Promising Fusion: Meet Me At The Avant Garde

It can be really difficult to get different disciplines within a university working together. Everyone is so focussed-in on their own area of study. I distinctly remember the late Professor Fazio from the UWM Department of Psychology lamenting on this towards the end of his life. 

As with many other areas, the arts have the ability to lead the way with greater interdisciplinary integration than other specialized areas of academia. So it's nice to see Fly Steffens working on a collaboration between theatre and guitar programs at UWM. Steffens' Meet Me at the Avant Garde is a UWM Labworks show exploring Milwaukee's Avant Garde Coffeehouse--an art cafe that operated on Milwaukee's East Side in the 1960s. I'd heard about the place, but I'd always thought it was some strange legend old poets talked about until I actually saw pictures of the place in an ancient, decrepit copy of The Bugle-American a few years back. 

Based on research conducted by the Finger-Style Guitar program at UWM, Steffens' script explores the history of the Avant Garde--a fusion of "two styles of music, two generation, two cultures and the and the sociological context and impact on the Milwaukee community."

While the guitarists involved in the show have yet to be announced, the cast includes some very promising UWM  theatre students including Liz Faraglia, Emily Rindt, Glenn Widdicombe, Alex Van Abel, Raven Dockery, Brianna Borouchoff and more. 

A UWM Labworks presentation directed by Rebecca Holderness, Meet Me at the Avant Garde runs April 25th through May 5th at 1925 East Kenilworth Place. For ticket reservations, call the UWM Peck School of the Arts Box Office at 414-229-4308.