For years, Pink Umbrella Theater Co. rehearsed and performed wherever it could find room — churches and community centers. That era ended this year when the Milwaukee company bought its own building on Historic Mitchell Street and began turning it into what organizers describe as a fully accessible theater for people with disabilities of all kinds.
The 3,600-square-foot property at 1104 W. Historic Mitchell St. previously operated as a private event venue known as The Mitch before Pink Umbrella purchased it earlier in the year for $385,000, according to Urban Milwaukee. The acquisition was funded in large part through support from the Susan and Cary Silverstein Family Foundation, the outlet reported. The company plans crucial physical changes to the building.
The company took full occupancy of the building on June 1 and marked the milestone with a public ribbon-cutting on June 7, officially christening the site Pink's Accessible Theater House, or PATH, according to Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. The opening closed out years of the company operating without a fixed address, moving productions and classes from one borrowed space to the next.
Building a Theater Around Accessibility, Not Retrofitting It Later
Milwaukee-based Quorum Architects is leading the design work, with plans focused on accessibility, per the same account. The project aims to make every part of the building usable for performers and audience members with a wide range of physical, sensory and cognitive needs.
Pink Umbrella was founded in 2018 as Milwaukee's first professional theater company focused on hiring disabled actors. The company now serves nearly 300 students annually, according to Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Pink Umbrella pays artists for professional productions and offers both in-person and virtual performing arts classes for participants as young as four, Urban Milwaukee notes.
A Rental Home for Other Local Artists, Too
Beyond housing its own productions and classes, Pink Umbrella plans to offer PATH as an affordable rental venue for smaller arts organizations and emerging local artists, according to the outlet's reporting. That plan could ease a longstanding problem in Milwaukee's performing arts scene, where small companies often struggle to find accessible, affordable venue space of their own.
The building sits on Historic Mitchell Street, a South Side commercial corridor. Pink Umbrella's arrival adds a cultural presence along the corridor.
According to City of Milwaukee records, the City's Commercial Corridor team provided 92 revitalization grants totaling more than $1.6 million, underscoring the public investment in commercial-property revitalization.
The Numbers Behind the Mission
The stakes behind PATH's mission are underscored by the employment barriers people with disabilities face. Pink Umbrella's professional model for performers with disabilities offers compensated creative work, creating opportunities for disabled artists.
