drama INK – Summer 2023

INKdrama

The donor newsletter of Milwaukee Rep

SPEAKINGdirectl y

we will begin with the Powerhouse Theater, complete with a beautiful new Grand Lobby that will connect all three of our performance spaces and provide greater accessibility. The new building will give us the capabilities we need to generate even greater impact for our community.

Our “Rep to the Future: an 80s Rewind”, Curtain Call Ball in May raised a record-breaking $1 million that will go toward the renovation. A special thank you to our co-chairs Ray and Dawne Manista, Clark and Diane Slipher, and Rich and Jean Tennessen for their leadership of such a successful event.

Finally, we want to welcome the newest additions to our Board of Trustees: Dr. Eric Durant, Jay Franke, Jason Graham, Deborah Kaerek, Dawn Lindsey, Ray Manista, Anne Noyes, and Allison Scrivner. We are thrilled to have them join our Board and look forward to working with them.

Even though we are in the dog days of summer, we are busy gearing up for our exciting 70th Anniversary Season. Work is underway to launch our World Premiere musical of Run Bambi Run in the Quadracci Powerhouse, with music by Milwaukee’s own Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes. Rehearsals begin in August and we can’t wait to bring this quintessential Milwaukee story to a broader audience. Also coming up is the world premiere of Parental Advisory by Idris Goodwin in the Stiemke Studio this fall. More than 600 students will have the opportunity to participate in special student matinees for the production, which will explore the line between censorship and expression in popular music.

The timeline for construction of the new Associated Bank Theater Center will be announced in August. This facility project is part visionary, part necessity. We have grown over the last 40 years, but our building is holding us back from where we could be 40 years from now. When construction is under way,

Thank you for your continued support of Milwaukee Rep. We have so many exciting things on the horizon, but none of it would be possible without your unwavering belief in our work.

Mark Clements Artistic Director

Chad Bauman Executive Director

(from left) Curtain Call Ball Co-chairs Rich and Jean Tennessen, Diane and Clark Slipher, and Dawne and Ray Manista.

Eric Durant Jay Franke Jason Graham Deborah Kaerek

Dawn Lindsey Ray Manista Anne Noyes Allison Scrivner

Supporting Milwaukee Rep vital to city's success

by Jeffrey Joerres

Milwaukee is having a moment.

The rest of the country is learning what we know — Milwaukee offers the exceptional amenities of much larger cities without all the hassles.

The spotlight is on us from hosting national political conventions, National Geographic naming us one of the best places in the world to visit and of course, our world champion Milwaukee Bucks. Milwaukee also has world-class performing arts, which in terms of attendance, draw more people than the Bucks and Milwaukee Brewers combined.

This didn’t happen by accident. It was well-planned by generations of leaders. In the 1950s, Miller Brewing CEO Fred Miller believed a world-class city needed professional sports and a professional theater. By the end of the decade, we had both Major League Baseball and Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Decades later, the community rallied to convert the Oneida Street Power Plant into a visionary three-theater complex bringing more than 10 million people downtown to attend Rep productions.

Today, Milwaukee Rep is the largest performing arts organization in Wisconsin serving 300,000 people annually including 20,000 students with its award-winning education programs.

However, after a 2018 elevator fire, a thorough independent analysis confirmed the need for a complete overhaul of our historic building. We have embarked on a campaign to build one of the most ambitious cultural venues in the country, creating our new home – the Associated Bank Theater Center.

As of July 1 we have raised $61 million toward our $75 million goal in order to move forward with our proposed construction timeline. As building costs continue to go up and the risk of significant failure in our aging building exponentially increases, it is crucial we continue with our ideal timeline. Along with top local firms EUA and Hunzinger Construction, we have completed all necessary tasks to finalize our construction timeline to be announced later this summer.

With your help, we are ready to make this once-in-a-generation opportunity become a reality. To learn more about our new theater, view renderings, and discover ways that you can join the more than 200 civic leaders who have already pledged, please visit the Powering Milwaukee Campaign site: www.MilwaukeeRep.com/PoweringMilwaukee.

Together with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s beautiful Bradley Center, the Milwaukee Ballet’s gorgeous Baumgartner Center, amazing new additions to the Milwaukee Youth Art Center, and of course the Calatrava addition to the Art Museum, the new Associated Bank Theater Center will cement Milwaukee’s place as a hub of creativity and innovation, attracting and retaining talent to southeastern Wisconsin, playing a vital role in economic development, and ensuring that Milwaukee is a wonderful place to live, work and play.

Jeffrey Joerres

Jeffrey Joerres is co-chair of the Milwaukee Rep’s Powering Milwaukee Campaign. This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Business Journal in April 2023 and has been updated to provide recent fundraising numbers.

A NEW SPACE the case for

Theater has changed since we moved into our current home in 1987 — and so has our community. While our facility has served us well for nearly four decades, our aging and increasingly inefficient theater now limits the kinds of community experiences we can create. After nearly 40 years in the former Wisconsin Electric Powerhouse building with no significant upgrades, our building may soon jeopardize our ability to fulfill our mission.

Through our work in youth education and community engagement, we create positive change in our city through our unique position as a cultural organization that has the capacity to bring people together. We use theater as an agent of cultural and positive change in our communities and in our schools by eliminating barriers and dismantling assumptions about what our art form can do. Like our audiences, we are citizens who care about making our region meet its full potential.

Each year, Rep Education serves approximately 20,000 students in 150 middle schools and high schools throughout southeastern Wisconsin through a combination of in- and after-school programs designed to improve literacy, increase social-emotional skills, and increase theater participation. These programs include in-school Reading Residencies, a unique School Subscription, onsite Rep Immersion Days, and the prestigious national Next NarrativeTM Monologue Competition. Our programs use the art of theater to its fullest potential — as an area of study, an integrated approach to non-theatrical subjects, and as a tool for developing key life skills such as reading comprehension, self-confidence, and empathy.

Rep Engagement programming shapes, builds, and reinforces our mission in our community, providing a high-quality way to form relationships through the arts. It is an access point for community healing, empowerment, and sharing resources. All programming is built on authentic, robust, mutually beneficial relationships with more than 100 community partners and individuals throughout our city. Our Community Conversations use the work on our stages to engage audiences in thoughtful dialogue about Milwaukee’s most pressing issues and bring together audience members from disparate communities through shared experiences.

Milwaukee Rep collaborates with community organizations in the Amani, Muskego Way, Metcalfe Park and Thurston Woods neighborhoods to support existing neighborhood revitalization plans, using the arts as a tool to help achieve neighborhood goals and inspire civic pride.

We will reimagine our theatrical home for the needs of today and the possibilities of tomorrow—and help power a more creative and connected Milwaukee region. Our new home will enable us to both broaden and deepen these essential programs, serving even more community members with a state-of-the-art education and engagement center that opens onto the Riverwalk and features multiple classrooms, an event space, and a dedicated rehearsal and performance venue. We will be able to bring the full power of theater to life for our community.

700 performances of 300,000 patrons served 20,000 students $30M in local economic impact

12 productions

of all UPAF performances

33 % employees

564

60 % of students in Milwaukee Public Schools

MILWAUKEE REP’S ANNUAL IMPACT

PARTNERSCommunity Impact

Milwaukee Rep partners with organizations across Milwaukee to co-create programming designed to support the needs of our community. These programs are guided by our Community Impact Partners, 10 organizations who work with Milwaukee Rep to create greater collective impact by focusing on depth over breadth. These long-term partnerships are designed to be mutually beneficial; Milwaukee Rep makes our resources available to partners to help them achieve their goals while broadening our impact by connecting new audiences to Milwaukee Rep.

As part of the new Associated Bank Theater Center, The Herzfeld Education & Engagement Center will allow us to expand programming with our partners in new and different ways and provide our partners a home within our building. Below are our current Community Impact Partners and how we have worked together to create positive change in Milwaukee.

Through music and stories created for a culturally open-minded community, Radio Milwaukee is a catalyst for creating a better, more inclusive and engaged Milwaukee. 88Nine Radio recorded the stories of AAPI elders performed by Milwaukee Youth, which were featured in a lobby display during The Heart Sellers

Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee are the largest youth-serving agency in the city, and one of the largest Boys and Girls Clubs in the country. Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee assisted us with the Next NarrativeTM Monologue Competition, connecting us with local youth as well as providing space for workshops with our Teaching Artists.

Children’s Wisconsin is the region’s only independent healthcare system dedicated solely to the health and well-being of children. They assisted us with our ACC Community Tickets program, which provides families in need with free tickets to see our annual production of A Christmas Carol.

COA Youth and Family Centers meets the needs of Amani, Riverwest, and Harambee families through early education, youth development, and community development. They provide space for our Saturday Youth Programming, support our ACC Community Tickets program, and help us engage with the community in Amani neighborhood at events such as the Safe Summer Kickoff and Beyond the Bookbag.

Imagine MKE is a coalition of arts, culture, and civic leaders in Milwaukee. They accompanied our Teen Council to Create WI Day and assist us in advocating for the arts with our government officials.

Latino Arts works to strengthen and preserve the cultural heritage of the diverse Hispanic community in Milwaukee through arts education experiences and programming. They hosted a Dinner Dialogue for our production of God of Carnage and are a partner organization for ACC Families, making sure that families in need have gifts and food for the holidays.

MHA Wisconsin provides services to help people in Wisconsin live mentally healthier lives. They helped us identify mental health specialists for our God of Carnage Dinner Dialogue.

Milwaukee Public Schools are our core partner for all of our education programs. We work with MPS on our Reading Residency and School Subscription programs, and they host our Saturday Youth Programs and Next NarrativeTM Monologue Competition workshops around the city.

Safe & Sound provides comprehensive, community-based response to crime and violence in the City of Milwaukee. They partner with us on our ACC Community Tickets program, helping identify families in need in the community.

The Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce works to create a fully inclusive state by promoting economic growth and opportunities for LGBT individuals and businesses in Wisconsin. They work with us to provide Pride Night performances of select productions throughout the season.

For more information on Milwaukee Rep’s Community Impact Partners, visit

www.MilwaukeeRep.com/engage-learn/community-impact/

POWERING MILWAUKEE

Milwaukee Rep recently released some new renderings of key public spaces in the new Associated Bank Theater Center. We are excited to share them and invite you to visit www.MilwaukeeRep.com/PoweringMilwaukee as we continue to add more renderings later this summer and in the fall.

The Sandra and William Haack Grand Lobby

Uniting all three of our performance spaces as well as all of our other public spaces will be a beautifully open and cascading lobby with entrances on the ground level from Wells Street and the Associated Bank River Center.

The Guest Services Desk (right) will be a hub for the first level, which also includes a new entrance to the Powerhouse Theater, access to The Herzfeld Foundation Education & Engagement Center, and an entrance to The Studio Bar and Theater.

The rendering below is a good representation of all levels of the Haack Grand Lobby. In this particular image you see the three different levels of entrance into the Powerhouse Theater.

MILWAUKEECampaign Renderings

The Lubar Family Donor Lounge

In addition to the $1 million recently raised at Milwaukee Rep’s Curtain Call Ball, the Campaign received a $1.55 million gift from the Lubar Family to name The Lubar Family Donor Lounge. The Donor Lounge will be located on the top floor of the Associated Bank Theater Center accessible by patrons visiting all three theater venues – a feature we currently do not have. This stunning new space will have the capacity to serve 125 people with private restrooms, coat check and a full-service bar.

“The Lubar family has proudly supported Milwaukee Rep for decades because we see the theater as a critical piece of the cultural fabric of the city,” said Joan Lubar. “A significant investment in Milwaukee Rep’s facilities is needed for the safety of the building for staff and patrons, and to remain competitive and continue its growth and to lead as a top-tier theater with a worldclass venue.”

The Lubar Family Donor Lounge will also be able to serve as an event space with private dinners or cocktail parties on non-performance nights as well as day time conference/ workshop sessions with multimedia capabilities.

POWERING MILWAUKEE

Powerhouse Theater

Second Level Lobby

The second level lobby will offer enhanced amenities including more restrooms, a large full-service bar and Gift Shop. In these renderings, you can also see the grand staircase and accessible elevator connecting all three floors.

The Second Level Lobby will also feature a brand new seating area overlooking Wells Street which will include a space for live music pre-and post-performances.

Additional support is needed to fund all aspects of the Powering Milwaukee Campaign. To learn more please visit: www.MilwaukeeRep.com/PoweringMilwaukee Or contact Chuck Rozewicz, Chief Development Officer at 414-290-0717 | crozewicz@milwaukeerep.com.

MILWAUKEECampaign Renderings

Powerhouse Theater

Third Level Lobby

In addition to boasting The Lubar Family Donor Lounge, the third level lobby features a connector hallway directly to the Stackner Cabaret so that patrons may easily visit the Donor Lounge during intermission. This level is also the entrance to balcony seating in the Powerhouse Theater.

Studio Bar and Theater

The new Studio Theater will have expanded restrooms, an acoustical barrier between performance space and lobby, and a beautiful, fully functioning bar and gathering space.

MARK on the

Artistic Director Mark Clements...

How does Milwaukee Rep plan a season?

regional theaters on what we call “co-productions” to share the costs for larger shows by essentially sharing the production – the set, the actors and everything else. In our upcoming 2023/24 Season, our production of Little Women will be a coproduction with Seattle Repertory Theater.

For our commissioned new works, we will sometimes do staged readings before committing to doing a full-scale production, so that we can ensure our audiences will enjoy the show and we are headed in the right direction. These readings give us a better idea of how many tickets might sell for a production, which greatly assists us in the season planning process. We held several of these workshops for our upcoming production of Run Bambi Run, which will premiere on the Quadracci Powerhouse stage this autumn after nearly a decade of development and will kick off our 70th Anniversary Season as Milwaukee Rep’s first ever commissioned full-scale musical.

Planning a season of shows for any theater is a complex and multi-step process that can take years. At Milwaukee Rep, we are always guided by our Mission and Core Values to define our programming. We want to ensure that our stories are both reflective of our diverse community so that audiences can see themselves reflected on our stages as well as containing themes and stories that are relevant to Milwaukee audiences.

Every production you see at Milwaukee Rep has been carefully selected based on a number of factors. First, we consider the types of shows that work in each of our three unique performance spaces, which vary greatly in terms of the size and capabilities of the stage and audience capacity. We also consider what productions will help us balance our season, with a mixture of popular musicals or well-known classics and new works commissioned by Milwaukee Rep. An important part of our identity is the John (Jack) D. Lewis New Play Development program, and we are committed to producing new works across our performance spaces each season. Additionally, we balance our seasons with works from a diverse range of playwrights in terms of gender, race and more. We are dedicated to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion both on and off our stages, and this is reflected in the works we choose to feature on our stages.

Another consideration is, of course, budget and logistical concerns. Especially when we are thinking of producing big budget productions, we must consider the full cost of mounting the production; this includes building the sets, creating the costumes, and purchasing the necessary equipment for video projection, lighting and sound. Occasionally we work with other

For more information on our upcoming 70th Anniversary Season, visit www.MilwaukeeRep.com.

Ask

The audience of a Powerhouse show.

Mark Clements and Gordon Gano in a workshop for Run Bambi Run

SCENES behind the

Our upcoming 70th Anniversary Season will feature the first ever full-scale musical to be commissioned by Milwaukee Rep, Run Bambi Run. This musical will be quintessentially Milwaukee – the homegrown story about Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek’s journey from Milwaukee Police Officer to Playboy Bunny to convicted murderer and fugitive will be retold in this World Premiere production with music by Gordon Gano of Milwaukee’s Violent Femmes, and book by Academy Awardwinner and Milwaukee-native Eric Simonson. We spoke with scenic designer Scott Davis about how he is helping to bring this stranger than fiction story to our stage this fall.

What was your design process like on Run Bambi Run? Have there been any challenges along the way and if so how did you work through them?

The biggest challenge with a new musical is that the design has to be completed before the script is even finished. Because the writer and director make changes to the script throughout the rehearsal process while the set is being built, there is a bit of guesswork and anticipation that goes into the design process. With this show, the set is designed in a way that allows for the show to morph and change as the team sees fit. I do my best to make the design as specific as possible while still allowing other collaborators space to change their minds. The design has safety nets built into it to accommodate changes throughout the process. The storytelling theater style we are using in this production will give Mark Clements (Director) more leeway to change things on the fly than if every location was fully flushed out in a realistic way. We have come up with a tool box of elements and objects that arrange and shift to tell the story, and those can be used and arranged in infinite ways. But ultimately it is a group process to allow for other elements to continue to affect the scenery and props.

How have you and the other designers on the piece collaborated so far? As a scenic designer, how do you work with departments like costumes, lights, and props?

Theater is a very collaborative art form, especially when you are devising something new. This one has been a little different in that the costume design has had to happen later than usual because of the nature of how this show is being created. That being said, Mieka van der Ploeg (Costume Designer) and I work together a lot. We understand each other’s work in a way that can help us create a world that is cohesive, and tells the same story alongside each other. This show also has a lot of imbedded lights and video elements. We were interested in video content being able to surround the action and appear in surprising ways, and all needed to be figured out before we begin to build the set.

What is the element of the scenic design that you are most excited for the audience to see?

There is a lot of detail in the treatment and dressing of the set (the decorative elements such as furniture, wall art, and flooring) that places us in a classic Milwaukee bar in the midto late-70s and early 80s, such as recreations of real punk/rock band posters from that time. I am hoping it’s so specific that Milwaukee-natives in the audience will be able to conjure up the memory of the smells and sounds of these spaces before the show even begins.

Run Bambi Run will appear on the Quadracci Powerhouse stage from September 13th – October 22nd, 2023. For more information, visit MilwaukeeRep.com.

Three renderings of the set design for Run Bambi Run in different configurations.

Each year, Milwaukee Rep recognizes former trustees who continue to contribute to our success even after their tenure on our Board has ended. This year, we would like to recognize Tony Petullo and Patsy Aster as our Sustaining Trustees of the Year.

Tony Petullo assisted us in meeting our fundraising goals for the Powering Milwaukee Campaign by issuing an incredibly generous challenge alongside an anonymous donor to match new or increased donations up to $7.5 million prior to June 30th. Patsy Aster serves as a member of our Capital Campaign Cabinet and has been a strong advocate in ensuring the theater meets our goals.

Both of our Sustaining Trustee Award winners have a long history with Milwaukee Rep, and continue to make an invaluable impact in igniting positive change in Milwaukee.

SUSTAINING TRUSTEES OF THE YEAR REPRISE

Become a member of Reprise, Milwaukee Rep’s monthly giving program. Help ensure world-class theater and arts education for your community with an easy and convenient recurring gift!

• Smaller recurring gifts are easier on your budget.

• Gifts are automatically renewed every year.

• Build your credit card reward points.

• You can increase, decrease, or cancel at any time.

For more information on Reprise, contact the Development Department at 414-290-5376

Chuck Rozewicz Chief Development Officer crozewicz@milwaukeerep.com

Amy Dorman Director of Development adorman@milwaukeerep.com

Alli Engelsma-Mosser Director of Major and Planned Giving aengelsma-mosser@milwaukeerep.com

Tanya Haynes Donor Relations Officer thaynes@milwaukeerep.com

Cassidy Skorija Major Gifts Officer cskorija@milwaukeerep.com

Morgen Lucas Associate Director of Development, Events & Stewardship mlucas@milwaukeerep.com

Megan Newbanks Associate Director of Development, Institutional Giving mnewbanks@milwaukeerep.com

Yolanda Doney Development Associate ydoney@milwaukeerep.com

Amy McGuire Development Database Manager amcguire@milwaukeerep.com

To make a gift in support of Milwaukee Repertory Theater, please contact the Development Department

Tony Petullo Patsy Aster