About Music Theatre of Madison
OUR MISSION: Music Theatre of Madison (sometimes known as MTM) is a professional theatre producing new and rare musicals for adventurous audiences in Madison and beyond.
OUR HISTORY: Meghan Randolph founded Music Theatre of Madison at age 23 with a vision for creating a company that provided a home for Madison-based performers with professional training and experience. She also wanted to focus on musicals that were provocative, interesting, and left audiences pondering after leaving the theatre. The company opened on July 20, 2006 with an outdoor production of Hair at Lake Farm Park. 2006 and 2007 brought Violet, The Sound of Music, and Assassins.
In 2008, the company realized there was an untapped market in the city: New and rare musicals. Refocusing its mission, MTM began to perform Madison and state premieres of shows that had done well in other markets but hadn't yet made it to Madison. Early productions under the new mission included john & jen, tick..Tick..BOOM!, Thrill Me, Floyd Collins, and Wild Party.
Later years brought partnerships with local organizations whose missions aligned with the subject matter of shows being produced, such as The Jewish Federation of Madison, Madison Public Libraries, The Goodman Center, and more as well as working more closely with composers. In 2013, MTM produced the Wisconsin premiere of Elegies For Angels, Punks, and Raging Queens, using a 45-member cast, to raise money for AIDS Network of Madison.
In 2015, MTM began staging pieces in unusual and immersive settings such as coffee shops, bars, nightclubs, and community centers. That year, the company also started focusing on new musical theatre pieces, holding the first Festival of New Musicals, an initiative repeated in 2017. MTM's first Midwest premiere, Ryan Scott Oliver's 35MM, appeared with a complimentary art exhibit in 2015, and its second Midwest premiere, Polly Pen and Victor Lodato's Arlington, appeared in 2016 and made the Capital Times' 2016 Best Theater of the Year list. MTM's productions of The Glorious Ones, The Secret Garden, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Bonnie & Clyde, Lizzie, Little Miss Sunshine, and Murder Ballad have also been included in "Best of the Arts" lists since 2011.
MTM has also partnered frequently with Madison Public Libraries and other community organizations like Arts For All, Forte Studios, Porchlight, Madison Public Schools, the Jewish Federation of Madison, and numerous departments within the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The company offers free and pay-what-you-can events each year.
In 2018, MTM launched the Wisconsin New Musicals Cycle, a multi-year process of developing new musicals from local writers, with input from the community at multiple stages.
An ongoing dedication to unusual and innovative art, combined with a commitment to compensate local talent, has made MTM one of Madison's most surprising, fun, and unusual theatre companies. Madison Magazine called it "crucial to the local theatre scene." See the full production history here.
OUR BOARD:
President: Scott Glogovsky, Epic Systems Corporation
Treasurer: Nick Barsuli, Office of the Commissioner of Insurance
At Large: Paige Hutchison-Fecteau
Patrick Randolph, The Aspen Institute
Kailea Saplan, UW-Madison
Matt White, State of Wisconsin
OUR VISION: We envision a world that perceives the broad and important role of musical theatre to engage, entertain, educate, and challenge audiences. That world is filled with individuals who acknowledge that the best years of this young art form are still ahead of us; that new pieces hold equal weight to old ones, and that daring and unusual stories make us better artists and people.
Music Theatre of Madison's role in making that world a reality is to continually embrace new pieces with provocative subject matter, innovative structure, representative stories, and emotional impact that reach the broadest possible audiences. We do this by remaining conscious of the new voices and ideas within the art form, and by working hard to cultivate an interest in these types of pieces at the local level. Finally, we use a mix of trained professionals and natural talents from our own neighborhoods to bring these productions to Madison stages with care and skill, keeping our experiences as affordable and accessible as we can.
OUR VALUES:
Innovation: We believe in the open creative process that allows the young art form of musical theatre to continue growing.
Artists: We believe in local artists who have trained and worked professionally, are beginning their careers, or have raw talent, and in providing them an opportunity to practice their craft and be compensated for their time. Deeply committed to diversity, we strive to include a variety of backgrounds in creating our art, as we believe it results in the strongest possible product.
Engagement: We believe that musical theatre has the opportunity to engage a variety of audiences and address an array of subject matters.
Accessibility: We believe that our work should represent and be able to be experienced by a population that reflects our varied and complex world.
Anti-racism: We acknowledge that theatre has been built upon white supremacist practices, and pledge to actively work against such standards by telling diverse stories while making our spaces safe and free of harm for both our artists and audiences. This is an ongoing practice that will improve and grow as time passes. We realize the best way to tell great stories is to include the widest possible breadth of voices and experiences.
Memberships
