MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee theater company is celebrating its eighth season with dark comedy productions that aim to help audiences process difficult emotions through laughter.
The Constructivists, based at the Broadway Theater Center in the Historic Third Ward, specialize in what founder Jaimelyn Gray calls "dark art catharsis" — using dark comedy, dramedy and drama to help people work through challenging feelings.
The Constructivists started in 2017 with their first production in the basement of the Grand Avenue mall downtown. Their inaugural show was "Gruesome Playground Injuries" at the Underground Collaborative. The company has grown steadily since then, surviving the pandemic and now completing three seasons at the Broadway Theater Center.
Gray's husband builds the sets while one of her college friends designs them — a partnership that has lasted throughout the company's eight-year run.
Watch: Milwaukee theater company celebrates eighth season with dark comedy productions
The company kicked off its current season with "Bed and Breakfast of the Damned," a world premiere horror comedy by Cameron McNary. The final show was held Friday.
The next production will be "A Very Deadly Constructivist Holiday," running December 18-20. The holiday show explores humans behaving badly according to the seven deadly sins through various vignettes.
"Holidays do kind of make people go crazy," Gray said. "It's all about humans behaving badly over the holidays, according to the seven deadly sins. So there are vignettes of scenes that go through lust and wrath and envy and all of the sins."
Gray serves as both director and owner of the company, though she also acts in productions. She appeared in the company's spring show, "The Beauty Queen of Leenane."
The Constructivists partnered with Imagine MKE, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting local artists and creative spaces in Milwaukee's art scene.
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