Phoenix Rising | Documentation of restoration and facility updates to UW-Milwaukee's Mainstage Theatre and adjoining theater learning spaces, including the school's scene and costume shops, following April 2017's fire that incurred damages exceeding $4MM.

A college play that opens Wednesday at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater is finishing its final exam.

A scene shop fire in a theater at UWM April 8 unexpectedly sent students who act, build and design sets, and manage the stage, lighting and sound into a professional theater space much different from the familiar Mainstage Theatre where their work on “Arcadia” began weeks earlier.

“We’d never walk away from this,” said Denis Kavanagh, shop supervisor for the scene shop in UWM’s theater department.

After the fire at scene shop, the curtain is rising Wednesday on UW-Milwaukee’s ‘Arcadia’

The Show Must Go On