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Title: City theaters helped launch careers Author: Staff Writer Publisher: Milkwaukee Journal Sentinel Date: 4/11/09 Local theater-goers have known for ages that Milwaukee is a vibrant theater town. Now they have visual proof, in the form of Milwaukee's Live Theater (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99), a pictorial overview that spans turn of the 20th century German stock companies to today's Insurgent and Alchemist theaters. Jonathan West (www.artsyschmartsy.com), who has acted, directed, produced or blogged with or about many local companies, chose the images and wrote the text. The stature of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and Skylight Opera Theatre are reflected in generous selections of publicity photos and occasional candid shots. In a segment called Learning the Craft, West gives face time to Father John Walsh of Marquette University and Robert Pitman of Alverno College. Both are still remembered for the passion and skill they brought to teaching theater. From the departed Melody Top and Theatre X to the still thriving Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and First Stage Children's Theater, many groups past and present get at least one close-up. Arcadia (www.arcadiapublishing.com) is a publisher of local history books. Milwaukee's Live Theater is on sale at local bookstores and online book dealers. Title: Local Limelight: Remembering Milwaukee Theater Author: David Luhrssen Publisher: Express Milwaukee Date: 3/26/09 Unlike some American heartland cities, Milwaukee was settled by Germans, Jews and other immigrant groups with an appreciation for theater. The Pabst was built to satisfy that love, touring companies came to town often in Milwaukee's early decades, local companies proliferated and two of the early 20th century's great stage actors, Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontaine, lived nearby in Genosee Depot. The latest in a series of booklets on Milwaukee by Arcadia Publishing, Milwaukee's Live Theater, travels along the memory lane of limelight from the earliest performances through the present. As with all Arcadia books, black and white photographs of varying clarity scoured from archives and scrapbooks outweigh the text. But author Jonathan West, an Equity actor who co-founded the defunct Bialystock and Bloom and currently manages the long-running Sunset Playhouse, capably puts the pictures in context and maintains that Milwaukee was one of the first metropolitan areas in the Midwest to establish a theatrical tradition as part of its civic personality. From those roots sprang the Milwaukee Rep, the Skylight and other institutions. The pictures are fun, including playbills from the Melody Top, a poster of a very young (and thin) Jackie Gleason at the Davidson Theater and many snaps of Milwaukee actors such as John Schneider, Ruth Schudson, Montgomery Davis, David Cecsarini, Laura Gordon, Dale Gutzman and more. Milwaukee's Live Theater will be published in April.

Title: City theaters helped launch careers Author: Staff Writer Publisher: Milkwaukee Journal Sentinel Date: 4/11/09 Local theater-goers have known for ages that Milwaukee is a vibrant theater town. Now they have visual proof, in the form of Milwaukee's Live Theater (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99), a pictorial overview that spans turn of the 20th century German stock companies to today's Insurgent and Alchemist theaters. Jonathan West (www.artsyschmartsy.com), who has acted, directed, produced or blogged with or about many local companies, chose the images and wrote the text. The stature of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and Skylight Opera Theatre are reflected in generous selections of publicity photos and occasional candid shots. In a segment called Learning the Craft, West gives face time to Father John Walsh of Marquette University and Robert Pitman of Alverno College. Both are still remembered for the passion and skill they brought to teaching theater. From the departed Melody Top and Theatre X to the still thriving Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and First Stage Children's Theater, many groups past and present get at least one close-up. Arcadia (www.arcadiapublishing.com) is a publisher of local history books. Milwaukee's Live Theater is on sale at local bookstores and online book dealers.

Author Information

Jonathan West is a writer, director, and actor living and working in Milwaukee. He writes about the arts in Milwaukee and beyond for his blog, Artsy Schmartsy.

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