MKE Black Theatre Festival, Aug. 9-27: Check out the full schedule and get tickets
New this year is that the festival is three weeks long, instead of one week as in previous years.
Get ready film buffs, the 2023 MKE Black Theatre Festival schedule has been revealed.
Organizers said in a statement Tuesday, July 18, 2023, that the three-week-long “celebration of black arts and culture” will be held Aug. 9 – 26, 2023. Black Arts MKE is producing the event. New this year is that the festival is three weeks long, instead of one week, in previous years.
Festivities include two full-production plays, audition and play development workshops, a black history presentation, a youth and family night, auditions for Black Nativity, and a poetry set, organizers said.
Events are scheduled at venues across Milwaukee, including Marquette University, The Table at Alice’s Garden, Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Museum, and Studio 4A at Marcus Center for the Performing Arts.
This is the 2023 MKE Black Theatre Festival lineup:
• August 9; 6:30 p.m. at Indaba Community Band Shell: Youth & Family Night directed by Ashley S. Jordan
• August 10; 11 a.m. at Studio 4A Marcus Center: Air Quote Mike, A play development workshop with Marti Gobel
• August 10-27; various times at Marquette University Helfaer Theatre: Mud Row by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Marti Gobel
• August 12; 5 p.m. at Wisconsin Black Historical Society & Museum: Reflections on Black History with Everett Marshburn, facilitated by Sheri Williams Pannell and Clayborn Benson, III
• August 14; 6:30 p.m. at WoLF Studios: Audition Workshops – Headshots for Emerging & Professional Actors and Audition 101
• August 15; 6 p.m. at Studio 4A Marcus Center: Auditions for Black Nativity by Langston Hughes
• August 17-19; 7:30 p.m. at The Table at Alice’s Garden: The Meeting by Jeff Stetson, directed by Denzel Taylor in collaboration with Bronzeville Arts Ensemble
• August 26; 6 p.m. at North Avenue Market: Poetry Set with Cedric Dale Hoard and Jasmine Sims
Mud Row follows two generations of sisters in an area in the East End of West Chester, Pennsylvania called “Mud Row” while attempting to work through themes of race, class, love, loss and family, in order to break and bend generational patterns set before them. The production is a new collaboration with Marquette University’s VIP Theatre Program.
The Meeting is a fascinating one-act play that depicts the supposed meeting of two of the most important men of modern times: Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The festival is produced by Black Arts MKE, an African Amiercan-led performing arts organization that serves predominantly black communities. Black Arts MKE is committed to increasing the availability and quality of African American arts and culture.
Major supporters and sponsors for the MKE Black Theatre Festival include BMO Harris Bank, National Endowment for the Arts, The Black Seed, Northwestern Mutual, Milwaukee County’s Office of Equity, Katie Heil – Heil Family Foundation and the United Performing Arts Fund. Other supporters include BankFiveNine and Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown LLP and in-kind sponsor Festival Foods.
