Baumgartner and Quadracci Harned Family Team Up to Help Milwaukee Rep

Milwaukee Rep announce the Donald & Donna Baumgartner and Elizabeth Quadracci Harned Family Double-Down for Artists Challenge. Both families are teaming up to match dollar for dollar every new or increased gift up to $50,000 providing support to Milwaukee Repertory Theater's terrific and talented artists that have been severely impacted by COVID-19. The funds raised will be used to produce digital and online artistic content through the Milwaukee Rep: From Our Home to Your Home portal, which employs artists to create direct to home programming, including high-definition recorded performances, free seminars and workshops by Rep artisans, educational kits for children, Wellness Wednesdays focusing on health, and commissioned world-premiere monologues.

"Milwaukee Rep has been hit hard by the global COVID-19 pandemic, causing the cancellation of more than 120 performances for a total loss of $1.5 million so far," said Executive Director Chad Bauman. "This matching gift from Donald and Donna Baumgartner and the Elizabeth Quadracci Harned Family will allow us to employ artists and reach our audiences safely through online content while we wait for the time to gather together again in the shared experience of live theater. We are so grateful for their extraordinary generosity."

"We feel strongly about supporting our artists and arts institutions who have given much to this community through their performances and arts education," said Donna & Donald Baumgartner. "Milwaukee Rep's aim to entertain, enrich and comfort us makes us better people. We are particularly happy to join forces with the Elizabeth Quadracci Harned family which has a deep tradition of supporting all the arts in Milwaukee."

"When I think of giving I try and think what my parents would do since they started The Windhover Foundation," stated Elizabeth Quadracci Harned. "Milwaukee Rep has been near and dear to my parents' hearts and ours. So I wanted to make sure the people who make Milwaukee Rep so successful were being taken care of. As my father always said 'We can do more together then individuals apart,' and Milwaukee is America's best kept secret so we need to keep the culture strong."

Milwaukee Rep's Our Home To Your Home online content includes:

- A high definition multi-camera live-recorded session of cancelled production Destiny of Desire is available to stream now through May 19, 2020. A recording of Eclipsed was also available in March and April.

- Featured Artists Songs with some of Milwaukee Rep's most beloved artists including Nova Y Payton from Dreamgirls, Jeffrey Kringer from West Side Story, Gavin Gregory from Ragtime, Matt Rodin from Hedwig, the cast of In the Heights and more bring Broadway caliber performances into the comfort of your own home.

- Playwright Essays are 3-5 minute monologues centered on the themes of connectivity, hope and the need for community featuring the works of favorite playwrights Dael Orlandersmith (Until the Flood), Rick Cleveland (Five Presidents), BreakBeat Poet Idris Goodwin, Marie Kohler (Boswell), Catherine Trieschmann (One House Over), Joanna Murray Smith (American Song), Lloyd Suh (The Chinese Lady) A. Rey Pamatmat (after all the terrible things I do) and more.

- "What's the Tea?" is an entertaining chat between Artistic Director Mark Clements and different featured artists. Past guests include playwrights Ayad Akhtar and Andrew Bovell, Chicago Tribune critic Chris Jones, Broadway actor Rob McClure and more.

- Activity Books that feature crossword puzzles, costume sketches and scenic drawings from Milwaukee Rep productions.

- Wellness Videos feature resources to help nurture the mind and soul as part of #WellnessWednesdays

- Online Workshops that express your creativity and nurture your mind and soul. Classes are taught by Artistic, Community Engagement and Education staff members. Online classes will be free to the public but with an RSVP required in order to provide the link for the class.

- Community Spotlight features a community partner every Sunday evening in a facilitated conversation.

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