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Longtime Milwaukee community theater director and choreographer Ray Bradford died on Sunday, July 17, after a prolonged battle with cancer.
Bradford’s artistic career spanned over 30 years. Working with the Waukesha Civic Theatre for a decade, he directed a full palette of Broadway favorites beginning in 1987 with a staging of Damn Yankees. In the years following, he directed such popular musicals as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Guys and Dolls, Annie and Sound of Music. Later he would direct Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and The Underpants at Theatre Unchained where he also collaborated as choreographer for its production of Psycho Beach Party. In 1995 he directed a production of Ruthless at Off the Wall Theater.
Making his Mark
Bradford made his greatest mark on the local community as director of Whitefish Bay Players, a position he held for nearly three decades. There he was an institution, directing a broad range of comedies and dramas from Noises Off, Boing Boing and Rumors to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Many were Milwaukee premiers. Bradford was feted by the Bay Players at a Tribute Reception held at his favorite watering hole, This is It, on the occasion of the company’s closure in 2017.
Bradford’s work went beyond the classic Broadway repertoire and into the realm of socially relevant and new LGBTQ plays. In June 2005, he directed his own company, RSVP Productions, in the first play ever to be staged at the nascent Milwaukee Gay Arts Center (MGAC). His production of Jonathan Tolins’ Twilight of the Golds received with critical acclaim. The cast included Mark Hagen (Dear Ruthie). RSVP Productions at MGAC also included Paul Rudnick’s The New Century with Off the Wall Theater’s Dale Gutzman in a leading role.
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Later, Bradford attempted to produce a unique parody take on gay playwright Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias. His make-over of the twangy, tear-jerking tragi-comedy would have starred an all drag cast with a coterie from Cream City’s illustrious stable of drag queens performing the leading roles. However, to his great disappointment, and to the city’s great loss, he was refused the rights to the play (by the playwright himself, according to Bradford) because of his innovative casting.
Milwaukee’s Cultural Landscape
Bradford was well known for his patient, laid back directing style that accommodated his actors. He could direct a professional or amateur with equal aplomb, giving the former creative leeway and the latter a chance (even though they might not remember what play they were in, much less their lines).
Bradford’s contributed greatly to Milwaukee’s cultural landscape and helped make its history. He was in the midst of the city’s theater scene at the height of its heyday when black box, community and professional companies all peacefully coexisted. It was a time when actors could move up a career ladder, learning under the tutelage of a director like Bradford to eventually perform at professional houses like the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
Creativity, artistic stamina, and dedication such as Bradford’s are rare virtues. Today that personality and credible heart, willing to work for the local arts for decades would be considered old-fashioned, if not self-defeating.
Milwaukee has lost an important cultural asset and is indeed indebted to Bradford and the artistic legacy he created.
A memorial for Ray Bradford will be held on a future date to be announced.
