Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Mark Clements’ crisp, articulate words resonate from a blurry video that was posted on YouTube at the end of March. There’s a deeply confident tone in the artistic directors’ voice as he outlines The Milwaukee Rep’s plans for life in the age of the COVID-19.
The Rep was one of the first local performing arts groups to issue a formal response to concerns about the coronavirus. They have put a great deal of work into planning for an extended period without live, in-person audiences. The theater company has recently announced a host of projects that might serve as some consolation for theatergoers who are forced to go without trips to the Quadracci Powerhouse, Stiemke Studio and Stackner Cabaret theaters in the weeks to come.
The Rep’s production of Eclipsed continues its run on Vimeo through April 12. Actress-playwright Danai Gurira’s story of five women in the Liberian Civil War holds the kind of intensity that transfers well to a well-edited multi-camera production. A 24-hour rental of the video allows viewers the opportunity to stream the show in living rooms, home offices, porches, back yards and anywhere else internet service is available.
The Rep is also hosting a series of one-person performance videos available on YouTube. Ten of the Milwaukee Rep’s performers including Nova Y Payton, Matt Rodin, Zonya Love and more perform in intimate, little single-camera set-ups. The brief video close-ups of local performers are simultaneously more AND less intimate than a regular Rep performance. On March 30, Kelley Faulkner’s “Our Home To Your Home” performance was posted to YouTube. She’s closer to the camera in the video than she would be to anyone in a live audience. She’s looking right into the camera and having a heart-to-heart with the viewer before a strikingly powerful solo performance of “Rise Up” in a casual home environment. It may be little more than 68 MB of 1080p video filtering through a little less than five minutes, but there’s a connection there that will have to serve until Wisconsin’s Safer at Home Order passes gently into history.
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In continuing its slow and steady mission to develop new plays the Rep has also commissioned 10 playwrights to develop 3-5 minute monologues that are “centered on themes of connectivity, hope and the need of community.” Playwrights featured on the program include Dael Orlandersmith, Rick Cleveland, Marie Kohler among others.
The Milwaukee Rep is also offering an open invitation to everyone to engage in creative work every Monday. At the beginning of every week, they’re providing an artist-written prompt. Responses to the prompt can be anything: from GIFs to TikToks to monologues and more. Responses sent to the Rep via email will be gathered into a digital community story on the #SharingSaturday series.
Every Tuesday, Mark Clements will be interviewing featured artists on the Rep website, which will also serve as a central hub for all of the rest of what the Rep has to offer including Milwaukee Rep art kits, online classes and more.
