Andy Manis
Russo came to UW-Madison for grad school in 1984 and never left.
Ralph Russo once carried the late great Maya Angelou’s grocery bags around Kohl’s after she gave a lecture at the Wisconsin Union Theater. He was the one tasked with breaking the news of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake to Angela Davis, whose home was in Oakland. In 2007, he ushered French jazz star Madeleine Peyroux out of the Union Theater after her sold-out Isthmus Jazz Festival performance and watched her jaw drop as she witnessed thousands of people gyrating on the Terrace to Madisalsa.
For the last 35 years, Russo has been omnipresent in Memorial Union, on the Terrace, and anywhere music and cultural programming is taking place. The Rockford, Illinois, native moved to Madison in 1984 for grad school after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point — and never left.
First as a member of the program staff and then as director of the Union Theater, where he has spent the last 17 years, Russo has seen (and overseen) the union’s spaces undergo several renovations, including a recent overhaul that cost millions and took two years. He helped establish the Campus Arts Ticketing office, which coordinates ticketing for all arts events on campus, and helped produce the World Music Festival, which draws top global acts.
Russo counts himself lucky to be part of one of the nation’s most impressive student unions. The crown jewel of outdoor summer music destinations, the Union Terrace stage, was partly his idea, in fact. During grad school where he studied adult continuing education, Russo served on the program staff, advising the music and film committees. “We were doing all the programs on the Terrace before the Terrace really was the Terrace,” says Russo. “There was the upper area [outside the Rathskeller] and a muddy grass stretch and then the lake. A group of students and I were the ones that moved the stage from where it was, up by the Rathskeller, down to its former location in one of those half circles. On a Friday afternoon [in 1986], we just moved it down there and it stayed ever since. It turned out to be a smart move, but it wasn’t so appreciated at the time.”
Jeff Miller/UW Communications
In 1986, Russo and a group of students decided to move the stage from its location near the Rathskeller to the lakefront, transforming Madison summers.
It’s hard to imagine Madison without it now. And even though Russo is looking forward to not spending long days in his workplace, he hasn’t lost touch with the magic. “With great performers down there, a setting sun, slight breeze, great music, people having a good time, all a little lubricated by the beer — I can’t think of many places I would rather be on those nights.”
There have been bumps along the road, of course. One of the biggest challenges was the opening of the $200 million Overture Center in 2004, a game-changer for the entertainment market. Russo’s predecessor, Michael Goldberg, left the Union Theater to take over as Overture’s CEO after the troubled reign of Robert D’Angelo, who served time in federal prison for tax evasion and using his Overture office to run private enterprises.
When Overture opened, says Russo, the concern was that programming would overlap and stretch the audience too far. So the Union programmers got creative. “We spent a lot of time thinking about how we can add to the cultural pie,” says Russo. “We did a couple of things: We focused on engaging students more, because we knew that this was still a place where we wanted to give them a performing arts experience. We got more of them involved, and that fit really well with me being an educator with that mindset.
“We thought hard and long about what we do well and what we have credibility in, and classical music was that, and then we kind of looked at the edges of the cultural bell curve. We found some good spots: world music, more aggressive contemporary dance, jazz, stuff that’s harder to make money on, but that there’s certainly an audience for in town.”
Flor De Toloache, all-female mariachi band, performing at the 2017 World Music Festival.
Russo says he loves working with students, and is thrilled that more students, and racially diverse student groups, are performing in the union’s smaller theater, the Play Circle (Fredric March’s name was removed from the space in 2018 after controversy about the actor’s early membership in a Klan-related organization). “It’s a lovely space, great for jazz, great for so many things,” says Russo. “It’s intimate, you feel like you’re right there with everybody.”
Outside of the many hours he spends at the Union, Russo is an accomplished photographer, who served as an advisor to the students on the art committee and managed the Union’s art collection and galleries. “I really loved that,” says Russo.
As the Union searches nationally for a suitable replacement, Russo has ideas about the kind of person who could fill his shoes. “It’s not an easy job; it’s a tough job. I tell people you’re given a four-burner stove but you’re making a six-pot meal. You’re always trying to decide which one am I cooking, and how can I maneuver things.”
Russo won’t slow down much in retirement; he will still pursue photography, and wants to take a wheel pottery class. “I was a practiced black-and-white printer; I spent a lot of time in the darkroom,” says Russo of the pre-digital photography era. “For a while I wanted to be Ansel Adams, then I wanted to be an adventure photographer, work for National Geographic, teach people about the world. Photography has been a tool for me to learn about the world. For me, the process is almost as important as the product.”
Friends of Russo take note: He may be available for Terrace dates this summer: “My friends will often call me and say let’s get a beer on the Terrace, and I’m like, ‘I’ve been here all day, guys.’ Now I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, let’s do that.’”
