This year marks the 10th anniversary season of Black Arts MKE, the Black-led performing arts organization.
Each year, it hosts an array of performances, holds youth camps and helps to connect artists with potential career opportunities in and around Milwaukee.
MKE Black Theatre Festival
This summer, there will be a full schedule of productions for the 2024 MKE Black Theatre Festival, which runs Aug. 8 through Aug. 25.
The MKE Black Theatre Festival is an annual event produced by Black Arts MKE. This will be its third summer in action.
The festival lineup will include “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange; “The Realness” by Idris Goodwin; and “Stories About the Old Days” by Bill Harris. There will also be a staged reading of “In the Blood” by Suzan-Lori Parks.
Directing ‘For Colored Girls’
Linetta Alexander, a playwright and artist in residence at Black Arts MKE, will direct the performance of “For Colored Girls,” which runs Aug 8-25 at the Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall at the Marcus Performing Arts Center, 929 N. Water St.
“It’s a dream – that’s for sure,” Alexander said of directing “For Colored Girls.”
Ashley Jordan, director of arts & cultural programming at Black Arts MKE, reached out to Alexander via Facebook Messenger to see if she would be interested in directing for the festival and to come aboard as an artist in residence, Alexander shared.
Alexander described having a moment during a recent rehearsal where she was “sitting in the moment, realizing I was sitting in the dream I had so many years ago.”
The play, which officially opened off Broadway in 1976, began with the performance of poems at an open mic and eventually made its way to Broadway.
It tells the stories of a group of Black women living in the same Harlem apartment building, all facing different challenges and triumphs.
‘So much talent’
For up-and-coming actors and artists in the city to perform the play is an “incredible opportunity” she said.
“There’s so much talent here in Milwaukee – it’s mind blowing how it’s overlooked,” Alexander said.
Although Alexander is grateful to direct, she is mostly eager for the actors and audience to experience the production.
“I am excited for people to see them in such a phenomenal role,” Alexander said, “but see them in a way where you only see their talent and their ability to be storytellers.”
Over the three-week festival, events will take place at various locations throughout Milwaukee, including the Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall, the Todd Wehr Theater and Studio 4A, all part of the Marcus Performing Arts Center; and The Table and Youth & Family Night at Alice’s Garden; Insomniac Studios; and Radio Milwaukee.
For more information
Tickets and show times can be found at blackartsmke.org.
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