This was already going to be a historic fall for Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Wisconsin’s largest theatre. The Rep had announced an ambitious 12-show slate for 2025-26, but the real star of the new season would be its $80.1 million overhaul of the Associated Bank Theater Center in downtown Milwaukee, scheduled for a grand unveiling in October.
The first phase of the Rep’s physical overhaul was a state-of-the-art, 30,000-square-foot production center in the nearby suburb of Wauwatosa, about five miles to the west of their flagship downtown complex. It was designed in part to relieve crowding at their flagship venue, as executive director Chad Bauman explained in Milwaukee magazine last fall, when the new facility opened: “We needed a larger space because we were doing more and more productions, more performances, had larger sets, and larger physical productions than we ever had before.”
Then came the morning of Aug. 10, when historic flooding hit the Wauwatosa area. This “1,000-year flood event” caused the nearby Menominee River to rise from less than two feet to over 14 feet in just six hours, from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. Local meteorological data indicate this was driven by more than 14 inches of rain falling in less than 12 hours, crushing all-time rainfall records.
The devastating result for Milwaukee Rep: The majority of the new production facility’s contents are a total loss. A video with Milwaukee Rep staff shows the full extent of the damage, which includes more than 75,000 props, costumes, and set pieces, along with thousands of pieces of sound, lighting, rigging, welding, automation, projection, and paint equipment. The loss also includes vehicles, musical instruments, office and drafting equipment, lifts, power tools, and archives. The set for the theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol, which was in storage, was also destroyed.
Worse yet: Due to the continuing renovation of the Rep’s downtown complex at 108 E. Wells Street, the new facility was storing even more than its usual inventory, with equipment and fixtures from the downtown venue being held there temporarily to make room for the new construction. “It kind of hit at the worst possible time,” said Bauman in an interview today. While his loss estimates last week were around $5 million, he said today, “With every passing day, we find more things that are damaged. It’s looking like the losses will be between $6 million and $8 million.” That’s a painful increase, as the theatre’s flood insurance taps out at $5 million, and that difference will have to be made up with new fundraising.
A temporary production shop has been set up at another location, and the Rep is turning to a commercial outfit to make sure that its November production of Come From Away can still happen on schedule. The company is accepting donations as they continue to recover.
Meanwhile, the federal government has not yet declared the flood zone a disaster area. Wisconsin governor Tony Evers has requested FEMA assistance for the region, while Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Congressman Bryan Steil, and other members of the Wisconsin Congressional delegation have written to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem requesting assistance expediting a Joint Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) to support recovery efforts across Wisconsin following the flooding.
“The impact is well beyond city, county, or state resources to handle,” said Bauman, who reported that after a week at the flooded site, the damage “looks very much like a hurricane. In fact, one of the first people I called when this happened was Dean Gladden, who was managing director at the Alley Theatre when they had a massive flood situation, very similar to us—they lost something like 83,000 pieces.”
That this flooding wasn’t tied to major storm or hurricane is one reason, Bauman said, that it “caught us all by surprise. At least with a hurricane, it’s named, and you can prepare. We’re not used to having 1,000-year floods in Milwaukee.” Indeed, in a conversation with the site’s previous owner, Bauman said, “He’d owned it for 35 years and had never seen water get close to the facility. But with climate impacts these days, more and more bizarre events like this are happened. We have be more attuned to natural disasters in places where they don’t usually happen.”
One salutary difference between the floods in Wisconsin and the damage from Houston’s Hurricane Harvey: While the Alley’s mainstage theatre was flooded, Milwaukee Rep’s downtown venue was untouched, and remains on track for its October unveiling.
“Our theatre is right on the Milwaukee River, which crested at all-time highs as well but didn’t flood,” Bauman marveled. When the new theatre reopens on Oct. 31 with It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play, followed soon after by Come From Away, those tales of a communities coming together to face adversity are sure to hit with fresh urgency.
Daniella Ignacio contributed reporting to this story.
