alliance Theatre will address these themes in their first post-pandemic production,”I Am My Own Wife” by Doug Wright.
“I Am My Own Wife”, a 2004 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize Winning play, chronicles the story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, whom Doug interviews in post-reunified Germany while revelations on Stasi collaborators keep making headlines. A trans woman (self-described “transvestite” per the language available at the time), Charlotte survived Nazi Germany and then life in the GDR under the Soviets, wearing skirts instead of carrying a gun. “You are teaching me a history I didn't know I had,” Doug tells Charlotte. But what sort of negotiations does a person have to make to live authentically? In 2023, Russia is invading Ukraine and the rights and the very existence of trans people is up for debate all over the United States. Marginalized groups are experiencing mass invasions of privacy, strict legislation, and the outright banning of the self expression that would allow them to be their true selves in public. In East Germany during the rule of the Stasi and the USSR, there were mass invasions of privacy, strict legislation and terror tactics to keep people in line. We must know our history so that we do not repeat it.
A single-actor piece, Rebel Alliance Theatre core member Keegan Burnett-Connelly performs over 40 roles including those of Doug and Charlotte. Performances take place on June 9th, 10th, 16th, and 17th at 7PM( house opens 6:30 PM) in the lower level of First Congregational Church Oshkosh, 137 Algoma Blvd. Tickets for “I Am My Own Wife” can be purchased at box or online at (site), starting at $18 (box office will have a sliding scale of $18-25 per ticket); there are 24 seats per performance. Due to the sensitive nature of the play, there are themes and language that may upset certain viewers. This play is for mature audiences only. Viewer discretion is advised. Follow Rebel Alliance Theatre on Facebook for more info.
Would you like to help Rebel Alliance create the magic that is live theatre? The auditions for the rest of Rebel Alliance Theatre's LGBTQ+ 2023 program will be held on June 26th and 27th at 6:30 pm in the lower level of the First Congregational Church in Oshkosh. Watch the Rebel Alliance Facebook page and website for more information.