Ryan Michael Wisniewski
Renken honors the past but is not stuck in it.
“It’s a very Broom Street show.”
I kept hearing that phrase when I first moved to Madison last summer, but I didn’t understand what it meant until I saw my first show in the tiny former garage off Willy Street. Broom Street Theater is different.
Since 1969, artists at Broom Street have been creating avant-garde, original work on a tight, almost nonexistent, budget. Although in 1977 the theater moved from its original home on Broom Street to its current space at 1119 Williamson St., it has not strayed from its original mission. Keeping the unorthodox spirit alive is, in part, the role of artistic director Heather Renken, a steady presence at the helm, who is marking her fifth year in the position.
Renken, a Butler University graduate with a degree in theater, says her responsibility is to work for the people who make up the Broom Street community. “I’m representing a large group of artists,” Renken explains as we chat over coffee. “I don’t exist without them.”
Broom Street has had just a handful of leaders in its 46-year history. Prior to Renken, only four other individuals served as artistic director. One man in particular, the iconoclast Joel Gersmann, ran the theater for 35 years before his death in 2005.
Following in the footsteps of her predecessors as well as countless performers, directors and playwrights leads Renken to a simple question: “How do I honor our past?”
One tenet from Broom Street’s past is freedom of speech. In fact, the theater was founded after the attempted censorship of founder Stuart Gordon’s campus performance of Peter Pan, which involved nudity and anti-war messages. Since its inception, the theater has always championed the free speech of artists who want to experiment and push the envelope.
But Renken also believes that the understanding of what it means to be experimental continues to change. “It’s not really experimental if we’re always doing things the same way,” Renken says. “[We] redefine how we think about the art form.”
Renken likens some of the pieces performed at Broom Sreet to dance; they focus less on story and more on how they make the audience, performers and playwrights feel. She says audiences might not understand every concept in a show or experience a squeaky clean ending, but she hopes they leave with a greater understanding of some facet of life.
The latest production at Broom Street, Bite the Apple by Malissa Petterson, tackles timely social issues of identity and gender. Others, such as Dan Myers’ Finding Human, which was staged in January, deal with abuse and humanizing the incarcerated. Broom Street and its mostly local playwrights are not afraid to tackle subjects that make audiences uncomfortable. They confront issues instead of tiptoeing around them.
Renken, a native Chicagoan, moved to Madison in 2000 when her husband, John, was offered a job. Since then, she has balanced parenting two sons (Michael and Ben) and acting and directing with numerous area companies, including Madison Theatre Guild, StageQ, CTM and The Penguin Project. Renken is also an artistic associate for Encore Studio for the Performing Arts, which works with people with disabilities, and is a founding member of the Kathy Rasmussen Women’s Theatre.
Renken’s close relationships with other companies are another trademark of her leadership style. She points out that local groups collaborate to make shows happen. For instance, companies lend props and furniture pieces, or promote one another’s productions, often in exchange for ads in programs. This communal spirit makes “people feel welcomed and comfortable,” says Renken.
In the end, Renken wants simply “[to] give the work the respect it deserves,” whether that means workshopping the plays, advising playwrights on revisions, brainstorming production ideas or managing publicity.
The productions aren’t always rock solid, and some succeed more than others. But to Renken, all of Broom Street’s show are “valid.” The rebel spirit that launched the company in 1969 continues to inform the Broom Street of today.
“The Broom Street Theater that you knew has evolved,” says Renken. “Broom Street has always evolved.”
