After nearly shuttering last year, Milwaukee Opera Theatre is regrouping, tapping into new fundraising campaign
In the post-pandemic world, no performing arts group is too big or prestigious to struggle financially. At the start of this season, New York's Public Theater and Chicago's prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre laid off 19 percent and 12 percent of their staffs, respectively.
But arts lovers should also light a candle for the health of smaller local groups who might be called the research and development arm of this industry: research as in experimenting with form and content in a way larger groups can't; development through opportunities for less experienced performers.
Milwaukee Opera Theatre, a local dynamo of creativity and collaboration, nearly collapsed last season after a rapid cascade of difficulties, only partly financial. That led producing artistic director Jill Anna Ponasik and the MOT board to soul searching about the group's mission and future, which is still in process.
A new initiative, the Small Arts and Culture Cohort's joint fundraising campaign, may help the stability of MOT and groups like it in the future.
A horrible month of crises
Since becoming MOT artistic director in 2008, Ponasik has led or instigated a remarkable flow of distinctive productions, including "Guns N' Rosenkavalier," which blended rock music and classical art song; "The Mikado," with an array of unusual instruments including a rubber chicken; the two-actor musical "The Story of My Life," performed inside Boswell Books; and a one-shot concert version of "1776," with several of the male roles sung by women. A rule of thumb for Ponasik productions is that she's willing to play with everything except the singing, which she always takes seriously.
MOT also emphasizes opportunities for local singers. During its monthly Voice Lab, a dozen vocalists who have pre-registered sing with a professional pianist and receive supportive feedback and coaching (if desired).
The organization's estimated budget for 2022-'23 was a modest $118,422, with more than half of that earmarked for stage six productions, the remainder for three educational programs and organizational needs. MOT had one part-time paid employee last season, company manager Danny Brylow. (Ponasik does not draw a salary from MOT.)
In November 2022 MOT was plowing ahead on preparations for "Rusalka," a collaboration with Danceworks MKE, and with planning for Supreme Creativity Studio, an exciting new school project. But then the company, and Ponasik personally, was pounded with a series of afflictions.
That month Ponasik experienced the onset of debilitating pain and impaired mobility that was eventually diagnosed as frozen shoulder. At a Nov. 14 board meeting, she was not able to use her arm and could not take notes.
Two days later, Brylow gave notice of his plan to leave MOT at the end of the season, both a personal and professional loss for Ponasik. MOT had hoped to ramp up the company manager job into a full-time position, but his announced departure meant that would need rethinking.
Then, on Nov. 20, MOT learned a local foundation had turned down its grant application for the Supreme Creativity Studio educational project — a grant Ponasik thought MOT would receive, based on the foundation's past support.
Oh, a week later, after the Thanksgiving holiday, Ponasik went to check for mail at the site where the peripatetic group had a mailbox — and discovered its mailbox had disappeared without warning.
For several months Ponasik was in so much physical pain she could hardly dress herself (she's better now). But in recalling those days, she sounds most upset about the lost grant for Supreme Creativity Studio. The program was designed to bring five teaching artists into fifth-grade classrooms at Milwaukee Public School's Neeskara Elementary School twice weekly for 10 weeks. The artists would work with children to turn affirmations into lyrics, then turn the lyrics into songs.
After losing the counted-on funding, MOT could have canceled the new school program, but Ponasik forged ahead with it, partly in a furious spirit of I'll show them, she now admits.
Chairwoman Cecilia Davis said the MOT board ran a mini-fundraising campaign among current supporters late last season. Aided by matching gifts, the campaign largely made up for the lost grant revenue.
But the month of crises and ensuing fallout has led Ponasik and the board to many conversations about MOT's future.
Soul-searching about the future
"Our number one concern was Jill Anna, and her personal health and wellness," Davis said. "We as a board needed to make sure that Jill Anna knew we were here to support.
"MOT is not MOT without Jill Anna," Davis said.
But Davis admitted she and fellow board members didn't necessarily know how to help.
Just like its productions, much of the way MOT operates is bespoke. Ponasik does not draw a salary as artistic director. The money that might otherwise have been paid to her goes to artists and designers who work on MOT productions.
"I never intended to get a salary from MOT. That was not part of the dream," Ponasik said.
Shortly before taking up the MOT position, she had read Lewis Hyde's influential book "The Gift" (1983). That led her to decide to take her work with MOT "out of the transactional environment" and value it as a form of service, drawing meaning from other qualities, such as artist and audience enthusiasm. She said she was fortunate her husband was making enough money to support both of them. She also took freelance directing work with other companies for compensation.
So burnout, or exhaustion, or loss of a sense of purpose, all of which Ponasik felt to some degree after the horrible November, is a critical issue for someone who sees her artistic labor as service to the community rather than the source of a paycheck.
In the wake of these crises the board began meeting monthly rather than quarterly. Those monthly meetings became an ongoing board retreat, thinking broadly about MOT's role in Milwaukee, Davis said. Most MOT board members are artists; Davis is a singer who has performed with MOT and other organizations.
Davis emphasized the way MOT values local artists as a distinctive feature.
"We program for artists and what artists want to do, then we invite the audience to join us. And we hope we can balance the budget, that we get the right-sized audience," Ponasik said.
In thinking about the current 2023-'24 season, the board created breathing room by planning just two stage productions and three educational programs.
"We all agreed that MOT, having its own unique brand and identity, doesn't necessarily need to fit the mold of what a season is," Davis said.
Board member Janna Ernst, a trained life coach, will lead a strategic planning process.
Noting that she is not claiming to speak for Ponasik, Davis has a feeling of optimism about the future.
"This rethinking is kind of exciting for a lot of us," she said.
Davis acknowledged that some other groups are now "dabbling" in areas that MOT has worked in. But she still believes MOT has a distinct place in Milwaukee, thanks to the accessibility (including relatively low cost) of its programs and its "total commitment to local artists."
To stabilize operations and administration, MOT has hired singers Kaisa Herrmann as media manager and Danielle Gedemer as company manager, both part-time positions. Brylow agreed to stay on through December for a smooth transition.
MOT performs in many different venues, not unusual for a group this size. But it also has no reliable rehearsal or administrative space of its own, resulting in many ad hoc arrangements. Finding "a home that is not Jill Anna's living room" could give the organization some momentum, Davis said. Ponasik said her dream is simply to find a reliable room with a piano that MOT can use.
"It no longer feels like we are in a crisis," Ponasik said. She is working with Herrmann, Gedemer and the board on next season — and they are no longer planning for a "victory lap" or terminal season, once a possibility. The board is beginning work on a five-year plan, which requires hard thinking about what scale MOT wants to operate at, she said. As for Ponasik, she will be part of next season but is not yet ready to talk about the years beyond that.
Small groups have launched fundraising campaign
Milwaukee Opera Theatre has joined 11 other local groups in the recently announced Small Arts and Culture Cohort joint fundraising campaign. SMAC has a three-year goal of raising $945,000, which would enable it to give each member group $25,000 in support annually for three years. Gifts of $30,000 annually from the Heil Family Foundation and $10,000 annually from the Ponasik family have seeded the effort.
That amount of support would make an immediate difference for cohort groups, Ponasik said. They have small budgets with modest to minimal reserves, and often can't count on year-to-year funding of even $10,000 from any single source, which makes covering payroll and other costs a challenge.
To put the prospect of a reliable $25,000 annually in perspective, for the 2023-'24 year MOT is planning for $128,250 in income: $26,520 in box office receipts from two productions; $53,300 in grants from eight different sources; and $48,430 in donations. Ponasik said she usually prefers the three streams to be roughly even, but MOT is performing fewer productions during this year of strategizing.
The cohort has also opened possibilities for groups to share expertise and expenses and collaborate on programs, Ponasik said.
As organizations of their size, these groups are eligible to apply annually for grants through the United Performing Arts Fund's affiliate program. MOT received a UPAF affiliate grant of $5,500 in 2023. But MOT is unlikely to scale up to the size of organization that could draw significantly larger support from UPAF, Ponasik said.
Other cohort members include Aperi Animam, Artworks for Milwaukee, Capita Productions, Dancecircus, Ex Fabula, Ko-Thi Dance Company, Pink Umbrella Theater, Quadimondo Physical Theatre, The Constructivists, Walker's Point Center for the Arts and Wolf Studios MKE. All groups have operating budgets of less than $300,000.
For information about the Small Arts & Culture Cohort campaign, visit mightycause.com/story/Smacmilwaukee.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New campaign could help stabilize groups like Milwaukee Opera Theatre
