Photo courtesy of Skylight Music Theatre
Ray Jivoff
“I’ve always said that I think the Broadway Theatre Center has been a real anchor for the Third Ward. I think we pioneered the development of the neighborhood and are now seeing the results. When we moved down here in ’93 we were kind of alone. It was MIAD and the Broadway Theatre Center and a lot of empty buildings. That’s really changed. I think that that’s been a real value as often happens where arts groups are on the frontier of developing a new area or finding value in an old area.” So says Ray Jivoff, interim artistic director of Skylight Music Theatre, one of three theaters (along with Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and Renaissance Theaterworks) that call the center home.
Although he assumed his current role just this past May after the departure of Viswa Subbaraman, Jivoff has worked with the organization in various capacities for more than a quarter century. A native of Syracuse, N.Y., and previous resident of New York City, he moved to Milwaukee in 1988 as, he describes himself, a “freelance teacher/actor/director” with his eye set on Skylight. He shared, “My recollection is that it was eight auditions before they cast me and, as it often happens, they cast me because they saw me in a Theatre X show as opposed to seeing something particular in an audition.” Milwaukee’s premiere experimental theater was, indeed, first to employ Jivoff. His first Milwaukee performance was Theatre X’s presentation of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood (1988).
Over the years, Jivoff performed in various Skylight productions and eventually took up the mantle of education director and, later, associate artistic director. In the former capacity, he helped launch theatrical residencies in local high schools such as Milwaukee High School of the Arts and Bradley Tech. Asked about his goals for the company, he spoke first about preserving “a sense of freshness and family—that patrons feel that they’re welcome here, that it’s a warm and intimate place to come and get something to eat and then see a show.” He then stressed the importance of Skylight’s education programs and his hope “to continue to work toward connecting our educational efforts and community outreach efforts with what we are creating artistically.”
An example of such an endeavor was Skylight’s 2013 residency with Milwaukee High School of the Arts in which company artists workshopped their production of In the Heights with students. Theater students read the show, studied its background, researched the neighborhood and ethnic background of characters depicted as well as the playwright, and then performed numbers from the show. When Skylight staged its version, the students were invited.
Asked about the greatest challenges and rewards of his current position, Jivoff notes the difficulty and importance of choosing a strong repertory. “What makes us unique, not only here in Milwaukee but across the country, is the mix of rep that we do, meaning we’re not just a music theater company; we’re not just an opera company. We endeavor to encompass all of it.”
Skylight performs its diverse seasons in the exquisite Cabot Theatre. The 1993 structure, built from the ground up to adjoin the existing 1906 warehouse, is in the style of an 18th-century European opera house and takes no shortcuts in lavishness. The 358-seat theater is tiered and features a classic proscenium stage. Says Jivoff, “the Cabot is such a classic theater space—proscenium house with an orchestra pit and the layout of the audience retains and sustains something from the past and creates a fairly specific feeling in the room of intimacy and formality at the same time.” If you haven’t seen a show presented by the nearly 60-year-old Milwaukee gem that is Skylight, now’s the time.
To learn more about Skylight, visit SkylightMusicTheatre.org.
