Curtain rising on UWM play
Fire forces show to move to Rep
A college play that opens Wednesday at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater is finishing its final exam.
A scene shop fire in a theater at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee April 8 unexpectedly sent students who act, build and design sets, manage the stage, lighting and sound into a professional theater space much different from the familiar Mainstage Theatre where their work on “Arcadia” began weeks earlier. They re-blocked scenes, rebuilt part of the set, and acclimated to change.
“We’d never walk away from this,” said Denis Kavanagh, shop supervisor for the scene shop in UWM’s theater department.
The production runs Wednesday through Sunday, and tickets are still available for some nights through The Rep’s box office.
After the April 8 blaze that caused fire, smoke and water damage in parts of the Peck School of the Arts complex, the Rep stepped up to offer the Steimke Theater as a new venue for “Arcadia.” Shorewood High School offered its scene shop for UWM students to rebuild portions of the set damaged by the multimilliondollar fire. And faculty provided guidance and experience that students will take with them in the months and years ahead, whenever things in their lives don’t go as planned.
This will be the last show that Brooke Olson will do as stage manager. The junior stage management major from Oconomowoc explained that students do two-year rotations, and this is it for her as a stage manager.
“It definitely has shown me my job and this craft can go anywhere,” Olson said of the aftermath of the fire. “In a small amount of time, we took this show from one venue to another. We could do ‘Arcadia’ outside, in any venue. This has shown me theater is very flexible, and the community is very supportive. It’s a nice community to be part of.”