News @ the Peck School of the Arts: Theatre

Theatre

05/20/2016

Precious Lives Takes To The Stage June 15 at the Pabst Theater

Michelle Matternowski

May 16, 2016

WUWM - Milwaukee Public Radio

WUWM 89.7 FM - Milwaukee Public Radio and 371 Productions are pleased to announce Precious Lives: The Live Show. On Wednesday, June 15 at the Pabst Theater, Milwaukeeans heard each week on Precious Lives will take the stage and share stories of how gun violence has impacted their lives.

“The goal is to continue the amazing work in Precious Lives with a live performance that allows the storytellers and audience to connect and examine the gun violence in our community,” says Michelle Lopez-Rios, Precious Lives: The Live Show director.

Lopez-Rios works professionally in theater and at UWM, but she also guides people who are living invisible, painful lives in sharing their experiences with others.

Read/hear more: WUWM

May 20, 2016 2:39:21 PM | Students & Faculty, Theatre

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$82.3 Million in Grants Will Support Art Projects Nationwide

May 10, 2016

National Endowment for the Arts

UWM Theatre Professor Anne Basting's project, TimeSlips, is awarded an NEA ArtWorks grant to share the stories and imagination of people with dementia all across the state of Wisconsin.

May 20, 2016 2:25:26 PM | Students & Faculty, Theatre

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The Roots of the U.S. Foster Care System

Selena Milewski

April 12, 2016

Shepherd Express

UW-Milwaukee Theatre Department’s latest offering, Orphan Train, passionately communicated a slice of American history grossly underrepresented in standard curriculum and common knowledge. From 1853-1929 the Orphan Train Movement (known at the time as “Free Adoption”) transported 500,000 destitute children from New York City to various locations in the Midwest. There they were “adopted out” into indentured slavery with zero background checks for adopters. Although some fortuitously ended up in loving homes that furnished food, shelter and education, the majority did not. Horrifying cases of abuse and even murder are recounted here, alongside the stories of perseverance and love.

03/23/2016

UWM Theatre presents "Orphan Train"

Orphan Train, a new creatively devised theatre piece, runs April 6-10th at UWM’s Kenilworth Five-0-Eight. This production, created by Robin Mello and UWM Theatre students, captures an unsung piece of American history – the lived experience of Orphan Train riders and the people who sent them west.

Orphan Train follows the real stories of fourteen individuals whom rode the trains. Along the way children indentured to farmers, hotel owners, teachers and students at the Milwaukee Female Seminary (which became Downer College), and the maverick Congregationalist minister Charles Loring Brace, whose vision impacted hundreds of thousands of children with laudable and tragic results.

The cast of Orphan Train began creating the piece in February 2016 under the direction of Mello. They also had an opportunity to engage with MultiStory Theatre, from Barnstable, England whom helped bring an international connection to the work. The script is based on true stories taken from primary and secondary sources (diaries, photographs, interviews, newspaper reports, letters, and oral histories preserved in archives and dating from 1853 to1929).

Orphan Train is intended to explore the courage and perseverance demonstrated by the children who survived the Orphan Train journey west. It engages audiences in an evening of storytelling, song, improvisation, and characters who ultimately participated in creating Midwestern culture.

Mar 23, 2016 2:53:49 PM | Students & Faculty, Theatre

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02/05/2016

UWM ranks among nation’s top research institutions

Ben Stanley

February 5, 2016

Biz Times Milwaukee

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has joined the ranks of the nation’s most active research universities.

UWM’s Innovator Accelerator campus in Wauwatosa.

UWM was re-classified as a Tier 1 Research University in theCarnegie Foundation’s most recent Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which was published Feb. 1.

The foundation releases classifications once every five years.

There are 115 Tier 1 research institutions, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Yale, Duke and Johns Hopkins.

01/27/2016

Students in TimeSlips help those with memory loss create stories

Kathy Quirk

January 25, 2016

UWM Report

Rebecca Mixtacki, a UW-Milwaukee graduate, passes around a black-and-white photo showing a downtown street scene from the mid-20th century to nine older women. Mixtacki sits next to Gloria Ristow, who is blind, and describes the photo.

One by one, the women offer their thoughts about what might be happening in the photo as Helena Enderle, a German exchange student studying sociology at UWM, writes the ideas down on a flip chart. As the students encourage the women to share their ideas, a story takes shape.

01/01/2016

Luchadora! Published by Dramatic Publishing

Dramatic Publishing

"An absolute gem. … A beautiful story with an upbeat message for young people and their parents." —GMToday.com

"The most exciting father-daughter saga this side of the Pecos." —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"One of the most moving and important productions likely to be seen in Milwaukee." —OnMilwaukee.com

"An engaging, lively piece that teaches while it entertains." —Shepherd Express

"Inspiring and relevant to young people." —HowlRound

12/21/2015

Theatre - DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2015 #4: Best Plays in Professional Theaters

12/21/15

DCMetroTheaterArts

Here are the DCMetroTheaterArts Staff’s honorees for Best Plays in Professional Theaters in 2015.

12/16/2015

Theatre - Voice Coach Says Dialect 'Lifts a Character'

Bonnie North

12/16/15

WUWM

Both Shaw’s “Pygmalion” and the musical adapted from it, “My Fair Lady” make the point that it’s not just clothes that make the man – or the woman. Speech plays a part as well, perhaps even more so. The current production of “My Fair Lady” running at the Skylight took advantage of a UWM speech and dialect coach to ensure that these very American actors could credibly sound like Cockney Londoners.

10/27/2015

Lady Macbeth with a Smartphone

Russ Bickerstaff

October 27, 2015