BY: ARCHER PARQUETTE AND KELSEY LAWLER
READ MORE FROM OUR “2025 FALL ARTS” FEATURE HERE.
A New Rep
The Milwaukee Rep announced its renovation at perhaps the most unfortunate time possible: February 2020. Five years later – after COVID shutdowns, extensive fundraising and multi-phased construction – the local theater company is finally nearing completion on the top-to-bottom, $80 million overhaul of its building at 108 E. Wells St.
On Oct. 11, the newly revamped Checota Powerhouse Theater, the Rep’s main stage, will host its first performance, a concert by Broadway star Bernadette Peters. Following in November is the Powerhouse’s first show, Come From Away.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Audiences will experience completely redone seating meant to improve sight lines, upgraded acoustics and audio, versatile “flying sets” thanks to a new rigging system, and a wide array of accessibility additions for people with disabilities.
The renovation was a long time coming, says artistic director Chad Bauman. The Rep’s building dates to 1898 and was last updated in 1987. “We had designers, directors, actors coming here to work, and the technology we had was older than they were,” Bauman says. “It was really hampering our ability to deliver a world-class artistic product.”
The Powerhouse Theater is only the beginning of the renovation. Over the course of the season, the revamped Herro-Franke Studio Theater, Stackner Cabaret and brand-new Herzfeld Foundation Education & Engagement Center for students are all expected to be completed.
“Milwaukee now has one of the most amazing performance complexes in the world,” Bauman says of the new space. Audiences “are going to see what that brings with it. … Every single show this season is going to bring it – it’s going to have a wow factor.”
Finding Sanctuary
In Next Act’s Sanctuary City (Sept. 10-Oct. 5), the aftermath of 9/11 heightens the everyday tensions felt by two Newark teenagers brought to America as kids. UW-Milwaukee alum Ashley Oviedo plays G, one of three characters in this play about love, perseverance, belonging and betrayal.
– Kelsey Lawler
What’s your connection to Milwaukee? Are you from here?
I always say, kind of. I was born in Washington Heights in Manhattan. My parents moved to Long Island when I was 10, because we’ve got a lot of kids in my family. When I was doing the college application process, I knew I wanted to study theater. My 18-year-old brain was like, “Well, if I study theater here in New York City, I’m going to be here for the rest of my life.”
I made a list of schools with my dad, and Milwaukee ended up being a place where I felt comfortable and happy. I moved there, went to school there, then came back [to New York] for a semester because I got a scholarship for biology – and then I was sad. I went back to Milwaukee for theater and lived there for about seven or eight years. I moved back to New York almost two years ago to be closer to family. But for my formative years, like 18 to 24, I was in Milwaukee. All my friends are there, all my growing up.
Wow! Can you tell me more about your biology detour?
My parents are immigrants and worked really hard to pay for my education. And I felt so guilty because I got all this money at a great school in New York, but it wasn’t theater. And I was like, “Oh my god, am I really gonna make my parents pay out-of-state tuition for a musical theater degree, when I could have almost a full-ride for a really, really good career?” It’s a big thing I still struggle with.
But I feel like [my parents] were pushing me to not make the practical choice. My dad is a chef, and he’s always wanted to be a chef. He’s always pushed me like, “Do what makes you happy, and we will support you no matter what.”
What drew you to this play?
It’s hard, especially as a woman of color, to find material that feels true. Sanctuary City is just so real and feels so right in my body and in my soul. As soon as I read it, I connected.
What do you find most exciting or challenging about the role of G?
At first, I really liked that there was no label. Just “G.” There wasn’t a name or an ethnicity. But what I’ve found challenging is playing so closely with feelings that I’ve felt myself and that I identify with.
For some of these pieces that deal with this kind of theme, to relate to something so deeply is always a good challenge. I get emotional, and I want to do it justice. And I want to not just focus on what feels very true for me – I want it to be true for everybody that might see it.
What does it mean to tell this story about immigrants today?
What I love about this play is it doesn’t feel too difficult to sympathize with and relate to these characters. There are so many points in the play where it feels like there is no sanctuary, there is no help, but they find it in each other.
How would you describe the mood of Sanctuary City overall?
The themes are serious; it’s very real and human. There are so many sad things going on in the world, but that’s not the totality of our experience. There’s still love, and there’s still laughter.
Switzerland
OCT. 19 – NOV. 9 | RENAISSANCE THEATERWORKS
Misanthropic crime novelist Patricia Highsmith gets a visit to her Swiss abode from a young man begging for a new Ripley novel. Local mainstay Laura Gordon directs this thriller that’s sure to deftly dissect Highsmith’s obsession – and ours – with psychopaths.
Bed and Breakfast of the Damned
OCT. 25 – NOV. 7 | BROADWAY THEATRE CENTER
A pug-themed bed-and-breakfast? Seems like a nice refuge from the zombie apocalypse until couple Ben and Melissa find bigger problems in the dysfunctional company they’ve found. Expect death, dramatics and surprises in The Constructivists’ world-premiere farce.
Murder Girl: A Northwoods Supper Club Holiday Whodunnit
NOV. 14 – 30 | BROADWAY THEATRE CENTER
Secrets spill like brandy old fashioneds when a Northwoods supper club waitress reveals something that throws off the holiday plans of twins LeeAnn and Eric. There’s more humor than horror in this mystery by local playwright Heidi Armbruster.
