The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre

Milwaukee Repertory Theatre began in 1954, when Milwaukee native Mary Widrig John forged a plan to create a professional theater for the city. The result was the Fred Miller Theater on Oakland Avenue, named after the head of Miller Brewing Company and chair of the theater's fund-raising campaign. The Fred Miller Theater produced a standard repertoire of Broadway's current hits. To draw initial audiences, the company espoused the star system and featured well known performers in lead roles. In the early 1960's, the company reorganized to create a resident acting company and expand its repertoire to include classics and premieres of new works.

Over the years, the theatre underwent many changes and suffered financial and creative difficulties. The conflict between increasing attendance and revenue while contuning to grow artistically was a constant struggle.

In 1964 the Theatre changed its name for the last time, becoming the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. The new name better represented the nature as well as the location of the theater. Performances outside the Theatre, tours throughout the state, and laudatory reviews from New York critics indicated that the MRT had matured into one of the finest regional theaters in the country.

The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and communication:

So many people are involved with putting on a play: the director, the actors, costumers, and set designers. They all perform some function of creative expression. How does this collaboration help to convey and interpret the vision of the playwrite?

In the Archives: The records of the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre document the problems that beset a regional theater while building an audience, maintaining good relations with the community, achieving financial solvency, and attaining administrative and artistic stability. There are also production photographs, scripts with staging notation, publicity materials and technical production materials.