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Milwaukee Rep Director Chad Bauman Discusses Plans for $78M Theater Center

Chad Bauman is the Ellen & Joe Checota executive director of Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Since his arrival in 2013 Bauman has overseen a significant period of growth for a company that produces about 700 performances a year. During his tenure, Milwaukee Rep has eliminated all debt, nearly doubled the endowment, achieved operating surpluses annually, grew net assets from $19 million to $84 million, raised nearly $100 million across three successful capital campaigns, and has started construction on the new Associated Bank Theater Center.

Previously, Bauman was the associate executive director at Arena Stage where he was instrumental in the 2010 opening of the Mead Center for American Theater, a three-theater performing arts complex dedicated to American voices. 

The Milwaukee Rep is currently undertaking a $78 million plan to build a new theater and renovate its 1988 Powerhouse Theater complex. The new Associated Bank Theater Center will become the theater’s main performance space with a flexible configuration, the addition of a fly loft, improved seating and sightlines, improved accessibility and up-to-date production technology.

Bauman was one of the guests on “Milwaukee Made.” The following Q&A is from his chat with show host David Caruso.

Q: For the city of Milwaukee, what does it mean for all of us community members, theater goers, even visitors, to have this new theater center come to life?

Bauman: “Milwaukee deserves the best in the country, and it's always had a phenomenal theater for decades, literally more than 70 years. But we never had a facility that could actually support the vision that is where we want to go. And so now it's going to have a facility that is world-class right here in the city, and it's going to allow us to step up our game artistically and to show the world what we can actually do.”

Q: How important was it for you to keep this project in downtown Milwaukee where your original home was?

Bauman: “It would've been much easier for us to get a new piece of land and build new, but we're the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. We need to be in downtown. This is an exciting place to be. This is in the theater district. There's more than 10,000 seats here in the theater district. It's right next door to the Deer District, and it's a great opportunity for us to highlight a beautiful historic building and add something new onto it as well.”

Q: What can the theater goer expect to experience when they come to this new reimagined theater.

Bauman: “There's going to be a lot of new things that we can do creatively. We're going to be able to fly scenery pieces in and out. We're going to be able to move scenery off and on in ways that we didn't before. They're going to have state-of-the-art video and sound and projection capabilities, live streaming capabilities. From an artistic perspective, you're going to be able to see the capabilities of doing the best on Broadway here in Milwaukee. From the audience's perspective, there's going to be wider and more comfortable seats, more restrooms, more conveniences, more concessions, and there's going to be a lot more accessibility as well. So for hearing impaired or folks with physical disabilities, they're going to find that we're going to be able to meet their needs much more than we did previously.”

Q: I mean this is going to be Broadway quality right here in Milwaukee. What does that mean to our city? And how important was it to ensure that doing this big of a scale of a project that the end result was something that was going to put us on the map even more? How is it a game changer for us?

Bauman: “There are Broadway tours that come to Milwaukee, but a lot of people don't know that actually what is on Broadway starts in regional theaters like ours. And so not only do we want to receive tours, but we want to able to tell new stories created by Milwaukee artisans that we could then share with the world. And so we have to have a facility that allows us to incubate that and then transfer it from Milwaukee to the rest of the world.”

Q: Is there anything that you've come across during the demo stage that has surprised you?

Bauman: “There's been quite a few surprises. We've opened up walls and found beautiful historic architectural details. We have dug deep into the soil and found electrical boxes and other things that nobody knew were there and we had to continue to design around. There's always been, when you're dealing with a building that is from the 1890s, there are hidden surprises around every corner it seems. But we have an amazing contractor and great people that have kept us on track and on budget.”