Rep planning an upgrade to Stackner
$1 million project includes more seating
A pair of gifts totaling $1 million will fund a complete renovation of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Stackner Cabaret, the Rep announced in a statement.
The renovation will include a substantial increase in Stackner seating and a new kitchen, which will increase the Rep’s ability to serve food both to Stackner patrons and other Rep visitors.
Former Rep board president Vince Martin and his wife, Jan, have made a $750,000 gift for the project; the Stackner Family Foundation contributed $250,000.
The Stackner Cabaret, which opened in 1987, is one of three theaters in the Rep’s Baker Theater Complex at 108 E. Wells St. At present, it seats 132 people and offers full dinner service before shows, with drinks and desserts afterward. The Rep stages about 300 performances annually in the space.
While it is familiar to many Milwaukeeans as a venue for musical revues and musicdriven performances, in recent years the Rep has broadened the kinds of shows it stages in the Stackner. For example, it hosted “McGuire,” the oneman play about Marquette basketball coach Al McGuire, featuring Tony Award winner Anthony Crivello.
Uihlein-Wilson Architects is leading the project, which will not disrupt the 2017-’18 Stackner schedule, according to the Rep. The renovation will increase the seating capacity to 182 plus an additional 10 new bar seats. But the Uihlein-Wilson design will make it possible for subscribers to retain their current seats, the Rep promises.
Details of when construction will begin and end are still being worked out.
The Rep is in the midst of a $10 million capital campaign to fund major artistic, outreach and other initiatives. In 2015 it fixed a sinking building problem.