A ‘Wickedly Funny’ Scarecrow

IN 2019, Heidi Armbruster returned home to Wisconsin to care for her dying father, having spent the previous two decades in New York working as a playwright and an actor. She didn't realize that the time on her father's farm in Lodi would inspire her one-woman show, Scarecrow, playing this month and next at Next Act Theatre.

“[My dad] liked to have fun and make people laugh,” Armbruster says. “When he finally understood that he was dying, he started making these phone calls to his friends that would go like this – ‘Well, looks like we're not gonna get out to any more strip clubs. You were a real good friend to me. You take care now.'”

After her father died, she wrote a series of essays about the trauma of losing a parent and the meaning of home. Those essays soon morphed into Scarecrow, which revolves around Armbruster as she confronts her father's passing, facing grief with humor.

A mutual friend gave Armbruster's script to Cody Estle, Next Act's director, who thought the Wisconsin story was perfect for the company. “It's wickedly funny,” Estle says. “It's also this story of coming home.”

Since writing the play, Armbruster has moved to Milwaukee permanently, where she's also performed at the Milwaukee Rep in God of Carnage and Wife of a Salesman.

“Digging into my specific story I hope gives people permission to dig into their own stories and see the universality of using humor to process grief,” Armbruster says. “I hope people see themselves reflected in it – and get a laugh or two.”

Feb. 21-March 17 at Next Act Theatre, nextact.org