Summer Arts Guide 2024
53212 Presents
5 Points Art Gallery
- Temperatures Rising: Wearable Arts Exhibition, through June 23
Acacia Theatre Company
- The Agitators, June 14-30
Mat Smart is a prolific contemporary American playwright. One of his most produced plays, The Agitators, is based on the friendship between activists Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. Smart wrote the play after learning that they were longtime friends as well as collaborators. Douglass and Anthony had disagreements but were fundamentally persuaded by the premise that America was a work in progress whose promise could be fulfilled. Concordia University’s Lori Woodhall-Schaufler directs Acacia’s production. (David Luhrssen)
The Alice Wilds
All In Productions
Alverno Art & Cultures Gallery
American Players Theatre (APT)
Aperi Animam
Arts @ Large
Bach Chamber Choir
Bel Canto Chorus
Black Arts MKE
- For Colored Girls who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Aug. 8-25 (Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall in the Marcus PAC)
The 2024 Milwaukee Black Theatre Festival will include a three-week live-stage production of Ntozake Shange’s acclaimed 1976 play, performed as a series of poetic monologues accompanied by music and dance. Milwaukee’s Linetta Alexander will direct. (Morton Shlabotnik)
Black Holocaust Museum
Boerner Botanical Gardens
- Education Center open 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. 7 days a week.
- Botanical Gardens open May 1 – Sept. 10: 8 a.m. – 7 p.m., 7 days a week
Bombshell Theatre Co.
- James and the Giant Peach, June 7-9
One of Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s stories, James and the Giant Peach was transformed into a 1996 musical film, a Tim Burton-produced stop-motion, live-action extravaganza. In any medium, the story of a boy who encounters human size bugs inside a magical peach has delighted kids for half a century. (David Luhrssen)
- Disney’s Frozen Jr., June 11-13
- The 24 Hour Musical, June 15
- The Prom, Aug. 9-18
- Mean Girls Jr., Aug. 12-14
Boulevard Theatre
The Box Theatre Co.
- The Wind in the Willows, June 13-24
Mr. Toad, Rat, Mole and Mr. Badger go on adventures in this Edwardian children’s story by Scottish author Kenneth Grahame. The Wind in the Willows has inspired many adaptations for screen (Eric Idle and Steve Coogan star in a 1996 film) and numerous stage adaptations, including a 1985 Tony-nominated Broadway musical. (David Luhrssen)
Bronzeville Arts Ensemble
Broom Street Theatre, Madison
Cabaret Milwaukee
Carroll Players
Carthage College Theatre
carthage.edu/arts/experience-the-arts/theatre-dance-performances/
Catey Ott Dance Collective
Cedarburg Art Museum
- The Life of Water: 2024 Juried Exhibition, through Aug. 18
- Preserving History, through Aug. 18
- Strawberry Festival, June 22-23
Cedarburg Cultural Center
- Art on the Preserve, through June 9
- Jodi Reid, through June 9
- William Millonig, through June 9
Cedarburg Performing Arts Center
Chant Claire Chamber Choir
Charles Allis Art Museum
- Screen Time: Video Art and Photography, through July 21
Some 20 artists from diverse backgrounds are featured in an exhibit concerned with the information onslaught of the present century. With references to the history of photography and video art, the exhibit brings “a fresh sensibility of humor, self-awareness and inter-subjectivity” to the subject. (Morton Shlabotnik)
Chazen Museum of Art (UW-Madison)
- Look What Harvey Did: Harvey K. Littleton’s Legacy, through Aug. 16
Choral Arts Society of Southeastern Wisconsin
The Constructivists
Concord Chamber Orchestra
Covered Bridge Art Studio Tour
DanceCircus
Danceworks Performance MKE
David Barnett Gallery
Dead Man's Carnival
Door Shakespeare
- Romeo and Juliet, July 3-Aug. 16 Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s most enduring plays and is among the most enduring works of theater in any language. Almost a romantic comedy as it begins, the society inhabited by the young lovers ensures its tragic outcome. Prokofiev turned Romeo and Juliet into a ballet, and it has been filmed many times, including the 1996 version with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, but the story’s natural habitat is the stage. (David Luhrssen)
- Jane Austen’s Emma, July 4-Aug. 17
Early Music Now
Ex Fabula
Since 2009, Ex Fabula has been connecting community through the art of true, personal storytelling. Ex Fabula, which is Latin for “from stories”, presents storytelling workshops, StorySlams and Community Collaborations where people listen to each other, feel heard, and grow in empathy and understanding. (Morton Shlabotnik)
- After Dark: For the Culture, June 13 (at Radio Milwaukee)
Falls Patio Players
- Disney’s Alice in Wonderland Jr., June 17-28
First came Lewis Carroll’s children’s novel, then a 1951 animated feature ranked with the best from Disney’s classic era, and then director Tim Burton’s 2010 live action version. The latter is the basis for the whimsical stage adaptation that follows Alice down the rabbit hole into a land where everything is upside down. (David Luhrssen)
Festival City Symphony
First Stage
- Escape from Peligro Island, through-June 2
The story is a fun and pulpy action-adventure story that, in First Stage’s previous staging in 2021, featured time travel, dinosaurs and super-heroics depending on audience choices. The interactive nature of the story can be fun at times without pushing too much complexity into a tale that draws most of its appeal from breezy, simple storytelling. It is pleasantly engaging silliness that manages a moment or two of real, heartfelt emotion. (Russ Bickerstaff)
Florentine Opera
- Pasta and Puccini, June 21-22 (La Lune)
- Covers, July 2-Aug. 4
- Al Fresco: Summer Ensemble, July 19 (garden party in Fredonia)
- Al Fresco: Deanna Breiwick, Aug. 22 (garden party in Milwaukee)
Forward Theater, Madison
Four Seasons Theatre, Madison
Frankly Music
Fresco Opera Theatre, Madison
Gallery 218
Gallery 2622
Gallery Night and Day
- July 19-20
- Milwaukee’s original art hop runs Friday July 19 from 5-9 p.m. and Saturday July 20 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. with a focus on galleries in the Third Ward, East Town and Walker’s Point. (Morton Shlabotnik)
GHS Dramatic Impact
Green Gallery
Greendale Community Theatre
- Beauty and the Beast, July 25-Aug. 3 (Greendale High School Auditorium) The stage adaptation of the Disney musical debuted on Broadway in 1994 and ran through 2007, making it one of Manhattan’s great tourist attractions before becoming a popular production for school and community theaters. (David Luhrssen)
Grohmann Museum
- Dennis Darmek: Crossing the DMZ, A Contemporary Look at Working Women, through Aug. 23
The 50 photos by Milwaukee’s Dennis Darmek are culled from a 2017 trip to Vietnam. He focused on the faces of women he encountered working outdoors in a variety of settings, including marketplaces, construction sites and farms. The women are old and young, wearing western clothing or the traditional conical hats of rice farmers. “The development of modern Vietnam is as much on the shoulders of women as men,” Darmek says. “Vietnam wouldn’t have defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu if not for women porters carrying heavy weapons and they fought alongside men in the wars against the French and the Americans,” Darmek says. (David Luhrssen)
Grove Gallery
Haggerty Museum of Art
- Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists 2023, through-Aug. 4
- Road Trip: American Photographs 1968-2005, Aug. 23-Dec. 22
Harley-Davidson Museum
H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art
Hover Craft
Hyperlocal MKE
Inspiration Studios Art Gallery
- Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, June 14-23 (Theatrical Tendencies)
- Olivia Raye Exhibit, July
- Group of 5: August
Irish Cultural and Heritage Center
James May Gallery
- Katherine Steichen Rosing Solo Show, June
- Ida Floreak, July
- Matteo Neivert, August
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts
- Homage: Honoring those Who Came Before, through June 1
- Free Improvisation Sessions, Saturday mornings
- Milwaukee Jazz Institute, Sunday afternoons
Jewish Museum Milwaukee
- Chagall’s Dead Souls: A Satirical Account of Imperialist Russia, June 7-Sept. 8
Bursting the boundaries of realism, Nikolai Gogol’s novel Dead Souls (1842) was a scathing satire of provincial life in czarist Russia. Marc Chagall was a Russian Jewish artist known for his dreamy depictions of his homeland, modern yet rooted in childhood impressions. In the 1920s he made 96 etchings illustrating Dead Souls. They have rarely been exhibited together. (David Luhrssen)
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
- Cloth as Land, through June 16
The 30-piece exhibit, which runs through June 16, 2024, taps into JMKAC’s already impressive collection of traditional Hmong textiles augmented by examples of contemporary Hmong mixed-media art. (Michael Muckian)
- Shae Bishop: Original Rhinestone Rattlesnake Boy, through Aug. 4
- Martha Pogglioli: Body Works, through Aug. 4
- Mad Dash: 50 Years of Arts/Industry, through Feb. 2, 2025
Kettle Moraine Symphony
Kith and Kin Theatre Collective
Kohler Memorial Theater
Ko-Thi Dance Company
Lake Arts Project
Lake Country Playhouse
- The Gin Game, through June 1
- Chasing Monet, June 7-8
- The Trip to Bountiful, June 14-15
- Jane Eyre, July 5-21
- Night Sky, Aug. 16-17
- The Hatmaker’s Wife, Aug. 22-23
- Aura, Aug. 24-25
Lakefront Festival of Art
- June 14-16
Named one of the top art festivals in the U.S., the three-day event showcases 120 jury-selected artists from across the country. This year’s outdoor festival spotlights artists working in ceramics, jewelry, paintings and more. (Morton Shlabotnik)
Latino Arts, Inc.
- Home Grown, through June 7
- The exhibit is modest and approachable, with works in a variety of media and subjects. The artwork is presented in groupings that highlight each individual’s offerings rather than an intermediary’s secondary conceptual vision, which is often the case in group exhibitions. Of the seven artists in the show, six are working in two-dimensional media, and one artist, Paula Lovo, offers three digital videos on monitors. Lovos’ narrative videos feature allegorical tales of environmental degradation through the point of view of a bee, a spider, and an ant. They offer soft, efficient, and thoroughly engaging five-minute cautionary tales about our society’s relationship to the environment. (Shane McAdams)
- The Big Idea Xi: The Future is Now, June 21-Aug. 23
Lily Pad Gallery
- Contemporary Classism: The Art of Alfredo Palermo, through June 30
Lynden Sculpture Garden
- “The Time Has Come: The First Lynden Staff Exhibition,” through June 8
The art world has a long and somewhat illustrious history of staff-based exhibitions. The Time Has Come: The First Lynden Staff Exhibition” is on view through June 8 and as the release offers: “grew out of our ongoing discussion about Lynden’s identity.” It tells us things about its inside that aren’t apparent from the surface. And in fact, we can see it from the get-go at Lynden, where we are greeted with what feels like a community of committed individuals who happen to be working across media and content. (Shane McAdams)
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
Madison Theatre Guild
Marcus Performing Arts Center
- That Girl Lay Lay, June 1
- City Roast Competition, June 1
- Rainbow Summer Highlight, July 23-27
Downtown Milwaukee is gearing up for a burst of color and creativity this summer with the Marcus Performing Arts Center’s eagerly awaited return of Rainbow Summer. Included in the event is Atelier Sisu’s immersive public art installation “Elysian Arcs” along with five nights of live music. (Morton Shlabotnik)
- El Boricua es Cosa, Aug. 4
MARN Art + Culture Hub
- The City of Benedict della Crosse, Aug. 24
Milwaukee playwright Gaetano Marangelli, whose work has attracted international attention, tells the story of an idealistic Wisconsin candidate confronted by the less attractive aspects of politics. Doors open at 4 p.m. for a wine social. Reading begins at 5. Next Act’s Cody Estle will direct. (David Luhrssen)
Marquette University Theatre
Master Singers of Milwaukee
Material Studios + Gallery
Memories Dinner Theatre
Menomonee Falls Symphony
MIAD Gallery at the Ave
- Culture Starters: Emerging from the Quarantine, through June 22
Milwaukee Art Museum
- Idris Khan: Repeat After Me, through Aug. 11
Idris Khan’s exhibition is as the title suggests, repetitive. It’s awash in layers of recycled information that settle into sedimentary compositions blurring the lines between objectivity and abstraction. Though repetition isn’t typically the first quality most would look to on the way to originality, Khan’s work finds complexity in the idea, looking at how perceptual information settles into history over time. (Shane McAdams)
- 50 Paintings, through June 23
- Arresting Beauty: Julia Margaret Cameron, through July 28
- Life Captured in Line: 17th Century Dutch and Flemish Prints, through Aug. 18
- Beyond Heights: Skyscrapers and the Human Experience, through Sept. 8
Milwaukee Ballet
Milwaukee Chamber Theater
Milwaukee Children's Choir
Milwaukee Comedy
Milwaukee Festival Brass
Milwaukee Film
Milwaukee Fringe Festival
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design Gallery
Milwaukee Irish Arts
Milwaukee Jazz Orchestra
- Take It All album release concert, Aug. 21 (Racine Theater Guild)
Milwaukee Makers Market
Milwaukee Makers Market champions local artists, creators, designers and crafters to celebrate the city’s small businesses. This one-stop shop experience provides an inclusive environment for local makers to showcase their talent and connect with Milwaukeeans. (Sophia Hamdan)
- June 16 (Discovery World)
- July 28 (Discovery World)
- Aug. 18 (Discovery World)
Milwaukee Musaik
Milwaukee Opera Theatre
Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
- Carmina Burana & Fate Now Conquers, June 7-9
The unusual thing about Carl Orff is that he’s known for only one composition, but that composition is among the most familiar pieces in the classical music canon. The timbres and rhythms of Carmina Burana are visceral, memorably projecting the Latin doggerel of the verses he set to music. The MSO pairs Carmina Burana with Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers, inspired by a Beethoven notebook entry on the unpredictable ways of fate. Also on the bill is Tan Dun’s Three Muses in Video Game, showcasing principal trombonist Megumi Kanda. (David Luhrssen)
- Hadelich Plays Tchaikovsky, June 14-15
- Toy Story in Concert, June 22-23
Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra
Milwaukee Youth Theatre
MKE Black Theatre Festival
- For Colored Girls who Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf, Aug. 8-25
(Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall in the Marcus Performing Arts Center)
The 1976 play by Ntozake Shange is a series of poetic monologues accompanied by music and dance. For Colored Girls tells the stories of seven women confronted by racism and sexism. It has played on and off Broadway and was adapted into a 2010 Tyler Perry film starring Janet Jackson and Whoopi Goldberg. (David Luhrssen)
Morning Star Productions
Museum of Wisconsin Art
- Chalk Fest, Aug. 17-18
- Mark Mulhern: The Pleasure of Seeing, through July 21
- Chris T. Cornelius: ukwé·tase (newcomer/stranger), through January 2025
The three-dimensional structure blends contemporary and traditional architectural aspects in unique and compelling ways, while exploring themes of familiarity and alienation within the environment it seeks to capture. The work represents humankind’s place in a world to which it is both resident and stranger, creating a sense of wonder and wariness of the world around us, the Milwaukee-born Indigenous artist says. (Michael Muckian)
MOWA | DTN (Saint Kate–The Arts Hotel)
- POW-litical Comics: From Ripon to the RNC, through July 22
MOWA on the Lake (St. John's on the Lake)
Next Act Theatre
- RIP: A Musical Comedy of Life & Death, July 17-28
The world premiere of the play by Milwaukee author Robert Grede is directed by Next Act’s lighting designer Alan Piotrowicz and staged at Next Act Theatre. (Morton Shlabotnik)
Nō Studios
North Shore Academy of the Arts
Northern Sky Theater
- The Fisherman’s Daughter, June 12-Sept. 1 The musical The Fisherman’s Daughters, which premiered at Northern Sky in 2021, is a fictionalized account of two sisters living on land that eventually became Peninsula State Park. It’s set in 1908 as the park was being established and will be performed outdoors on location at Peninsula State Park Amphitheater. (Morton Shlabotnik)
- Hell’s Belgians, June 13-Sept. 1
Oconomowoc Arts Center
Oil a City Gallery
Optimist Theatre
This year’s summer season will feature nearly 50 performances in green spaces throughout the city, including: a one-person Hamlet (starring Libby Amato); an original by Milwaukee’s Liz Shipe called Another Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Comedy of Romeo and Juliet: Kinda Sorta featuring Schmitz ‘n Giggles Shakesparody Players; and Pocket Park Puppet Players’ Macbeth. (Morton Shlabotnik)
Outskirts Theatre
Over Our Head Players
Overture Center for the Arts, Madison
Peninsula Players
- I Ought to Be in Pictures, June 18-July 7
- The Angel Next Door, July 10-28
- Million Dollar Quartet, July 31-Aug. 18
The jukebox musical visits Memphis’ legendary Sun Studio and the four recording artists who redirected the course of American music, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. Million Dollar Quartet debuted on Broadway in 2010, played on London’s West End in 2011 and has become a popular production for regional theater companies. (David Luhrssen)
- Mary’s Wedding, Aug. 21-Sept. 1
Philomusica Quartet
PianoArts
Portrait Society Gallery
Present Music
Prometheus Trio
Racine Art Museum
- RAM’s First 20 Years: A Visual History of the Art and Architecture, through July 20
- In Between: Contemporary Artists Working in Two and Three Dimensions Featuring Dennis Lee Mitchell, through Aug 31
- Collection Focus: Frances and Michael Higgins, through Oct. 12
Racine Symphony Orchestra
Racine Theatre Guild
- Cabaret, through June 2
- First Date, July 19-28
Give first impressions a second chance? Blind date newbie Aaron, and serial-dater Casey enter the hilariously exhausting ritual through the ups and downs of a first date. Dull conversations, awkward flirting and humiliating mishaps are accompanied by an ever-rotating cast of characters from both of their pasts and possible futures. Music and lyrics by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner. (Morton Shlabotnik)
Real Tinsel Gallery
- Flat File Project, through forever
Real Tinsel’s Shane McAdams has been compiling an indexed collection of Wisconsin artists working on paper, stored and displayed in flat drawer cabinets in the basement lounge of his gallery. He has gathered a variety of drawings, etchings, prints and more. “I curate them on the basis of which work is of professional caliber, not my own taste,” McAdams said. The public is invited to peruse. (David Luhrssen)
Renaissance Theaterworks
Sacra Nova Chorale
- Novel Ecosystems: A Group Exhibition, through July 7 (The Gallery)
- Stephania Urist: The Past to Yesterday, through July 7 (The Space)
- Maureen Fritchen: See Foam, through July 7 (The Vitrine)
- Rick Silva: Liquid Crystal, through July 7 (The Closet)
Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel
- Julie Schenkelbe: Parlour Trix, through April 14 (The Vitrine)
- William Lamson: In the Roaring Garden, through April 14 (The Closet)
- Galen Chaney: Ripped and Woven, through April 14 (The Space)
- Claire Ashley: Luminous Love Junk, through April 14
Sculpture Milwaukee
Seat of Our Pants Reader Theatre
Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts
- Tom’s Elton Tribute, June 5
- Cold Sweat and the Brew City Horns, June 28
- Wisconsin Philharmonic, July 5
- B.D. Greer and The Gents, July 26
- Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Aug. 17 Jeff Baxter played in several bands, including the Holy Modal Rounders, before becoming a founding member of Steely Dan. His guitar solos were prominent on their early albums (Can’t Buy a Thrill, Countdown to Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic) but by 1974 it was clear Steely Dan was no longer a band but a recording project for songwriters Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. Baxter moved on to the Doobie Brothers and has enjoyed a successful career as a session guitarist. (David Luhrssen)
Sheboygan Theater Company
Skylight Music Theatre
South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center
Sunset Playhouse
Theatre Gigante
Theatrical Tendencies
- Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, June 14-23 (Inspiration Studios)
Third Avenue Playhouse, Sturgeon Bay
- Stones in His Pockets, June 12-30
- Jeeves Saves the Day, July 17-Aug. 18 Cluelessly wealthy Bertie Wooster and his resourceful servant, Jeeves, were the stars of P.G. Wodehouse’s series of comedic novels. The gentle spoofing of upper-class mores in 1920s England was adapted into a British TV series (starring Hugh Laurie as Wooster and Stephen Fry as Jeeves) and has provided material for many stage adaptations. (David Luhrssen)
Thrasher Opera House, Green Lake
- Merz Trio, June 6 (Green Lake Festival of Music)
- Robin Hood, June 22 (Missoula Children’s Theatre)
- An Evening of Opera, July 19 (Green Lake Festival of Music)
- Henry IV, July 12 (Shakes by the Lake, Deacon Mills Park)
Tooth-and-Nail Gallery
- Soft Structures, through June 1
Tooth-and-Nail’s second exhibition in the Lincoln Warehouse in Bayview is a subtle dandy, with a collection of work by the Milwaukee art community’s most celebrated artists. “Soft Structures” offers work interested in fiber, materiality, and expanding and variable form. It’s a focus that fits well in the particular exhibition space, allowing the art to mingle ambiguously with that of the workshop. (Shane McAdams)
Tory Folliard Gallery
UW-Parkside Theatre
UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts
- Upstart: Dance MFA Concert, July 25 (Mitchell Hall)
UWM Theatre/Peck School of the Arts
UWM Union Art Gallery
uwm.edu/studentinvolvement/arts-and-entertainment/union-art-gallery
UW-Whitewater Crossman Gallery
UW-Whitewater Young Auditorium
Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum
- Centennial Celebration & Gala in the Garden, July 10-13
- Emily Robertson: Dyed Well, through Oct. 13
- A Century from Sopra Mare, through Dec. 22
Village Playhouse, Wauwatosa
Voices Found
Walker's Point Center for the Arts
Warehouse Art Museum
Water Street Dance Milwaukee
- Death’s Door Dance Festival, July 27 (Door County)
- Water on Water, July 31 (Cedarburg)
- Solstice VII, Aug. 2 (Cedarburg)
West Allis Players
- Is Murder Tax Deductible (Liberace Auditorium, West Milwaukee)
West Bend Theatre Company
West Performing Arts Center
Wild Space Dance Company
Windfall Theatre
Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
Wisconsin Lutheran College - Center for Arts and Performance
Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Art
- 25 Million Stitches: One Stitch, One Refugee, through-July 28
“25 Million Stitches” is made from 25 million hand-sewn stitches, each representing a single displaced person as counted in the UN’s High Commissioner on Refugees 2019 report. The stitches, bound to 407 muslin banners, were sewn in all 50 states and 37 countries. (Morton Shlabotnik)
Wisconsin Philharmonic
Woodland Pattern Book Center
- Alternating Currents: Poetry and Music, June 6
- Poetry in the Park, June 11 (Juneau Park)
- Formations Series for New & Improvised Music, June 20
- Open Mic, June 28
