What does the performing arts mean to you?

Thornton Wilder has a quote that's always really affected me and it's that theater is unique in its opportunity to show us what it means to be human.

Are we ready?

Connection.

That is the goal of all great art.

Oh yes.

As an artist, you want people to feel something.

Happiness, sadness, hope, despair.

Good work, Mr.

Bell.

You've done it again.

Whatever it may be, invoking an emotional response is key to connecting with your audience.

Just let me know.

In the world of theater, it's always right now.

It's whatever is happening on stage with whoseever words are being spoken and the audience is different every night.

And the players are different and it's fresh and it's new and there's nothing else like it.

My name is Susan Fate and I'm artistic director at Renaissance Theater Works.

Susan Fate has taken her final bow after 33 years as the artistic director of Renaissance Theater Works.

She is one of five co-founders of the womenowned and operated theater and the last to work at the company.

Now, looking back throughout your career, what is something that you are truly grateful for?

I am so grateful for being able to work in Milwaukee and having the opportunity to work with so many wonderful people and create theater for over 30 years.

I mean, it's it's a dream come true and I still can't believe it's really happened.

On this episode of the Arts Page, we look at the life and career of a defining leader in Milwaukee's performing arts community, Susan Fate.

Really, I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

Susan, born in Chicago, got her start in theater as an actor at 9 years old.

In high school, she continued to pursue the performing arts.

But when it came time for college, she attended the University of Illinois and chose a much different career path.

Nurse intense about her theater career.

That's a great headline.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I went to college and studied nursing.

I'd always been interested in the sciences and I really wanted to make sure I always had a job.

So my father was a jazz musician.

So I was very versed in what it was like to live in a house where um artists made all the money and and you know and and so consequently there was always money problems.

And I thought well I'm going to I'm I'm going to be an artist but I always want to make sure I can always have a steady income.

Susan spent 20 years as an ICU nurse working mostly part-time.

Being a nurse gave her a perspective that has grounded her in her artistic journey.

The other thing that was cool about it is that you know what a real emergency is and there are no real theater emergencies.

So, so that can be kind of like, yeah, y'all don't know what a real emergency is.

We're all just going to calm down and, you know, and figure this out.

So, yeah, we'll get the set to work.

Right.

Right.

Exactly.

Handy if there is an emergency in the audience.

Yes.

Yes.

Take care of the patrons.

Yeah.

After moving to Milwaukee, Susan applied to graduate school for acting and discovered some harsh realities of the time.

WM had a professional theater training program and learned that there were 16 places and only two were going to be taken by women.

That was decided before the auditions happened.

So no matter what, no matter who showed up, right, it was going to be two women.

Two women.

And the explanation was we we do a lot of Shakespeare.

It hadn't occurred to me that that the debt might be stacked.

These are pictures from South Africa.

Susan did not get accepted in that graduate program, but that didn't stop her from pursuing her dream.

She took an acting class elsewhere and met other women facing the same issue.

In that class, I met Railen McMillion, Jennifer Rup, and Marie Kohler.

We started talking, the three of us, about that there needed to be more opportunities for women and what if we started our own theater company cuz we were young and had no idea what what that would entail and wouldn't that be a great idea.

And they did just that.

They founded Renaissance Theater Works, a place for women in theater by women in theater.

Shortly before that, we realized we really needed someone that had more hard skills, you know, that knew how to create a budget and knew, you know, how to create a reasonable timeline and and Railene was good friends with Michelle Treyban, who was arts administrator.

So, we roped her in and um and that was how it started with the five of us.

In those early days, each of the women founders had to play many different parts.

I learned pretty quickly I was a much better director than I was an actor.

When you were directing, what was the first show where you were like, "All right, this feels good."

Mary Wives.

And I So I I did that and I kept thinking, "Well, I'm going to run out of ideas."

And then I just didn't run out of ideas.

So, I started thinking, well, maybe this is what I'm supposed to do.

For her final show serving as artistic director at Renaissance Theater Works, Susan directed a production of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park, a show that she describes as challenging.

The hardest thing I've ever done was Barefoot in the Park.

Tell me which one.

Yeah, because comedies are really hard.

They're really hard, especially technical comedies.

It has to be done exactly with the right time.

So, for to land, I mean, you can, you know, um it would still be funny, but you you hear the rhythm and you hear the way it's supposed to be.

So, it has to be, you know, oh, I hope it's a woman delivering furniture, a woman slam, you know.

So, no, it's not.

It's my mother.

And so, but it has to be exactly in that order for the joke to sound the way Neil Simon meant it to sound.

So, it was worth it to keep Barefoot in the Park as your icing on the cake as artistic director because you had planned for that.

What was it about Barefoot in the Park that you really wanted to cap your career?

I love it and I've always loved it.

I remember watching the movie as a little girl and the first time um I watched it with my husband, we were like, "Oh my god, it's us."

And it paints a picture of a New York Yeah.

that a lot of us have fun peeking into kind of the marvelous Mrs.

Masel.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Right.

Yet believable because of the cast of characters that are in New York.

Right.

Okay.

Susan leaves Renaissance Theater Works at a high point.

The theater company is thriving.

They produce several highquality shows and provide opportunities for women established in the performing arts and for those looking to get their start.

Serving as artistic director for so many years has taught her a lot of lessons.

What are some of those lessons that you would share with theater companies now?

I would say there is no such thing as a surefire hit.

It doesn't exist or otherwise we would always do them.

Cherish your audience.

Do what you love.

Have faith cuz somehow it all works out.