The Rep’s Mark Clements reflects, looks ahead

A baseball glove, wrapped around a ball, resides on the window sill of Mark Clements’ office at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

“Brent and I throw all the time,” said Clements, who has just completed an extraordinary rookie season as the company’s artistic director. He plays catch with artistic associate Brent Hazelton.

“I threw out the first pitch at a Brewer’s game,” Clements said, “I was more stressed out about that than anything I’ve done all year. You don’t realize how high that mound is until you get out there. But the ball didn’t hit the ground.”

Clements is British and more accustomed to cricket than to baseball. But his commitment to the pitch, avid approach to the American game and good outcome parallel his first year at the Rep.

Clements framed 2010-11 with two ambitious — even cheeky — projects: A spectacular Cabaret — the first-ever musical on the Rep’s big stage — to start and a searing Death of a Salesman to finish. Clements directed both of these vastly different plays and thus demonstrated not only remarkable range, but also great depth of insight.

That was no accident.

“Expectations were high for 2010-11,” Clements said, during a wide-ranging interview on May 18. “We had a limited window to make an impact and plant my artistic imprint. I felt like I had a year to show what my own artistic credentials are. We got a good start with Cabaret. A lot was riding on that. If we’d screwed that up, we’d be having a very different conversation. We smashed our box-office target, and that had a ripple effect on the whole season.”

Clements’ Cabaret astonished Milwaukee with both dazzling production values and depth of the interpretation. Another bold move was involving Michael Pink, artistic director of the Milwaukee Ballet, to choreograph the show. Another home run, that.

Clements succeeded against some headwinds. Not everyone was thrilled with the idea of bringing a musical to the Powerhouse Theatre — after all, isn’t that the Skylight Opera Theatre’s domain? But success won over the doubters, and his unprecedented outreach to other groups around town snuffed out turf disputes before they caught fire. For example: Skylight artistic director Bill Theisen co-starred with Gerard Neugent in Laurel and Hardy at the Rep’s Stackner Cabaret — while Cabaret ran last fall.

Cabaret proved the ideal set-up to add suspense to Death of a Salesman. Sure, Clements could bring on the glitz, but could he dig into the guts of an iconic mid-century Actors’ Studio American drama? Clements and an uncommonly unified and focused cast, led by the brilliant Lee E. Ernst (also the Emcee in Cabaret), slam-dunked Arthur Miller’s tragedy of the average guy. And the new AD in town had made his mark.

“As soon as you direct Les Miz, people associate you with musicals,” Clements said. “But I’ve directed far more plays than musicals. I’m known in the UK as a director of classical American plays, of Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, more for than British playwrights.”

We’re not just talking high-minded aesthetics with all this. Tickets flew out of the Rep’s box office in 2010-11. These raw numbers are subject to audit, but still: Single tickets sales jumped 11,878 over 09-10. Total attendance (including comps) jumped 5,363 (3.2%) despite 6.8% less capacity, due to fewer performances. Total attendance: 170,623 vs. 165,260. Percent of capacity sold: 63.8% to 70%. Clements’ favorite number: 46% of those who bought single tickets to Cabaret had never been to the Rep before. So far in the 2011-12 subscription campaign, the renewal rate is a hefty 76%.

“Artistically and financially, we did everything we’d hoped and quite a bit more,” Clements said. “We did 12 shows in four spaces. Some shows did better than others, but in my mind we had no disasters.”

The Rep has long been a leading proponent of plays by the late August Wilson, but they had never done that well at the box office. Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, directed by Ron O.J. Parson, was golden for the Rep in 2010-11.

“Ma Rainey took in $57,000 more than targeted, and we saw much more mixed races and ages,” Clements said. “That’s a big deal for me. We want to create theater for all.”

He expects to build on his first season. A couple of days before we talked, the Rep announced that it had bagged two shows to fill TBA slots in 2011-12.

One is Next to Normal, a pop-rock musical by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. The story involves a suburban family coping with bi-polar disorder. The subject seems unlikely for a musical, but the piece won the 2010 Pulitzer for drama and three 2009 Tony Awards, including best score. Clements has reassembled his Cabaret team to make Next work.

“It was the best thing I saw in New York last year,” Clements said. “It’s the kind of show that sweeps the audience to its feet at the end. I think it will be very potent in the Powerhouse Theater.”

Next might be a little risky for the Rep, but the other late add is sure-fire: Lombardi. The Rep will be the first company to get Eric Simonson’s play about the Packers legend since it closed recently on Broadway. And who will play the coach? Lee E. Ernst. How can this miss? Sanford Robbins, once leader of UWM’s stellar (but long gone) Professional Theater Training Program, will return to direct.

“Green Bay won the Super Bowl,” Clements said. “If there was ever a time to do Lombardi, it’s now. We’re seizing the opportunity.”

Beyond Lombardi, Clements has made a special point of making local connections with the 2011-12 season. Jeffrey Hatcher’s Ten Chimneys is about an episode in the lives of Uta Hagen, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne at the Lunt-Fontanne’s Genessee Depot home. Joe Hanreddy, Clements’ predecessor, will direct. Even Shakespeare’s Othello, as directed by Clements, will have something to do with our town.

“We’re setting it among motorcycle gang culture,” Clements said, with great relish. “I’m a former motorcycle racer, I love cycles. The gangs have hierarchical structures and codes of ethics, of the type in Othello’s world. It’s not set in Milwaukee, but Milwaukee is a mecca for American motorcycling. This production is a sort of homage to Milwaukee motorcycle culture.

“Lots of people are rediscovering the Rep. We want this to be a season of consolidation of the existing audience and attracting of new audience. It still feels like a new regime with new energy, and we feel the opportunity. We want to ride that wave a little longer, to build while we’re riding high.”

For a complete listing of all the Rep’s 2011-12 shows and for subscription information, visit the Milwaukee Repertory Theater‘s website.