Photo courtesy of The Underground Collaborative
Surviving during the Age of Pandemic is an uncertain path for many arts organizations as we all attempt to move forward and figure out what’s next.
For the Underground Collaborative, that “move forward” stopped on June 1 when the founder of the Downtown performing arts center, Matt Kemple, had to make a difficult decision.
“... I thought we would be OK. But as time progressed it became clear along with many other factors that the money we had saved would run out,” he explains. “We spoke to members of the theater and art communities about their plans for the summer and fall and it became clear that the majority were cancelling their remaining seasons and postponing events, many until Spring 2021.”
With the UC contained inside another building and given the space’s layout, social distancing would be very difficult, Kemple says. With the loss of rentals, audience attendance and concession sales, options had run out.
But the UC provided a much-needed alternative for a number of new companies to rehearse and perform. The eight-year-old UC was so named, occupying “underground” space in the Lower Level beneath the Plankinton Building of Downtown’s The Grand Avenue. Kemble filled the creative rehearsal and performance space with of arts groups, ranging from theater to dance and comedy to music, to while local artists displayed work on the labyrinth of connecting walls. With over 140 events held annually, the UC had 15,000 visitors annually with some unexpected surprises along the way.
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“I didn't know it at the time, but I had set out to create a space for artists so they could have access to affordable rehearsal and performance space. The space became what it did because as a young theater artist it was so frustrating to have to rehearse in your living room or basement,” he points out. “To have been able to provide that to so many for eight years is more than I could have ever dreamed.”
As difficult as these times are for all of us, there are simple joys to be found in Kemple’s recollections of a typical day.
“Walking the hallways while different rehearsals are happening behind closed doors and looking at the art on the walls was one of my favorite things to do after a long day,” he points out. “The space became so alive with the energy in all those rooms filled with creative people; some rehearsing plays or comedy routines, a show happening in the theatre with a full audience reacting to what they see, the sound of someone recording an album down the hall while a dance instructor gives a lesson in yet another room.”
And the best part of it all?
“I'll never forget how wonderful a feeling that is,” Kemple adds, “to be surrounded by some of the most creative and talented people in Milwaukee every day.”
