Post from Community: First annual Milwaukee Black Theater Festival Youth Night will be held on Wednesday, August 18 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
First Stage
August 12, 2021
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Name of Event: Milwaukee Black Theater Festival Youth Night!
Date: Wednesday, August 18, 2021
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
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Description: Milwaukee Black Theater Festival presents its first annual Youth Night in partnership with St. Ann Intergenerational Center for Care on Wednesday, August 18. This curated event will bring youth performers from theaters around Milwaukee together, sharing original performance art, exploring the theme “The Strength and Resilience of the Black Woman” with special performances by First Stage, a part of their Amplify Series, Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Professional Training Institute, Next Act Theatre’s Next Actors, Black Arts MKE’s Youth Ensemble and the band K-Stamp led by Kwasi Stampley. The event will be hosted by Milwaukee Rep’s Ashley Jordan. Families in the area and around Milwaukee will have the opportunity to experience multiple theaters in one location. Youth Night is best suited for young people ages 8-18 and their families.
Cost: Free
Location: St. Ann Intergenerational Center for Care, 2450 W. North Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53205. Enter west parking lot on 25th Street, between West North Avenue and West Meinecke Avenue
Website: milwaukeechambertheatre.org/2021mbtf
Phone: (414) 276-8842
About Milwaukee Black Theater Festival
Founded in 2020 by Sheri Williams Pannell, Malkia Stampley, Dimonte Henning and Brent Hazelton, the Milwaukee Black Theater Festival was created to amplify and celebrate Black voices through an annual citywide event. The Festival provides a platform and agency to artists grossly underrepresented in the arts and particularly in Milwaukee. The Festival’s inaugural season was curated by a committee of Milwaukee influencers. Due to the constraints of COVID, an all-virtual Festival was presented by Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, the inaugural year’s lead producer. In its second year, Black Arts MKE joined Milwaukee Chamber Theatre as the lead producing partner and fiscal sponsor. Presenting Black-led theaters include Lights! Camera! Soul! and Bronzeville Arts Ensemble. The Festival features two staged productions, play readings, free events and special community engaging opportunities.
milwaukeechambertheatre.org/2021mbtf
About Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
Founded in 1975 by Montgomery Davis and Ruth Schudson, guided from 2005 to 2020 by Michael Wright, and now led by Brent Hazelton and Amy A. Salat, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) partners with other arts organizations, community-based organizations and universities to produce thought-provoking productions and innovative outreach programs on an intimate, human scale. As a leader in developing Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s theater community, MCT provides regular employment and a stable artistic home to local theatre professionals through a five-play subscription season, the Young Playwrights Festival (YPF), and the Montgomery Davis Play Development Series (MDPDS). MCT performs at the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward and is a proud Member Group of the United Performing Arts Fund. For more information, to purchase tickets, or to make a donation please visit milwaukeechambertheatre.org
About Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Milwaukee Rep is the largest performing arts organization in Wisconsin with three unique performance venues in the Patty & Jay Baker Theater Complex – the Quadracci Powerhouse, Stiemke Studio and Stackner Cabaret. For over six decades, Milwaukee Rep has been a centerpiece of Milwaukee’s vibrant arts and cultural scene with productions ranging from Broadway musicals to Shakespeare to American Classics and New Works that are entertaining, inclusive and impactful. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Mark Clements and Executive Director Chad Bauman, Milwaukee Repertory Theater ignites positive change in the cultural, social, and economic vitality of its community by creating world-class theater experiences that entertain, provoke, and inspire meaningful dialogue among an audience representative of Milwaukee’s rich diversity. milwaukeerep.com
About Black Arts MKE
Black Arts MKE (BAMKE) is a unique “arts platform.” Launched in 2014, BAMKE was created – at least in part – in response to post-recession research findings that revealed, “Nonprofit arts organizations need an entirely different business model” (The Importance of Being Small, prepared for the Nonprofit Management Fund, April 2012). For many smaller African American arts organizations, the recession made it especially hard to keep doors open and the lights on unfortunately, and we’ve seen important cultural offerings in Milwaukee shut down. BAMKE was created to prevent this trend from continuing and to provide a more sustainable, vibrant African American arts and culture scene in our community. In addition to working with local artists of color to produce and present African American performing arts works including Black Theater, BAMKE provides administrative support to local arts groups with the intent to enable artistic leadership to focus their time and energy on their strengths of creating artistic programming. BAMKE is a Member Group of United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF) and Resident Group with the Marcus Performing Arts Center. marcuscenter.org/series/black-arts-mke
About Next Act Theatre
The mission of Next Act Theatre is to engage the hearts and minds of audiences with compelling and intimate theatre productions to stimulate thought, foster the exchange of ideas and promote the development of new perspectives. Next Act Theatre celebrates 31 years of professional theatre. Next Act Theatre is a proud member of the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF). nextact.org
About First Stage
First Stage is one of the nation’s leading theaters for young people and families. First Stage touches hearts, engages minds and transforms lives by creating extraordinary theater experiences through professional theater productions that inspire, enlighten and entertain. Its Theater Academy, the nation’s largest high-impact theater training program for young people, fosters life skills through stage skills and serves nearly 2,000 students each year. As Wisconsin’s leader in arts-integrated education in schools, First Stage’s dynamic Theater in Education programs promote literacy, character building and experiential learning throughout the curriculum, serving over 20,000 students each year. First Stage was selected to participate in the Partners in Education program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (2012), and was the recipient of the Milwaukee Business Journal’s Eureka Award, recognizing creativity and innovation in business, education and the arts for its Next Steps program for students on the autism spectrum (2013, 2015). First Stage is a member of TYA/USA, the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, the Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Education, Milwaukee Arts Partners and is a cornerstone member of the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF). firststage.org