Collaboration key to Union Theater’s success

Ralph Russo, cultural arts director of the Wisconsin Unions and Union Theater director, says that the magic experienced at the Union Theater is the result of a collaborative process: “We are not an ‘I’ organization; we’re a team. At the theater, students drive the programming and the staff works to support that. This arrangement is unique in higher education. Usually, campus performing arts facilities are not connected to campus/student unions.”

This unlikely arrangement has been in place since the theater opened in 1939, resulting in a legacy of quality programming that would be the envy of a program director in a major city (see sidebar.)

This collaborative structure, however, is second nature to Russo. Although he’s been in his current position since 2003, he has been part of the Union’s arts experience for the past 24 years. He has been adviser to the film and music, art and Distinguished Lecture Series committees, and oversaw the galleries and collections.

In his current position as cultural arts director, he oversees the union’s full range of programming for the Union Theater and the Fredric March Play circle, music and film programming, four art galleries and a 1,300-piece permanent art collection. As theater director, he directs staff that manage the theater’s operations, audience services, box office, marketing, and development.

At UW–Madison, serving the campus by presenting arts is complicated by the decentralized structure of its academic schools and departments. There is no college of fine arts covering art, music, theater, dance, art history and design — these studies are scattered in a variety of schools and colleges.

For Russo, this all adds up to partnerships with student programmers, Union staff advisers and leadership from many campus academic and program units. These partnerships are all part of the sifting and winnowing process that results in learning and leadership opportunities for students.

Student involvement in programming because of the theater’s affiliation with the Wisconsin Union Directorate may add complexity to Russo’s job, but it has many benefits. For starters, it adds a youthful vibrancy and comes with a safety net of sorts. “For the most part, the season needs to support itself out of ticket sales. However, due to the Union’s commitment to student development through programming, the administrative overhead is budgeted for elsewhere,” says Russo. That said, the season’s annual budget counts on about $500,000 in ticket sales to hit break-even.

And there are a lot of tickets to be sold for programs that work the boundaries between popular and high art. Each season the Union Theater presents the Madison World Music Festival and Isthmus Jazz Festival and 40 events organized into its concert series, world stage, jazz series, travel adventure film series and special events. Don’t assume, however, the theater is usually dark on other nights. Russo says more than 300 events a year take place there, including those sponsored by student organizations and campus departments. And each year, hundreds of students perform on stage and become a part of the theater’s rich history.

The excellence in programming has stayed constant, but the theater has done some recent self-evaluation, most notably to consider its mission in light of completion of the city’s Overture Center in 2004.

“We looked at what we do and who is our audience and, more importantly, who should they be? We are the campus’s performing arts facility first and foremost, and campus can be a foreign, intimidating place that is hard to manage for someone unfamiliar. We see our audience coming primarily from students, faculty, staff and alumni,” Russo says. “I hate to say it, but our No. 1 challenge, and the challenge of other campus programmers, is parking. Whether difficult parking is perceived or actual, it’s clear ticket buyers shy away, especially when there’s an event at the Kohl Center; and frankly that’s about every night between October and April.

“From an operational end, we’re looking at how to manage our scheduling to be more flexible to serve campus and not lose programmatic and revenue opportunities. To stay accessible for our community, we need to think outside the box all the time. We can’t settle into our ways. Our programs need to stay relevant, vibrant and ensure the quality is always there.”

Russo and Union leaders are currently wrestling with remodeling plans, which Russo believes will allow the theater to prosper for another 70 years. There are great needs and challenges to modernize a building that’s 69 years old, even one that’s been well cared for.

Russo’s to-do list covers just about every corner of the theater: The heating and cooling system doesn’t work well, noise from the Terrace and traffic spill into the theater during performances, rehearsal and lobby space are limited, there are major accessibility issues, it’s very challenging to load in and out from Park Street, the orchestra pit is too small, lighting positions are limited, and so on.

There are more questions than answers at this point with completion dates and budgets still in preliminary stages.

“A theater is a blank canvas. It’s what happens on that canvas that matters — the people that have spoken and performed here. The Wisconsin Union and our campus made a commitment to bring the greats of the times here, and it’s a legacy that’s challenging to live up to. I hope 25 years from now, people will look back on what we’re doing and find the same vibe and quality,” says Russo. “Sometimes I walk out on the stage and think about all the people that have spoken or performed there — Martin Luther King, Isaac Stern, Ella Fitzgerald. It’s as if the words, music and audience applause are still vibrating in the space, and I get chills.”

Getting it right from the start

The Union Theater opened in October 1939 with four sold-out performances of “The Taming of the Shrew,” starring the first couple of American theater, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. A white-tie reception celebrated the event.

That the theater came to be is also a saga worthy of the stage with a thoroughly modern subtext on funding campus building initiatives. There was no disagreement that the campus had a need for a cultural center, but the country was in the depths of the Great Depression and building a theater could easily have been put aside in favor of other projects.

But hard-working visionaries prevailed, taking the dream to reality. At the opening gala when University President Clarence Dykstra received the keys to the building from the Union’s student president, he commented that not a cent of state money had been spent on the theater, not even for the street construction. A grant from the Public Works Administration, a loan, gifts, union operating surpluses and the work of thousands of students and alumni working to raise funds made it happen.

The theater opened to raves. The New York Times said this: “Here in the open spaces, where cabs take one across town for a dime and where the railroads charge only a nickel for coffee, has been built one of the finest legitimate theatres in America.”

And so began nearly 70 years of presenting performers and personalities that would be the envy of theaters of much larger cities. They represent the stars of music, dance, theater and voices of the times. The roster of celebrities that have crossed the stage is long and impressive: artists Martha Graham, Jascha Heifetz, Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Robeson, Miles Davis, Beverly Sills, Miriam Makeba and a barefoot Joan Baez; writers T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost and John Dos Passos; and leaders Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt and Jawaharlal Nehru.