MCT Board Member Profile: Erin Burke

by Max Seigle

1. WHERE ARE YOU FROM AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN MILWAUKEE?

I’m originally from Madison. I spent my college years in Milwaukee at UWM and lived in Austin, Texas for a while. I moved back to Milwaukee in 2013 after Baird recruited me for a job here. I love being back in Wisconsin because I’m close to family and friends again, and it’s amazing to see how Milwaukee has grown since my college days. 

2. HOW DID YOU LEARN ABOUT MCT AND WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO JOIN THE BOARD?

I learned about MCT through UPAF (United Performing Arts Fund). I joined the organization’s Next Generation Council and a staff member referred me to MCT’s producing artistic director, Michael Wright, and managing director, Kirsten Mulvey. When I met them, it was just a really good fit right away and they made the decision to join the board an easy one.

Erin Burke.

I also became involved because theatre has always been a big part of my life. I studied classical theatre and production stage management at UWM and spent college summers working behind the scenes in theatre companies in the Madison area. It’s important for me, as well, to serve the arts community. I genuinely believe giving my time and financial support is a privilege.

3. FAVORITE PLAY OR PLAYS?

MASTER CLASS (2014-2015) was definitely a favorite. As board members, we get a chance to sit on an “Adopt a Show” committee and work to fill the seats during a show’s run. MASTER CLASS was the first show I did that for and we nearly sold out opening night. I remember the standing ovation; you could feel the energy in the crowd! I just have beautiful feelings about that night.

I am now looking forward to GREAT EXPECTATIONS in the upcoming season. I think that is going to be an amazing production because everybody has an attachment to that play, and I think it will be a great way to close out the season.

4. FAVORITE ACTOR(S)?

Angela Iannone, who played Maria Callas in MASTER CLASS, was incredible.

I love James Pickering. He was in LOVE STORIES last season and I just think he’s a local gem.

I am also a big fan of Doug Clemons and Adam Estes. They were in a show last December called THE STORY OF MY LIFE that was a partnership between MCT and the Milwaukee Opera Theatre. Clemons and Estes are probably two of Milwaukee’s strongest vocalists, and to see them in the same show together was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

5. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR PROUDEST MOMENTS BEING A PART OF MCT?

I really enjoy sitting at the board meeting and looking around the table. It’s an incredible group of people, everyone from community leaders to business professionals that have helped build Milwaukee. We have a growing group of young professionals, too.

I’m very proud of the way the board embraces a new person that joins and really tries to play to their strengths. We help them find their place and I think that’s what makes them stay with us.

6. WHAT DO YOU DO PROFESSIONALLY?

I am a retirement specialist and financial advisor at Baird. I have been in that role since moving to Milwaukee three years ago. I have an office in Waukesha and spend a few days of the week serving clients in Madison. I love the work because it allows me to blend my financial background with my ability to connect to people well. It’s really important to me that I’m there to guide my clients through this kind of critical life planning. I’m also passionate about closing the gap in financial education for women, and this role allows me to do that.

7. WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN? ANY HOBBIES?

My husband and I are big “foodies.” We even plan vacations based on restaurants we want to try.

We also love to travel. We like to do those get in the car and see the country kind of trips. One of my favorites was five years ago when we drove to Yellowstone Park. When we arrived, it was dusk, you could see the fog rolling in and there were two bison at the main gate. It was just breathtaking. I didn’t even know something like that existed in the United States.

One other big love of mine is promoting dog rescue, especially senior dogs. My husband and I have rescued two of them. We have a Corkie-Chihuahua mix named Winston, and a Pug-Chihuahua mix named Elsie. We take them everywhere with us. If I could bring them to work, I would!

8. FAVORITE PLACE TO GRAB DINNER BEFORE A MCT SHOW?

Onesto in the Third Ward. I love their mushroom gnocchi. I also love Merriment Social in Walker’s Point. They have great tapas and a gastropub menu as well.

9. FAVORITE WISCONSIN SPOT THAT NEVER GETS OLD?

My husband, George, and I love to go to Door County in the fall. It’s just a really incredible place to disconnect. There is so much to see there experiencing Wisconsin at its best. And it’s a fun drive to go there and pass through the Green Bay area, it’s very pretty.

10. FAVORITE SUMMER FESTIVAL IN MILWAUKEE?

Festa Italiana. I like the food, music and people there. I feel like it’s a smaller version of Summerfest and not quite as crowded. It’s really family-friendly, too, and I really enjoy that part of it.

11. ANY OTHER ORGANIZATIONS THAT YOU’RE A PART OF THAT YOU ENJOY AND WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT?

I sit on the Next Generation Council with UPAF. It is made up of leaders from various Milwaukee companies, large and small. We focus on promoting and engaging the next generation of philanthropists for the Milwaukee arts scene. We want to keep it thriving for years to come. This group is really the next generation of leaders in the city and I just feel privileged to be a part of it.

I am also the board president of the Capital City Theatre in Madison. It’s a new musical theatre company, now in its third year. They have an amazing group of talented, hardworking individuals. The group most recently featured Gypsy and the show was a huge success.

12. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE PEOPLE IN THE AREA WHO AREN’T FAMILIAR WITH MCT TO KNOW ABOUT IT?

I think the biggest thing you need to know is that MCT is a gem of classical theater and new works. It’s really a beautiful, intimate experience, and once you go see one show, you’re going to be hooked!

This upcoming season is the perfect time to check us out. There will be a little bit of everything. Artistic director Michael (Wright) has really created an amazing 2016-2017 season.

The Story of LOVE STORIES

by Jake Voss

A retrospective glance at the life of LOVE STORIES reveals something innate about life: it’s never short on surprises. One must expect the unexpected. And what one carries forward from the past will undoubtedly influence the present and future. The LOVE STORIES of today was carried from the East Coast to the Midwest over the course of more than twenty years. It’s a journey of unexpected twists and turns, and of how artists fuse the old with the new to create the original. The story begins with a student.

Jennifer Uphoff Gray

Jennifer Uphoff Gray “read many, many, many, many, many, many, plays” in college. As an undergraduate, she unwittingly came across two of the one-act plays that would become part of LOVE STORIES: THE JEWISH WIFE and HERE WE ARE. Upon graduating, Gray did what one does with a degree in theater and moved to New York City. She carried those pieces in a mental library, and stumbled upon VILLAGE WOOING while perusing a collection of Shaw’s short plays.

In 1995, when Gray met some actors she felt compelled to collaborate with, the connections between the pieces began to resonate. Each featured one female and one male actor, were all written in the 1930s by playwrights of different nationalities, and each captured a special moment of conflict in the life cycle of a marriage. “I was particularly struck by the fact that all three didn’t name their characters,” said Gray.

Asked to describe the original production, she said, “This is one of those down and dirty when-you’re-in-New-York-as-a-director-in-your-twenties projects.” After a brief rehearsal period, Gray and her team assembled scenery, props, and costumes, and ran four or five performances. Gray didn’t necessarily intend the collection to have a life after New York. She had planted the seed of another production in a few close friends, but no opportunities took root. Audiences would enjoy LOVE STORIES again only after Gray played a central role in founding Forward Theater Company.

Forward’s third season presented an unexpected quagmire. Two plays had lined up well. Finding a third to unify them was proving problematic. “At one point I threw this collection of plays out on the table and had the advisory company read it,” Gray described. They resolved to produce it. Gray thought she would direct LOVE STORIES in its reprise, but the nebulous task of plotting the season’s order called for a guest director, instead. “I knew Paula [Suozzi] pretty well at that point,” Gray shared. “I thought, ‘If anyone is going to do the right job with this, it’s Paula.’”

Paula Suozzi

The two had what Gray called “a lovely conversation” in which a shared conclusion revealed itself. In New York, Gray had collaborated with an ensemble of actors to stage the pieces. But now, a decade later, in a new state, and with a new director, the pieces seemed to be saying something new. Gray and Suozzi paid attention to their instincts and sought to stage the piece with just two actors. They were looking for a pair.

They asked James Ridge and Colleen Madden, and were thrilled when they accepted the roles. “The fact that they were married in real life was a huge bonus,” said Gray, “but really their facility with pieces from this period, and their ability to do Shaw, that was real.” Now a decade later, in a new state, with a new director, and new actors, Gray worked with Suozzi on the onerous task of setting a new order.

In New York, Gray broke VILLAGE WOOING into three sections that served as the show’s opening, middle, and closing. After much deliberation, the collaborators settled on a new order and prepared for first rehearsal. It arrived with something neither Suozzi nor Gray anticipated. As Gray shared: “She and I [were] talking after the first read-through we did with Jim and Colleen. Our first rehearsal. You know, when we’re opening in three and a half weeks. We did the read-through, and we looked at each other at the end and said ‘They’re in the wrong order!’ So we changed the order they were going to be in that day.”

Gray credits Suozzi with the final concept: the first two scenes were progressing points in a rehearsal process; the final piece was the realized performance. “It was wonderful to see what Paula, and Jim, and Colleen created, what they put in of Jim and Colleen’s actual lives, their life experiences as a couple, as a working couple of actors,” Gray said. After what Gray called “a gorgeous production” that magnified the symmetries she first felt in New York, no chapters would be added to the story of LOVE STORIES for another ten years.

With the entrance of C. Michael Wright, Artistic Director of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, LOVE STORIES became part of a history of co-creation. As Wright recalls, it all started over a fated lunch. The docket: collaborations between Forward Theater and MCT. “She pitched a few ideas and I pitched a few ideas,” said Wright, “and one of the ideas she brought up was three one acts that she had done in New York.” The Artistic Directors put the one acts on hold in favor of producing a new work by local playwright Gwendolyn Rice, followed by COLLECTED STORIES by Donald Margulies.

But, firmly attuned to the pulse of Wisconsin’s theatrical heartbeat, Wright couldn’t help but take notice of Forward’s LOVE STORIES in 2012. Profoundly fascinated, he reached out to Suozzi and asked her to share her experience over breakfast. “And she loved it,” he recalled. “Colleen and Jim loved it. Everyone who saw it loved it. I got excited by the possibility of doing our version of it.” But it would be several years before the right season for LOVE STORIES came along.

Real-life couple Tami Workentin and
James Pickering star in MCT's LOVE STORIES

For Wright, LOVE STORIES had all the right characteristics, like an inherent eclecticism. “I really like the idea of that blend of styles,” he said, “the Brecht, the Shaw, Dorothy Parker. I always like to get a mix of old plays [and] new plays.” Similarly, the plays commented on love, an idea with vast programming potential, and one Wright hoped to one day explore in an entire season. Given MCT’s history of producing Shaw, the line-up was impossible for him to put off any longer. Just over a year ago, he reached out to Suozzi.

With credits at Skylight Music Theatre, Milwaukee Shakespeare, and Florentine Opera Company, freelance director Paula Suozzi was and is no stranger to Milwaukee’s theatre scene. Approached by Wright to direct the third iteration of LOVE STORIES, her first thoughts considered the city. “We will reorder them for Milwaukee,” she said. “They’re going to be in a different order and have a very different thrust.” But there are a few elements from Forward’s production that MCT will retain.

A married couple of actors, local stage veterans Jim Pickering and Tami Workentin, fill the various roles. Similarly, Wright wanted to riff on Suozzi’s concept of staging the plays in rehearsal. Compelled to share life in rehearsal with the audience, Wright sought to use the plays as a way to open a door. He wanted to “...give the audience a chance to see what it’s like before they get there.” Audiences should expect to see substitute costume pieces and props, tape on the floor, and, most importantly, a snack table.

“I still have a set of fabulous red Amelia Earhart luggage that I bought at a thrift shop for the train ride in HERE WE ARE,” Gray shared. “And I just haven’t been able to get rid of it because...I’m very sentimental about it.” Likewise carried forth for reasons sentimental and artistic, LOVE STORIES contains compelling perspectives. Its journey seems to argue that one’s life takes shape in how one mixes what is brought with what is found. In his famous PYGMALION, George Bernard Shaw said, “What is life but a series of inspired follies?”

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre presents LOVE STORIES November 25 - December 20, 2015 at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway, Milwaukee. Tickets 414-291-7800 or milwaukeechambertheatre.com