Milwaukee, WI

Scholarship seeks to bring ‘new voices’ to Milwaukee’s improv scene | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Published

3 months ago

December 11, 2024

Scholarship seeks to bring ‘new voices’ to Milwaukee’s improv scene | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Pedro Ruvalcaba (from left), Monchi Cavillo, Maria Acosta, Chuky Razo, Vince Figueroa and Mia Serafina pose after a show at the Interchange Theater Co-op, at 628 N. 10th St. The September show was conceived as a way of celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. (Photo provided by Interchange Theater Co-op)

Those historically left out of the world of improv comedy have a new opportunity to get involved in Milwaukee’s growing scene.

The Interchange Theater Co-op, a community-run improvisation theater and school, has established a scholarship for classes, specifically encouraging people of color, people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ people to apply.

“Milwaukee is unfortunately very segregated, and there is a large white population at our theater and other theaters in the area,” said Vince Figueroa, education director at the Interchange, located at 628 N. 10th St. “So the challenge is: How do we reach out to those other communities to get them to come perform with us and see and learn and embrace the thing that we love?”

The scholarship aims to address this challenge.

‘A really valuable art form’

Figueroa gives all the credit for the scholarship, called the New Voices Improv Comedy Scholarship, to his colleague, Mia Serafina, the Interchange’s community and culture director.

Serafina grew up in Milwaukee but performed on improv teams in less-diverse parts of the state. After returning to Milwaukee after college in 2021, she reconnected with Latinx performers and was reminded of how isolating a lack of diversity can be for an improv performer of color

“I think accessibility to improv helps with people recognizing that it’s not just for one group of people. It’s a really valuable art form, but without points of accessibility, it’s hard to find your way there,” said Serafina.

“We just want a fuller presence at our theater,” she added.

The scholarship covers the $200 cost of a class, removing a financial barrier to entry.

“I know people who want to take classes in the scene at various theaters but unfortunately can’t, just because of the cost,” said Michael Kittelson, an LGBTQ+ comedian who performs at the Interchange.

A more diverse group of performers also reduces other barriers, Kittelson added.

“As a gay man, going into maybe a group elsewhere that might mostly be straight, that could be intimidating for me – not just talking about an improv group but just like a group that I’m not used to,” he said.

All about improv

The Interchange offers five core courses to help individuals learn different aspects of long-form improv.

Improv, short for “improvisation,” is where performers create characters and dialogue on the spot.

People may be familiar with improv from popular television shows like “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” which debuted in the U.S. in 1998 and ended its most recent run in February.

But there are different types of improv.

While “Whose Line” features short-form improv – quick, one-off scenes often based on audience suggestions – many improv classes, including those at the Interchange, provide training in long-form improv.

Long-form improv involves performers creating a series of interconnected scenes, which allow for richer characters and more sustained narratives.

“There’s just something so freeing and exciting about walking onto the stage and discovering what the scene is going to be, discovering who your character is going to be, helping your scene partner discover who they are,” said Figueroa. “So it’s its own unique art form.”

A more diverse group of performers creates stronger comedy in general, he added.

“You say ‘improv’ and some people have this standard image of four middle-aged white guys in flannel doing improv,” Figueroa said. “So when you get other people who don’t look like that … there might be some other references that you wouldn’t think of or connections you wouldn’t necessarily make.”

For more information

People interested in the scholarship can apply online.

The next deadline to apply is Dec. 20, with classes beginning on Jan. 13.

Those with questions can email education@interchangetheater.com.

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Milwaukee, WI

'We're very nervous'; Milwaukee Health Dept. calls in federal agencies to help with lead investigations

Published

2 hours ago

March 15, 2025

Press Room

'We're very nervous'; Milwaukee Health Dept. calls in federal agencies to help with lead investigations

MILWAUKEE — New details continue to unfold from the Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) about lead investigations at Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).

“How are you guys just now finding out? You should have done this in the summertime before these kids came into the school,” MPS parent, Paradice Xiong said.

MHD said that during visual assessments this week, officials identified significant lead hazards at Starms Early Childhood Center, Fernwood Montessori School, and LaFollette School. As a result, all three schools will close starting Monday, March 17, to allow for necessary cleaning and remediation.

“We are very strained for resources,” Tyler Weber with MHD said.

TMJ4

TMJ4’s Megan Lee asked Weber if he considers this a crisis.

“This keeps elevating to that level for us, and we’re very nervous with the more schools we go into,” he said.

TMJ4 learned that the Environmental Protection Agency has joined the investigation efforts. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are assisting as well.

“They bring another perspective,” Weber stated. “More hands-on deck to help us, and then just a different body with a different group of experience and different authority for us to share ideas and challenges on how to navigate this together.”

Weber said having experts from other entities will help in the investigations.

“Schools are very large facilities. We are a program that is trained on residential properties. So we’re going into this a bit wide opened,” Weber said.

MHD has identified seven schools within MPS that contain lead hazards and three students with elevated lead levels due to exposure at school.

“We’ve got buildings that are close to 100 years old, and we have thousands of students in these old schools, and it’s going to keep happening,” spouse of an MPS teacher, Paul Smith said.

His wife works at Fernwood Montessori School, one of the schools that temporarily closed for lead hazard remediation.

I’m worried, we have an aging infrastructure here in Milwaukee,” Paul Smith said.

MHD and MPS are encouraging families to attend a free lead screening clinic from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 15 at Bradley Tech High School.

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Milwaukee, WI

Shots fired at Milwaukee detective's home in 2022; plea deal reached

Published

13 hours ago

March 14, 2025

Press Room

Shots fired at Milwaukee detective's home in 2022; plea deal reached

article

MILWAUKEE – A Milwaukee man accused of shooting at a police detective’s northwest side home in December 2022 has reached a plea deal in his case.

Antonio Jenkins was charged with first-degree recklessly endangering safety and two other felonies. On Friday, March 14, Jenkins pleaded guilty to the reckless endangering safety charge as well as a charge of felon in possession of a firearm. The third court was dismissed and read into the court record.

What’s next:

Jenkins is now scheduled to be sentenced on the morning of May 22.

Case details

What we know:

Milwaukee police were called to the home near 111th and Daphne on the night of Dec. 5, 2022. The victim told officers Jenkins had messaged her earlier that day and believed he was threatening to “shoot up her house.”

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Around 10:30 p.m. that night, the victim said she heard a “loud boom” and felt a pain in her leg – noting a welt, a bullet hole in her bathtub and a bullet on the floor.

A criminal complaint states police also found four bullet strikes to the back of the home, one of which would’ve gone into the bathroom – where it went through the bathtub and hit the victim in the leg.

At the scene, the complaint states officers found eight spent bullet casings – all of which were fired from the same gun.

Surveillance video showed a silver Honda pull up just before 10:30 p.m. and the driver’s door opened. The camera feed cut out just after that point, but the complaint states it took another clip shortly after that showed the Honda drive away.

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Per the complaint, police were already monitoring Jenkins’ social media because he was wanted for a “probation/parole violation.” On Dec. 3, he posted a video that showed him inside a similar vehicle near 6th and Canal. Pole cameras from that area at that time showed a Honda driving that “appears to be the same” as the one seen near 111th and Daphne. Additional surveillance taken minutes later showed the Honda pull up at a downtown hotel and the driver – Jenkins – get out.

Jenkins was arrested as part of the U.S. Marshals Service “Operation North Star II.”

The Source: The information in this post was provided by Wisconsin Circuit Court Access as well as the criminal complaint associated with this case.

Crime and Public SafetyMilwaukeeNews

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Milwaukee, WI

Milwaukee fatal stabbing; woman mourns loss of son, her brother accused

Published

1 day ago

March 14, 2025

Press Room

MILWAUKEE – A Milwaukee woman is grieving as her brother sits in jail, accused of killing her son.

Fatal stabbing

What we know:

Prosecutors say 35-year-old Kendrick William’s uncle, 62-year-old Patrick Riley Jr., stabbed him to death.

Riley Jr. is now charged with first-degree reckless homicide. It happened just before 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4, at a home near 18th and Hopkins.

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The backstory:

Carolyn Mallett owns the home but said her son, who was a father of two, and her brother lived there together. She said her son called complaining his uncle wouldn’t clean up. Minutes later, it was her brother on the line.

Riley Jr. told police his nephew came on the porch talking “crazy” to him. That’s when he says his nephew slapped him in the face and he blanked out.

Prosecutors say Riley Jr. Admitted to picking up a folding knife and stabbing Williams once. He then walked to a neighbor and asked her to call 911 and his sister.

Williams died on the scene.

A mother speaks out

What She’s Saying:

“My brother called me saying, ‘he on the floor,’ and I said, ‘you bet not been done did something to my baby,’ and then he hung the phone up,” she said. “I already knew he didn’t slap you because you would really have to do something to him.”

Mallett is living with a pain she wishes on no one.

“It’s like losing two people, my son and my brother,” she said. “I can’t sleep. I can’t eat.”