Meet Marie Kohler, One of Milwaukee’s Leading Dramatists
Her Off-Broadway hit drama Boswell – about an American grad student in Scotland stumbling upon the journals of a literary giant – was published last year for any theater to perform. She was named a Wisconsin Academy Fellow, which recognizes powerhouses at the top of their fields. And now Marie Kohler is directing The Children (Feb. 12-March 9 at Next Act Theatre), an ecological drama about retired nuclear physicists fighting disaster.
Kohler (yes, of that family) came to Milwaukee with big theater dreams, degrees “out the wazoo” and two small children. She started as a set dresser and later an actor. Then, in 1993, she co-founded Renaissance Theaterworks with four other women, and she has worn almost every hat in theater since. Over 30 years later, the company still champions gender equity in the city’s performing arts space, and Kohler still calls Milwaukee home, despite her growing footprint. “It’s the community, and not just the theater community, that keeps me here.”
