New Works to Dominate New Statewide Theatrical Consortium

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Image: World Premiere Wisconsin

World Premiere Wisconsin logo

If all the world’s a stage, as Shakespeare postulated in As You Like It, next year will be populated by numerous new theatrical voices thanks to a new organizational initiative among Wisconsin’s professional theater companies.

A coalition of theater groups located primarily in Milwaukee, Madison and Door County have joined forces to form World Premiere Wisconsin, a statewide theater consortium that will be sponsoring festival performances running from March 1 to June 30, 2023. WPW’s purpose is to build greater community among theater groups statewide; provide marketing, fundraising and dramaturgy to encourage and facilitate new-play production; and to communicate a positive story about Wisconsin theaters that engage and excite audiences during the state’s continued recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think all of us hope that heightened attention to our collected creative efforts will bring more audiences out to see plays crafted in our home state,” explains Jeff Frank , artistic director for Milwaukee’s First Stage, “and that the festival will spur development efforts for all participating companies to bring new voices and new stories to our stages.”

Many Wisconsin Companies

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Photo: Torey Byrne

Door Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream

Door Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream - Luke Brotherhood and Demetrios E. Troy as Puck

In addition to First Stage, participating Milwaukee companies include Milwaukee Repertory Theater Company, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks (RTW), and Skylight Music Theatre. Participating Madison troupes include Capital City Theatre and Forward Theater Company, while Door County’s theater community is represented by Door Shakespeare, Northern Sky Theater, Peninsula Players and Third Avenue Playworks. WPW defines “professional” theaters as those with season-long agreements with the Actors’ Equity Association.

WPW’s leadership team includes Jen Uphoff Gray and Julie Swenson, Forward Theater’s artistic director and managing director, respectively; Deanie Vallone, the Milwaukee Rep’s literary director; and Molly Rhode, Northern Sky’s associate artistic director. Marcy Kearns, Chamber Theatre’s associate artistic director, will provide administrative support.

“In addition to our role on the leadership team, members from our marketing and development departments have collaborated with their counterparts across festival theaters to provide additional support around grants, website building, branding, and more,” the Rep’s Vallone says. “Over the next year, our Milwaukee Rep team will continue offering input on these elements, promoting the festival and our production, and collaborating closely with our fellow leadership members to ensure the smooth and successful festival run.” 

Women in the Arts

According to Kearns, WPW’s formation dates back to the Statera Foundation National Conference, held in Milwaukee in 2018 and coordinated by RTW and the Statera Foundation, which works to achieve a greater presence for women in the arts. Statera is Latin for “balance.”

“Jen (Uphoff Gray), sparked by a conversation about collaborative ventures and new works, envisioned a project that could create dialogue, cooperation, and ultimately a greater supportive bond among theaters across Wisconsin,” Kearns says. The concept took a back seat to more immediate needs during the pandemic’s early years, but the 13 founding theater companies decide it was time to get organizational development back on track, she adds.

WPW’s formative meeting was held in 2019 at Ten Chimneys, the ancestral Genesee Depot home of Broadway luminaries Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. The Ten Chimneys Foundation has pledged its support to WPW, assisting the group with planning, serving as fiscal receiver, and hosting events related to the festival.

American Players Theatre, one of Wisconsin’s best known theater groups, helped in WPW’s formulation, but was unable to commit to active membership until early 2023, when a new production will lead off “Creating the Classics of Tomorrow,” APT’s new play development series, according to Sara Young, APT’s communications director. The new series will become  part of the existing Winter Words play readings for the Spring Green company, she adds.

Several companies around the state are known for producing new works, including RTW which, since its inception in 1993, has staged 10 world premieres, according to artistic director Suzan Fete. In 2013, RTW launched BRINK, its new play festival designed to promote the work of women and women-identifying playwrights in the Midwest.

“Our WPW offering will be TIDY by Chicago-based playwright, dramaturg, producer, and educator Kirsten Idaszak, which will open March 24, 2023,” Fete adds. The production concerns a woman detective and her work addressing the climate crisis, a favorite topic of this particular playwright, she adds.

Creating new works at the regional level is a critical development strategy for the national theater scene, according to Michael Unger, Skylight’s artistic director. That will make WPW a vital part of industry growth.

Challenging and Risky

“The process of creating new theatrical works is a challenging and risky proposition. Many of the plays and musicals that end up on Broadway do not start there,” Unger explains. “To focus a spotlight on Wisconsin as the birthplace of so many new works in a single four-month period stakes a claim that will be felt nationally, perhaps internationally. I don’t know of any other state that has done this type of thing on as large a scale. It’s an inspiring idea with great minds behind its inception. We here at Skylight are proud to be a part of it.”

That sentiment holds true for all participating theater companies on behalf of the audiences they seek to educate and entertain, Kearns adds.

“The vitality of our state’s theater industry is underrated,” Kearns says. “When I first moved to Wisconsin, I was floored at the number of theater companies in Milwaukee alone. One of my Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra colleagues at the time explained it this way: “Of course, we love the arts here. It’s a cold state in the Midwest with a long winter. When it’s dark, we need to feed our souls with stories.” 

With the founding of WPW, that soulful diet of stories, and especially ones with new, fresh perspectives, will be enriched immeasurably.