Pink Umbrella Theater Co. Moving to Mitchell Street

1104 W. Historic Mitchell St. Photo taken October 10th, 2019 by Jeramey Jannene.

After years of bouncing around between churches and community centers, Pink Umbrella Theater Co. is opening a permanent performance space on W. Historic Mitchell Street.

Pink Umbrella, founded in 2018 by executive director Katie Cummings, works with local artists with disabilities, hosting classes and staging shows.

The organization recently purchased a building at 1104 W. Historic Mitchell St., thanks in large part to support from the Susan and Carrie Silverstein Foundation, as Leah Thomas, a Pink Umbrella teaching artist, told Urban Milwaukee. Once renovated, the new space will be called Pink’s Accessible Theater House.

The space was most recently an event venue called The Mitch. At approximately 3,600 square feet, the building will provide Pink Umbrella with permanent space for its classes and productions.

Pink Umbrella puts on professional productions that are creatively driven by the artists, who select or create the material themselves. Last year, the theater company staged a performance of A Christmas Carol and a live reading series. What makes the productions professional is that Pink Umbrella pays artists for their work, Thomas said.

Pink Umbrella won’t be the only group putting on shows and hosting events at Pink’s Accessible Theater House, Thomas said. The plan is to make it available for rent by other local artists and performing groups. The organization wants it to be an affordable option for local artists, Thomas said.

“If we have a space where we want every story to be told, that means that we need to make it a space where every story can afford to be in the room,” Thomas told Urban Milwaukee.

Pink Umbrella’s mission is to expand accessibility for the arts. It was founded, in part, to respond to the lack of arts programming for adults with disabilities, Thomas said. The organization offers classes, both in person and virtually, for people four years old and up.

“It’s been eight years of going where we find partners, going where we find spaces, and that has worked really well for us, but one of the needs of the communities that we really try to serve is consistency,” Thomas said.

The location near the corner of 11th and Mitchell “checked a lot of boxes” for Pink Umbrella, Thomas said. “There’s a certain charm to a historic neighborhood and building.”

The group is working to renovate the space and is still fundraising for the project. Pink Umbrella plans a ribbon cutting for the new theater in June.

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