Theatre X was an American theater company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Until its demise in 2004, it was one of the oldest operating experimental theater ensembles in the U.S.
Theatre X was an American theater company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Until its demise in 2004, it was one of the oldest operating experimental theater ensembles in the U.S.
The company formed in 1969 as an informal workshop by a group of UW–Milwaukee faculty and students. It became a professional company by 1971, touring throughout the United States and to Europe and Japan. It was named for the algebraic symbol x, which means an unknown quantity, thus implying a theater of unlimited possibility. The ensemble was a resident company at the Water Street Art Center in Milwaukee, where they rehearsed, performed and hosted traveling productions from other theater companies. The site soon included an art gallery and small press bookstore that years later became Woodland Pattern Book Center, as well as a grass roots outreach company, Friends Mime Theatre, which evolved into the Milwaukee Public Theatre. Finally, it moved into offices in the Broadway Theater Center in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward and remained there until its collapse.
Much of its early work was created improvisationally as an ensemble, with influences including The Living Theatre and Jerzy Grotowski. The company created over 60 new plays among its 180 productions. In its last two years, Theatre X's board of directors gave then producing director David Ravel and artistic director John Schneider control over play selection and casting, which had previously involved the entire group, and then dissolved the acting company. This move away from an ensemble structure led to a public dispute when the board gave ensemble members John Kishline, Deborah Clifton and Marcie Hoffmann a forced leave of absence from acting in hopes of re-structuring the company, leaving only Schneider and Flora Coker as the remaining founding members. Though litigation was proposed, the lawsuit was dropped after it became too costly. Theatre X continued for 2 seasons but chose to turn off the lights in 2004.
Willem Dafoe was an early member of the ensemble and, when he stayed in New York to eventually join the Wooster Group, was replaced by Victor DeLorenzo, who later was one of the founders of Violent Femmes. Delorenzo was later replaced by David Rommel. John Sobczak, Cate Woodruff (then Pamela C. Woodruff) and Wesley Savick were also long-time members of Theatre X. Lory Lazarus, a member of Theatre X in the mid 1970s, went on to become a writer for Cartoon Network's "Courage, the Cowardly Dog" and a songwriter for "Barney & Friends" on PBS. Two of Theatre X's founding members, Conrad Bishop and Elizabeth Fuller, went on to form The Independent Eye.
Theatre X won a 1978 Obie Award for the set design and lighting design for the New York City production of their original play A Fierce Longing, based on the life of Yukio Mishima.
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script.
A repertory theatre is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation.
A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors and aspects of production. The director's function is to ensure the quality and completeness of theatre production and to lead the members of the creative team into realizing their artistic vision for it. The director thereby collaborates with a team of creative individuals and other staff to coordinate research and work on all the aspects of the production which includes the Technical and the Performance aspects. The technical aspects include: stagecraft, costume design, theatrical properties (props), lighting design, set design, and sound design for the production. The performance aspects include: acting, dance, orchestra, chants, and stage combat.
The Group Theatre was a theater collective based in New York City and formed in 1931 by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg. It was intended as a base for the kind of theatre they and their colleagues believed in— a forceful, naturalistic and highly disciplined artistry. They were pioneers of what would become an "American acting technique", derived from the teachings of Konstantin Stanislavski, but pushed beyond them as well. The company included actors, directors, playwrights, and producers. The name "Group" came from the idea of the actors as a pure ensemble; a reference to the company as "our group" led them to "accept the inevitable and call their company The Group Theatre."
John Schneider is an actor, theatre director, playwright, and musician based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is currently the Arts and Entertainment Editor for the Shepherd Express and a theatre arts professor at Marquette University.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Unitarian church on Half Day Road in Deerfield, Illinois and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on Halsted Street. The theatre's name comes from Hermann Hesse's novel Steppenwolf, which original member Rick Argosh was reading during the company's inaugural production of Paul Zindel's play, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, in 1974. After occupying several theatres in Chicago, in 1991, it moved into its own purpose-built complex with three performing spaces, the largest seating 550.
Anthony Crivello is an American actor, known for his vast range and experience in stage and screen performance. He appeared in the original cast of several Broadway shows, including Les Misérables, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Golden Boy, Marie Christine, and The News. He also originated the title role in The Phantom of the Opera: The Las Vegas Spectacular and played the Mysterious Man in the star-studded production of Into the Woods at the Hollywood Bowl. He starred as Che in the closing cast of the original Broadway production of Evita and in 1993, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Joseph Bernard Fuqua is an American actor, director, instructor and playwright.
Skylight Music Theatre, known until January 2012 as Skylight Opera Theatre, is a professional light opera and musical theatre company located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded in 1959, Skylight performs in the 358-seat Cabot Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee. Offering a broad spectrum of works, including Gilbert and Sullivan and other light opera, small-scale operas and musicals, the company is known for its all-English repertoire.
The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) is a New York City-based theater company and workshop established in 1967 by playwright Douglas Turner Ward, producer-actor Robert Hooks, and theater manager Gerald S. Krone, with funding from the Ford Foundation. The company's focus on original works with themes based in the black experience with an international perspective created a canon of theatrical works and an audience for writers who came later, such as August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, and others.
Northern Sky Theater is a professional theater company that creates, develops, and produces musicals based on the populist culture and heritage of the United States. Located in Door County, Wisconsin, the company began in 1970 as The Heritage Ensemble, performing on the stage of the 700-seat outdoor theater in Peninsula State Park. In 1990, American Folklore Theatre was co-founded by Fred Alley, Frederick Heide, and Gerald Pelrine. In 2015, the company changed its name to Northern Sky Theater.
The School of Drama is an undergraduate and graduate theatre school in the Arts Division of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.
Sharon Langston Ott is a director, producer and educator who worked in regional theaters and opera throughout the United States. Two plays she directed, A Fierce Longing and Amlin Gray's How I Got That Story, each won an Obie award after their New York runs.
Milwaukee Repertory Theater is a theater company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded as the Fred Miller Theatre Company, the group is housed in the Associated Bank Theater Center, which includes the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater, the Stiemke Studio, and the Stackner Cabaret. Milwaukee Rep produces an annual production of A Christmas Carol at the Pabst Theater. It serves an annual audience of over 200,000 patrons, including over 15,000 subscribers.
Jason Hale is an American actor, international theatre director, and professor of theatre at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.
California Shakespeare Theater is a regional theater located in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Its performance space, the Lt. G. H. Bruns III Memorial Amphitheater, is located in Orinda, while the administrative offices, rehearsal hall, costume and prop shop are located in Berkeley.
The Acting Irish International Theatre Festival (AIITF) is an annual festival of full-length Irish plays performed by Irish community theater companies from Canada, US and Ireland. The festival was started in 1994 and is performed in a different city each year.
The Actor's Workshop was a theatre company founded in San Francisco in 1952. It was the first professional theatre on the west coast to premiere many of the modern American classics such as Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, and the world dramas of Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, Jean Genet and Harold Pinter. For the 1953–1954 season, the Workshop offered six plays: Lysistrata, by Aristophanes; Venus Observed, by Christopher Fry; Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller; a revival of Playboy; The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekhov; and Tonight at 8.30, by Noël Coward. On April 15, 1955, the Actor's Workshop signed the first Off-Broadway Equity contract to be awarded outside New York City.
Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj is an Indo-Afro-Caribbean artist, stage director, playwright and activist. He is represented by Michael Moore Agency Literary & Creatives. This season at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Maharaj will direct Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, re-imagined by composer Damien Sneed and librettist Karen Chilton. He is also the stage director and community consultant for Slanted: An American Rock Opera by Simon Tam and Joe X. Jang, Madison Lodge by Tre’von Griffith, and Cook Shack by Del’Shawn Taylor and Samiya Bashir as part of Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ Inaugural New Works Collective. Last season, he was assistant director for the world premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Metropolitan Opera, and he is a current member of the Met/AGMA Equity & Diversity Committee. Maharaj has previously served as the Associate Artistic Producer at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Artistic Director of New Freedom Theatre, Producing Artistic Director of American Stage, and Third-Vice President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Brooklyn Branch. Maharaj has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway and regionally. His credits include the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, Madison Square Garden, Sheen Center, The Public, Second Stage, SoHo Playhouse, Classical Theater of Harlem, New Federal Theater, New World Stages, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Portland Stage, Actors Theater of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare, Signature Theater, Theater Works, Goodman Theatre, Arkansas Repertory Theater, Perseverance Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. His numerous honors include the Woodie King Jr. Award, four AUDELCO Awards, Barrymore Award, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Theatrical Moment of the Year, The New York International Fringe Festival Overall Excellence Award, Theater Communications Group Directors Grant and Playwriting Grant, National Alliance for Musical Theater Award, and Trinidad and Tobago United Community Award for his outstanding contribution to the Trinidad and Tobago Diaspora as an Artist and Arts Advocate.
Charles Weldon was an actor, director, educator, singer, and songwriter. He was the artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company for thirteen years. He was the co-founder of the Alumni of this company, and directed many of their productions. During his career he worked with Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, Alfre Woodard, Muhammad Ali, and Oscar Brown Jr.