Oct 18, 2007. MKE Magazine includes us in their cover article on Milwaukee Arts Collectives.

Artistic alliances

Join Milwaukee's art collectives on Gallery Night

By Lilledeshan Bose
lbose@mkeonline.com

Posted: Oct. 18, 2007

In Milwaukee, art collectives are almost as ubiquitous as breweries.

Why do social units that seek to uphold certain creative values and put individual ego aside thrive here? Maybe it's Milwaukee's socialist roots. Maybe it's the Midwestern sense of community. Maybe it's Milwaukee's low cost of living, making it easy for artists to experiment. Maybe Milwaukee is so out of the way that artists can do whatever they want, wherever they want.

Luckystar Studio's Gene Evans, who has been part of various art collectives, founded the now-defunct M-80 with his wife, Bridget. While he doesn't think Milwaukee is more conducive to forming collectives than other cities, he said that sharing a collective vision and putting ego aside is important.

From Evans' experience, a collective's demise comes from members refusing to do the work necessary. "It is what leads to the demise of any business," he said.

This Gallery Night, here are a few collectives to seek out.

Insurgent Theatre

Who they are Insurgent Theatre was founded by Tracy Doyle and Rex Winsome (a.k.a. Ben Turk). Its membership fluctuates with its activities (about eight to 20, depending on the production), including writers, directors and actors. Average age: 25

What they do Insurgent deals with performance art: do-it-yourself theater, street theater and, most recently, an experimental theater workshop. It generally shows two productions a year and is also heavily involved in Pink Banana Theater.

The group applies a communist business model to its theater production: All the money made from a show is split. Half gets deposited into a bank account, and that money is "owned by everyone who ever worked with us," Winsome said. It is then used for the next show.

The other half is distributed among the actors, technicians and people who work on the productions. So far, it's worked; Insurgent has never lost money on a show.

Manifesto To galvanize and politicize theater from the ground up, by producing affordable shows that appeal to the masses. Most of the writing and production (from technical aspects to acting and directing) are done by the members, and it's not uncommon to see the ticket collector act onstage the same night. Ticket prices ($8) are cheaper than movie tickets. (There are also these handy little slogans: "To take over the world," "Hard core, badass, DIY theater" or "Up against the wall, motherf---er! theater").

The collective history Initially, Insurgent Theatre was a street theater group called

S-martKino, founded by Winsome. When Doyle joined the group, they decided to write and produce a present-day version of Jean-Paul Sarte's "No Exit" in 2003.

Turning the group into an actual collective was "a whim, I guess," Doyle said. In 2005, the collective officially changed its name to Insurgent Theatre to reflect its mission. "It's a great name in terms of getting attention," Doyle said. "It means fighting within the system. . . . We're not coming out and creating our own art form. We're using theater, drama, we're rising against the theater establishment to improve it in the community."

How to join Audition for a show, then stay involved in productions. "When we do a show, we treat people like they're part of the collective," Winsome said.

On Gallery Night "The Departed," a set of short horror plays, with Alamo Basement.
www.insurgenttheatre.org