For more than 40 years, the performers at Milwaukee Public Theatre (MPT) have been delighting local audiences. The group uses movement, mime, and puppetry to explore issues of deep importance to Milwaukeeans. Now, the theater has decided to close - but its leaders say its legacy will live on through Quasimondo Physical Theatre.
"Milwaukee Public Theatre has a lot of things that we’ve needed to disperse somehow, and I was reluctant to just kind of throw it to the wind," says Barbara Leigh, one of the founders of the group and the interim director of the theatre. "Quasimondo is the theatre, the company, that’s closest to what we were, and they’re - they’re fearless."
MPT will officially "pass the torch" to Quasimondo Physical Theatre at an event on Sunday, April 28, at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center from 3:00 to 6:00. Brian Rott, the executive director of Quasimondo, says he's excited to carry on the legacy of MPT.
Milwaukee Public Theatre has a lot of things that we’ve needed to disperse somehow, and I was reluctant to just kind of throw it to the wind. Quasimondo is the theatre, the company, that’s closest to what we were, and they’re - they’re fearless." - Barbara Leigh.
"Milwaukee Public Theatre and Quasimondo, while certainly different companies, they share a lot of the same ideals as far as imagination and diversity, and inclusion, community, and physical theatre - you know, things like puppetry and mime, and circus and all of these wonderful, colorful performance methodologies," says Rott.
Although MPT will no longer produce new shows, Leigh will continue her work in theater as a consultant alongside her colleague Azeeza Islam, the associate artistic director of the Milwaukee Public Theatre. In the immediate future, both Islam and Leigh plan to work with Charlie Koenen, the executive director of Beevangelist, for a project about protecting pollinators.
