Within twenty years, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater grew from a community theater with a primarily local orientation into a professional repertory theater with a national reputation. In the beginning Mary Widrig John recognized Milwaukee's need for a community theater, and in 1953 she organized Drama Incorporated as a nonprofit stock company and the parent corporation for a community theater and drama school. The organization was incorporated in 1954 with Mary John as president and majority stockholder.
Citywide fundraising provided resources to rent and remodel the Oakland movie house into an intimate arena theater; Milwaukee architects and contractors donated their services to this effort. When the theater opened on January 25, 1955, it was renamed the Fred Miller Theatre, in honor of Frederick C. Miller, head of the fund drive who was killed in a plane crash. The first production at the Fred Miller Theatre was Sabrina Fair, starring Jeffrey Hunter. For several years, the Theatre operated under the star system, performing former Broadway hits.
The Drama Incorporated School of the Professional Arts was established in 1955 to train students in acting, directing, and technical production work, but financial problems forced the school to close in 1959. Subsequently, the Theatre hired and trained several “production fellows” each season. To emphasize the community nature of the theater, the Fred Miller Theatre League--women volunteers who raised funds and did backstage work--was founded as a separate corporation. In 1963 the corporation was dissolved, and volunteer activity was organized under a committee of Drama Incorporated
From 1958 to 1966 internal stress became almost a way of life within both Drama Incorporated and the Fred Miller Theatre. Administrative problems were severe. The Board of Directors of Drama Incorporated questioned the legality of a nonprofit stock company, and in 1958, during conflict between the Board, management, and staff, Mary John resigned as president of Drama Incorporated and as manager of the Theatre. Subsequently, Drama Incorporated was reorganized as a nonprofit, non-stock corporation with an executive committee primarily responsible for policy decisions. In 1963 the Board of Directors streamlined its size from thirty to eighteen members, and in 1966 Drama Incorporated was renamed the Milwaukee Repertory Theater Inc.
Reorganization did not resolve questions of authority, however. Attempting to achieve internal stability, the Board of Directors tried various types of theater management--managing director, general manager and artistic director, and producer. The structure that proved most efficient was established in 1966 when Tunc Yalman was hired as artistic director and Charles McCallum was given the title of managing director. McCallum was with the Theatre since its inception in the 1950s and was the source of much imagination and continuity. Yalman served as artistic director for five years and was succeeded by Nagle Jackson in the 1971-1972 season. McCallum continued as managing director.
Artistically, too, the Fred Miller Theatre faced many problems. In 1961 the Theatre discontinued the star system, establishing instead a resident professional company of actors. The nature of the plays produced was also changed--rather than Broadway hits, quality classical and contemporary plays were to be performed. Although the new policy met with critical acclaim, box-office receipts dropped. Annual community-wide fundraising drives were begun in 1963 to keep the theater solvent. As the Theatre maintained high standards of production, season subscriptions gradually increased and students, attracted by reduced rates and special school rates, also joined the audiences.
In 1964 the Theatre underwent another change of name, becoming the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. The new name better represented the nature as well as the location of the theater. With the opening of the Milwaukee Performing Arts Center in September 1969, the Milwaukee Rep also moved to a new home in the Todd Wehr Theatre. Performances outside the Theatre, tours throughout the state, and laudatory reviews from New York critics indicated that the Milwaukee Rep had moved beyond its problems and had matured into one of the finest regional theaters in the country. That the community recognized that fact is also evident; during the 1970-1971 season the Milwaukee Repertory Theater had 12,000 subscribers and did 94 percent of capacity business.
