Perhaps it is the rough economy.  Or a need to be heard.  Maybe it’s just the pendulum swinging back to another time in our creative history, but Milwaukee is seeing a boom in small theatre companies making a big impression on the arts.

In just the past six months, two new companies have made a splash in Southeastern Wisconsin.  UPROOTED Theatre and Youngblood Theatre Company have both staged successful, and critically acclaimed, shows featuring emerging artists who don’t feel the need to play by the rules when staging plays.  Simple sets, local playwrights, and small venues are all adding up to a strong following letting many of Milwaukee’s most talented players have their time in the spotlight.

UPROOTED Theatre opened its inaugural 2009-2010 season with a one-woman show, BEAUTY’S DAUGHTER.  Performed in Fort Atkinson’s Café Carpe and Milwaukee’s Studio Theatre inside the Broadway Theatre Center the show featured Artistic Director Marti L. Gobel playing six different characters in a powerful tale of an African-American family in New York City and the dynamics that bring them together and push them apart.  The company’s mission, in short, is to bring light to African-American stories and cast shows color-blind. 

That was just the beginning.  This month, the company reinforced that mission hosting its first fundraiser, “Against Type,” featuring powerful performances from The Rep’s Jim Pickering, theatre diva Angela Iannone, In Tandem’s founder Chris Flieller, Renaissance Theaterworks Producing Director Julie Swenson and many new artists including each of the founding member of UPROOTED: Travis A. Knight, Tiffany Yvonne Cox and Marti L. Gobel (the evening was produce and directed by Dennis F. Johnson).  The fundraiser was supported by local businesses including Bay View’s Transfer Pizzeria and host Cool Water Bar & Grill in St. Francis.  No fancy costumes or staging, just great performances.  The fundraiser was a huge success.

Likewise, after completing an exciting first season, Youngblood Theatre Company is poised for their second season to kick-off with RED LIGHT WINTER in January.  Founding Artistic Director Michael Cotey says after he graduated from UW-Milwaukee’s theatre program, friends and fellow artists felt they needed to continue working on their craft, on their own terms and in a creative and cost-effective direction.  They staged last season’s SAVAGE IN LIMBO, set in a bar, inside a real bar, The Landmark on Milwaukee’s east side.  The show had great seating and an authenticity you can’t make out of painted scenes (the smell of liquor and smoke didn’t hurt either). 

The companies know bigger isn’t always better.  Unlike many of Milwaukee’s larger, institutional theatres, there are no boards to placate, no overhead or big salaries to pay out, just the art which makes them able to move quickly with timely performances targeted at an edgier, and often younger, theatre-going crowd.  Not everyone can shell out $30-$100 to see a show.  These two know that and tickets normally range form $10-$20.  Plus, their audiences are always in constant contact via Facebook, Twitter and text messages; a very inexpensive form of marketing.

Another difference is smaller troupes are unafraid to push the envelope.  Gobel says UPROOTED has an opportunity to feed an under-served audience and take on subject matter that may be too taboo, often with "colorful" language, that other artistic directors shy away from or edit out of their scripts. 

“Why can’t we do this ourselves,” Cotey said when we discussed the topics and style of shows Youngblood is taking on, like their last performance - THE LARAMIE PROJECT: TEN YEARS LATER, a nation-wide cooperative performed on October 12 around the country by 100 different groups.  No one else in Milwaukee was doing this project and Cotey said it is exactly the kind of provocative work that Youngblood needs to be doing. 

I couldn’t agree more.