Over the summer, a group of theater students spent two weeks traveling the United Kingdom including London, Sussex, York, and Stratford. Throughout this trip, they attended formal and self-guided tours, visited museums, and explored the culture of English life. View a slideshow of photos from their time abroad.
The first week of the fall semester ended on a celebratory note at the Peck School of the Arts as new students got acquainted with campus and their peers through department gatherings and the annual PSOA Fall Student Welcome. The …
During the summer of 2024, PSOA guitar students took center stage at a variety of festivals throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Everywhere our students went, they found great success and brought accolades back to Milwaukee. Leonela Alejandro (BFA 2020, Music) took first prize at the Guitar Foundation of America, widely considered the biggest international guitar competition. Meanwhile, at Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Mexico, second-year master’s student Alberto Daniel Quintanilla walked away with first prize.
MFA dance students get the opportunity to showcase their original, experimental choreography at UpStart 2024, an evening of diverse work from eight different students. The work showcased at UpStart is rooted in thoughtful creative research and strong collaboration between UWM students, alumni, and the Milwaukee community. These important facets allow choreographers to pose a multitude of questions and themes to those who attend. We caught up with three of the student choreographers to learn more about their process leading up to UpStart 2024.
For nearly 50 years, music fans and spectators from around the world benefitted from the work of UWM alum Bob Babisch. As Summerfest’s top talent booker from 1976 to 2022, Babisch brought names such as The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, and Prince to Milwaukee’s—and perhaps the world’s—biggest music festival. Now in retirement, Babisch (’74 BFA Theatre) is being honored by his former employer, Milwaukee World Festival, Inc., and his alma mater with a named scholarship to support Peck School of the Arts students. Imanol Ruiz is one of those students. As a result, Ruiz graduated debt free, allowing him to explore opportunities in his field.
When an actor immerses themselves into a character, they sometimes need to develop an accent or dialect. Anyone who has heard a poorly executed accent knows it can be difficult to ignore. Luckily for most actors, they do not have to figure this out on their own, instead seeking help from those who specialize in this work. Recent grad Mason Shefchik (BFA 2024, Theatre Performance: Musical Theatre) is one of those individuals. He recently served as a dialect assistant for Renaissance Theaterworks while still a student.
Three Peck School of the Arts students had the opportunity to showcase their senior projects at the North-Central American College Dance Association Conference in Minnesota this spring. Zoe Garnett, Rae Zimmerli, Libby Steckmesser all presented original work.
Peck School of the Arts students, alumni and faculty foster a strong community for artists throughout Milwaukee to converge and offer support for one another. A notable collective that embodies that creative spirit is Milwaukee’s local sensation Scam Likely, a …
Three Peck School of the Arts students were selected for Distinguished Graduate School Fellowships for the 2024-25 academic year. The fellowships are awarded through one of the most competitive selection processes at the graduate level. The PSOA Department of Dance, Department of Music, and Department of Film, Video, Animation & New Genres each had one student selected to receive the support, which covers graduate tuition and provides an academic year stipend.
The Peck School of the Arts Department of Theatre is putting the finishing touches on their next production Once Upon A Mattress, a comedic and musical retelling of “The Princess and the Pea.” Through creative collaboration and dramaturgical research, students are achieving great heights as they fully immerse themselves in their roles. Here’s what several actors shared about their process.
The 2024 Milwaukee Film Festival is underway, and Peck School of the Arts has a lot to be proud of. Nineteen alumni and a current MFA candidate will have their work screened across 15 unique works, including shorts, features, and music videos. The PSOA community of artists is excited to highlight the incredible work screening at this year’s festival. Check out the impressive list of films and filmmakers with strong ties to PSOA.
Nine Peck School of the Arts students, recent alumni, and a faculty member are currently displaying their work in the Cross Connections 2024 International Exhibition and Competition of Visual Communication Design and Emerging Media Design. This juried exhibition is a global event that showcases top talent from higher education institutions worldwide, including the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. The artworks represent a wide variety of visual art forms that transcend borders, cultures, and disciplines.
More than 10 film students screened their work at Nō Studios’ inaugural Filmmaker Showcase in Spring 2024, highlighting the wide breadth of work being produced in Milwaukee. Across five nights, the showcase featured a range of genres including horror, experimental, documentary, music video, anime, and more. Unsurprisingly, some of the best and most memorable shorts came from PSOA students.
In early 2022, Peck School of the Arts students Ethan Hightire and Nahjee Robinson sat in Milwaukee’s Next Act Theater, immersed in Dominque Morisseau’s critical-acclaimed play Pipeline. Both were astonished by what they saw. Hightire recognized that the character Omari was the role he was born to play. Hightire and Robinson immediately went to Katie Avila Loughmiller (Lecturer, Theatre) insisting that Pipeline was a show she had to see. Their intention? Advocate for an eventual UWM production of the piece.
Renowned vocalist Melissa Foster visited the Peck School of the Arts for a two-day residency last month as part of a growing effort to diversify the vocal stylings and teachings at PSOA. Foster’s expertise ranges across genres that vocal students do not always get to work with. During the two-day residency, she led workshops and taught lectures on Motown, disco, rap, musical theatre, and more, to expose students to contemporary commercial music.
