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626 E. Kilbourn Avenue, Suite 802 / Milwaukee, WI 53202 (Administrative Office) / 414.347.1685 / fax 414.347.1690
©2010 Milwaukee Public Theatre. All Rights Reserved.
Who We Are
Milwaukee Public Theatre has its roots in a profound belief in the arts as a healing resource that must be available to all people, regardless of age, ability/disability, culture, ethnicity or income level. From our beginnings as a 2-person company of mime/musician/storytellers, we have grown into a multi-faceted outreach arts organization working yearly with over 100 artists from all cultures and arts disciplines and reaching over 100,000 people with highly diverse programming that tours throughout our community and beyond. We aspire to be interactive, thought-provoking and celebrational. Please review our most recent Annual Report.
Most of our work is free-to-the-public, AND we pay our artists as professionals. So we seek public as well as private funding and contracts from organizations to make sure we are able to reach YOU.
And YOU can be part of US. We invite you to join us to help make a difference in our community! Please take a look at all of our programming. If you have a need or an event coming up that you would like to brainstorm with us about, contact us!
We look forward to hearing from you.
A Short History (the first 36 years) of Milwaukee Public Theatre
Originally named the Friends Mime Theatre, the Milwaukee Public Theatre was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1974 by Dr. Barbara Leigh and Michael John Moynihan.
As one of the region's few professional outreach theatres, the company has created over 400 original productions and touring/outreach events that have traveled to audiences throughout the community, state, region and nation.
Milwaukee Public Theatre (MPT) creates productions that appropriate ancient, traditional and contemporary theatrical forms into new relationships, juxtapositions and collisions of form, subject matter and content.
The productions have included one-person Plays, two-person Pantomimes, original Musical Comedies, Multi-Media Musicals, Videoworks, Historical Epics, and free outdoor Vaudeville and Circus Theatre.
MPT is also unique in its development of work that integrates people with disabilities into theatre arts and works with professional and amateur visual and performing artists of all ages, races, ethnic backgrounds and economic levels.
The Milwaukee Public Theatre's free-to-the-public summer park/community performances, parades and processions are now in their 36th year. These productions have the most diverse audience of any arts organization in the city, county or state.
MPT also provides opportunities for employment and training for young Milwaukee performing artists from all cultural backgrounds. Each year the company presents between 400 and 600 public events for 100,000 to 150,000 adults and children of all ages, backgrounds, cultures and abilities.
The company tours and gives performances and workshops throughout Milwaukee County, as well as also creating projects that travel within the state of Wisconsin, the region, the nation, and the North American Continent.
Co-founders Barbara Leigh and Michael John Moynihan with guest musician Renae Richman in Milwaukee Public Theatre's very first production,
A MYTH* OF CHANGES. --->
A MYTH* OF CHANGES. --->
*The use of the word "MYTH" was not in the current habit of being synonymous with the word "LIE", but in the traditional sense MYTH was a typically ancient story dealing with Supernatural Beings, Ancestors, or Heroes that serves as a fundamental and truthful explanation of the worldview of a people, by explaining aspects of the natural world or delin-eating the psychology, customs, or ideals of the society and culture.
Milwaukee Public Theatre maintaims a strong education/outreach component, collaborating with artists of many different cultural backgrounds and media expertise.
Milwaukee Public Theatre workshops can be brought to any site and tailored to fit all ages and abilities and your business, school, community, or personal interests with over 50 professional artists offering a diverse range of activities from which to choose.
Through custom and special events, we work with the business and corporate community to utilize theatrical techniques in the training environment, focusing on such areas as diversity, sensitivity and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Focusing on healing arts and wellness education, we create and present programming on a variety of issues for all ages through workshops, residencies, and touring shows.
Milwaukee Public Theatre has been in residence at Lincoln Middle School of the Arts since 1979. MPT's Ajula Performance Troupe is a resident company in the City Housing Authority's Lapham Park Community Building at 650 W. Reservoir Ave.
Residencies in schools throughout the State have been supported through the Wisconsin Arts Board since the program's inception in the 70's. Thanks to grants from the Helen Bader Foundation, the Milwaukee Foundation, the City and County of Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Arts Board and numerous community based organizations, the company has been in residence in many more Milwaukee neighborhoods.
In Memoriam:
- Thomas Merton -