Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Extends Deadline For Sustainability Campaign Challenge

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre announces a $150,000 challenge match as part of its ongoing Sustainability Campaign launched earlier this month to provide the financial foundation necessary to avoid closure. In doing so, MCT will restructure organizationally to continue its five-decade leadership of developing Milwaukee and Wisconsin's professional artists and continue to reflect its community through meaningful and excellent live theater productions.

"Since we shared MCT's need on February 14th, more than five hundred individual donors have decisively and affirmatively brought us over two-thirds of the way to our February fundraising benchmark," said MCT Artistic Director Brent Hazelton and MCT Board of Trustees President Marina Krejci in a joint statement. "But even with that strong declaration of MCT's value to Milwaukee, it was clear we were going to fall short of our target without some significant help from outside our current family of generous supporters. We are thrilled and humbled to have received it from among our community's most devoted, visionary arts and culture philanthropists in Joel and Caran and Donald and Donna, and MCT's longtime partners at the Herzfeld Foundation."

A leading family in building southeastern Wisconsin's community and cultural institutions, the Quadraccis have made essential contributions to the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, University School of Milwaukee, and Sharp Literacy, among many others. "While Joel and I are new to Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, we believe in the importance of the arts in our communities. MCT's support of local artists along with their strategy of diversity and inclusion amongst those artists is the inspiration for our gift. We want to help create this bridge to the future so that MCT can return to its mission of enriching the artistic community of Milwaukee," said Caran Quadracci.

Founded in 1975 by Montgomery Davis and Ruth Schudson and guided until 2020 by Michael Wright and Kirsten Finn, MCT has over the last three seasons under Hazelton's leadership produced some of Milwaukee's most celebrated theater events, including the recent WHO'S AFRAID OF Virginia Woolf?, MISERY, WHERE DID WE SIT ON THE BUS?, INDECENT, and THE ISLAND, among others.

Accomplishments during that time include: achieving three-year averages of at least 50% of all season artists identifying as either Black, Indigenous, and People of Color or female; founding the Milwaukee Black Theater Festival; generating during the first year of the pandemic a level of income and health insurance weeks for artists on par with national leaders; compensating all artists and staff above the Milwaukee County Living Wage Standard; spending 90% of all expense dollars in Milwaukee; and prioritizing safety resulting in no artist COVID infections since becoming Wisconsin's first company to reconvene for in-person work on Actors' Equity Association contracts in January 2021.

"Milwaukee Chamber Theater's nearly 50 years of theater have shaped the region's theater scene to the prominence of what it is today. Its performances have impacted so many, including myself, as my brother, Ken Williams, has both acted and directed at MCT," said Peggy Williams-Smith, President and CEO of VISIT Milwaukee. "Their commitment to produce intimate, high-quality professional theatrical works while employing and nurturing local artists is a worthy mission that elevates our city for both residents and visitors. To lose this institution would silence the unique voices that use its stage as a medium to share stories across generations and cultures. VISIT Milwaukee asks for your support to create sustainability for the Milwaukee Chamber Theater and to pledge that we boost these voices for many years to come."

Said Hazelton: "This matching challenge shows vision, support, and belief in MCT. But in order for MCT to move forward, the challenge must be met. Every gift that arrives from here until next Tuesday-March 7th-will count toward meeting this match. Our community has brought us so far already, from no path forward to the verge of survival and sustainability-we hope that it can bring MCT and its artists the rest of the way home."

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre is gratefully receiving fundraising pledges at www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/sustainability or via email directly to Hazelton at brent@milwaukeechambertheatre.org through close of business on Tuesday, March 7th, 2023.

More information about MCT, the 22/23 season, and how to purchase tickets can be found at www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org.

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