Bruce Browne returns as University Theatre director

The University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan has named Bruce Browne the Director of the campus’s theater production group, University Theatre. Browne, who has served the campus as a professor and instructor of Communication and Theater Arts for more than 20 years, previously served as the UT Director from 1985-1998.

Browne left his position in 1998 to run a video production business in Connecticut. Upon his return to the Sheboygan area, Browne designed lights and acted with the Baileywick Players in Plymouth, and served as the first Executive Director of the Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts. Besides teaching at UW-Sheboygan, Browne has also taught at UW-Washington County, UW-Manitowoc, Taycheedah and Kettle Moraine prisons.

As University Theater Director, Browne is looking forward to returning to his previous role and bringing a diverse series of productions to UW-Sheboygan and interacting with student and community actors once again.

“The engagement with actors and technicians is a wonderful experience, as anyone who has been involved with theater knows,” Browne said. “There is a wonderful sense of community that occurs in a cast and a crew, and it is teaching at its best – through research, observation and sharing ideas. It is especially rewarding when theater can cause us to regard something with a new urgency or see a problem in a new light.”

For the 2010-11 academic year, Browne will lead University Theatre in a series of three productions: Almost, Maine, (November), Hairspray (January) and Over the Tavern (April).

Almost, Maine by John Cariani (November 5-7, 12-14) will be a great experience for all those in attendance, Browne said, since it deals with many aspects of our search for our soul mate in life. The show will offer both comedy and tragedy rolled into one.

Hairspray (January 28-30, February 4-6) will be co-produced with Theater for Young Audiences for presentation in January and early February, coinciding with Black History Month. The show deals with the early days of the American music scene when white and black music was segregated and tells the story of how the two sectors came together.

Over the Tavern by Tom Dudzick (April 22-24, April 29-May 1) is a comedy about life in the 1950s and focuses on a family living in Buffalo over a tavern and struggling with “issues,” as defined by the children in the family.

Browne said his goals for the upcoming season are to “challenge the mind, capture the heart and tickle the fancy.”

“I hope we will do all of these things with our offering this year,” he added. “University Theatre is a perfect place for someone new to theater. We are a teaching institution after all! Community members are welcome both onstage and backstage and have been a significant part of this program since the beginnings of the UW-Sheboygan campus.”

Tickets for University Theatre productions can be purchased by contacting the UW-Sheboygan Box Office at (920) 459-6652. For more information on upcoming shows or auditions, contact Browne at (920) 459-6677 or e-mail bruce.browne@uwc.edu.