Part 2
Editor's note: Read Part 1 here.
We asked a question to several key people in Milwaukee’s performing arts community: What has the situation meant to your company and to you personally?
Dani Kuepper, Danceworks
Of course it has been a whirlwind for all of us! Like the rest of the world, Danceworks seems to be aiming at moving targets, solving problems minute by minute, trying to make the best of an extremely difficult situation. In an effort to do what we can to bring health, joy and creativity to the community in this time of isolation, we have just kicked off a virtual class series, where a variety of our teaching artists will be sharing classes on social media, from their homes. Behind the scenes, all of our teaching artists have been creating videos specifically for the students of their weekly classes, in an effort to maintain a consistent practice for everyone. Danceworks will keep moving and breathing together from a distance for now. But oh how we will all be grateful for the return of normal and to be dancing in shared spaces again!
Jill Anna Ponasik Milwaukee Opera Theatre
One of the things I have learned is that cancelling a production is just as much work as developing a production, except without the art and the income. It’s an around the clock cascade of emails, phone calls, budgeting, re-budgeting and re-re-budgeting. But contending with that mess is a community imperative when we consider the health of our artists and audiences. Cancelling Preludes was the most responsible decision we could make.
One of our organization’s strengths is the ability to find unusual solutions to common problems. In this case, we’re going to look for a way to pay our artists as planned, while reducing and rescheduling performances. It won’t be easy, but I trust that our collective creativity will eventually bring Preludes to audiences. The revised production won’t look and feel the same as the original, but who knows, perhaps it will emerge even stronger than it would have, had we sprinted toward our original opening night.
Brian Rott, Quasimondo Physical Theatre
Yes, we'll be postponing Faustus—which is necessary, but also sad. A great team of company members, Alverno students and Milwaukee actors have been working on this project for over two months. It's disappointing, as we were excited to share this piece with audiences, but postponing the production was an easy decision. As a non-profit theatre company, we serve the public, and facing a public health crisis, we wouldn’t be doing that if we encourage large groups to congregate.
It’s tough though. Theater requires a high amount of administrative coordination and logistics, then forms around the progress made and synergy created in the rehearsal process. We will eventually present Faustus to audiences, but it won’t be easy to recreate the piece we have now. I think it’s a startling time for the live performance community, because it’s unclear how long this preventative social distancing will be required. Do we halt all programming until the storm is weathered, or adapt to the current environment?
Maggey Oplinger, Florentine Opera
The Tragedy of Carmen was our first sold-out show in some time, and really felt like a victory to the Florentine team. We were excited to bring a beautifully designed and dramatically re-envisioned version of Carmen to our audience, and they clearly were excited to participate. We had very little notice that the show wouldn’t go on (24 hours) and had to scramble to get a recording team in place. Studio Gear and Kickball Media saved us with their generosity!
That said, as much as our audience appreciates experiencing the show despite all odds, we’re mourning that they can’t enjoy it live, in the theater where they belong. That said, the support that our community is pouring forth for each other, the empathy as we work through a scenario beyond any contract or belief, boggles the mind.
So as surreal as it feels to be homeschooling our kids instead of wrapping up Tragedy of Carmen, my faith in Milwaukee and in the arts community remains unshaken—even strengthened. So buy tickets to the opera, the ballet, the theater, the symphony for next season! Make a gift to UPAF. We may be going quiet to reconfigure ourselves, but we're working hard to bring you more of everything you love once we kick this virus out of town. Your support makes a world of difference at this time.
Isabelle and Mark, Theatre Gigante
As artists and, in our case, artistic directors and creating artists, postponing or cancelling our operation—which we consider to be completely performance oriented – is a shock to the system. We are abruptly cut off from our fellow collaborating artists, our production team, our board of directors, and maybe most importantly, our audience. For the time being, we lose our voice, our ability to communicate through art and performance, which is the only way we know how to communicate, participate, contribute.
We lose the conversation, and the exchange of ideas, the confirmation, and the challenges. It is loss. However, in a crisis like this you have to ask yourself is art really that important? It’s not a matter of life and death, and it seems a bit thoughtless to think that theaters shutting their doors, at this time, matters.
Common belief is that we are a luxury and that we are not important, especially not in any crisis. However, when viewed from a larger perspective, art and artists do matter. People need art, especially in a crisis. Art is food for the soul, mind, heart. It is cathartic, soothing, eye opening, thought provoking, and it can shed light on and bring understanding to confusion and chaos. It is medicine for our spiritual well-being and is part of overall health and well-being.
Therefore, theaters shutting their doors does matter. We often ask ourselves, what do a people leave behind when they are long gone? How do we know about past cultures? What rises above most other things in history? Science and art! In conclusion, we are connected with our society, and our absence has an effect, so during this time of loss, artists can use the time to continue working and creating, finding ways to contribute the best of who we are and what we do, and be ready to return, when it is time.
Alex Scheurell, All in Productions
This has been an unprecedented situation for all of us. Cancelling Preludes was not an easy decision, but we know it was the right one. It has been heartening to see Milwaukee's theatre community rallying for the good of our community even as it puts so many companies and artists under a tremendous amount of stress. We will keep working with our wonderful partners at MOT to continue adjusting to these uncertain times and we are hopeful that we will eventually bring Preludes to area audiences.
We also produce a podcast in partnership with SexyHackers, The All-Arcadians, and we're currently in the process of creating more content. In the meantime, we have made every episode of our podcast available onwww.patreon.com/aipod.
These are uncertain times, but I have faith that now, more than ever, we as artists will help our community cope and heal both during and after this dark period.
