- Marie, you have been an actor.

- [Marie] Uh-huh.

- You've also been a director, - Mm-hm.

- a producer, - Mm-hm.

- a playwright.

- Mm-hm.

- Did I leave any of your creative pursuits out?

- No, I think that about covers it.

(bright music) So come on in, Sandy.

- [Sandy] Marie Kohler has loved the arts all her life.

- So this is my eccentric little writing studio.

- [Sandy] Her contributions to the performing arts in and around Milwaukee have been nothing short of substantial and groundbreaking.

In particular, her work to support the role of women in theater has had a tremendous impact.

- This is from Renaissance Theater in gratitude for 25 years of creating roles for women.

- Her work as a playwright has been critically acclaimed and explores themes of love, hope, and truth.

She believes that theater has the power to transform people's lives, because for her, it did.

On this episode of "The Arts Page," we sit down with the actor, producer, director, and playwright Marie Kohler.

(bright music) (soft music) The name Kohler is synonymous with Wisconsin.

Kohler, Wisconsin is home to Kohler Company, a manufacturing company specializing in plumbing products.

Its bath and kitchen products can be found throughout the world.

Marie grew up here in the lavish estate known as Riverbend, built by her grandfather, Walter J. Kohler, Sr. Marie, you have one of the most renowned family names in Wisconsin.

What is it like to grow up in such a prominent family?

- It's unique.

- [Sandy] Marie was the first Kohler to graduate from Kohler High School.

She describes growing up in the town named after her family as a quote, "funny minefield."

- To be so recognized with that name, you can either use that for whatever it's worth, or you can figure that it might alienate people, so you sort of underplay your needs and your expectations.

I took that route.

- [Sandy] Marie credits her mother, Julilly House Kohler, for instilling in her a love of the performing arts.

She would often take Marie and her siblings to see plays in Milwaukee.

- We would drive down to Milwaukee.

She had tickets to the Rep when it was still on Oakland.

She had tickets to Skylight.

So I grew up kind of looking up at the footlights and just gaga over those actors up there, especially the actresses.

It just had so much glamour.

- [Sandy] Her mother was an amateur actress and performed in community theaters in nearby Sheboygan.

- I would go to rehearsals with her in Sheboygan and see what was once the, the company of players did Macbeth, and so I got to watch that in rehearsal.

And I've never, ever forgotten it.

I know it had a deep imprint on me.

- And what was your first foray into the performing arts?

- Oh gosh.

- Did you want to act after you saw "Macbeth," or what was that first- - I don't know what I wanted to do except that I wanted to know more.

- [Sandy] Marie would go on to form the drama club at Kohler High School.

She began acting in local productions.

- My first real role, I believe, was in "Canterbury Tales" in college and I played some very kind of body part.

- It's "Canterbury Tales."

- Yes, it's "Canterbury Tales."

But then my biggest was Desdemona soon after that.

- [Sandy] After her role as Desdemona in William Shakespeare's "Othello," Marie stopped acting to start a family.

However, the call of the stage came beckoning once again, when she saw a production of Caryl Churchill's "Cloud 9" in New York.

- It so spoke to what I was going through at that period of life.

And then I came home and I got a call out of the blue from a woman named Sharon McQueen, who ran a tiny theater called Theatre Tesseract.

She said, "We've just lost our actress in 'Cloud 9.'

Do you want to do the role?"

I said, "I can't do that.

I've got two little girls."

And then I hung up the phone and I thought, "You are absolutely crazy.

Yes, you want to do that.

Yes, yes, yes!"

- [Sandy] Jobs for women in theater at that time were few and far between, so Marie and some of her friends did something about it.

- Four other women and I in the early '90s got together on my kitchen table, at my kitchen table in the other room, and said, "What are we going to do?

There's no work.

There's not enough work for women in this community."

- Those four other women were Susan Fete, Raeleen McMillion, Jennifer Rupp, and Michele Traband, and that company was Renaissance Theaterworks.

Marie would spend the next 20 years of her professional life at Renaissance Theaterworks serving as a producer and resident playwright.

- It was, "Let's find jobs for all these women."

And men.

It wasn't exclusive, but it was in support of women because there was so few, there was nothing in the '90s here for women.

- How do you feel now over 30 years later to see that Renaissance Theaterworks is thriving - It's amazing.

- and a very important part of our theater scene?

- It is.

It's amazing to see what it's grown into, from, you know, a kind of ad hoc group that went from little project to little project to a really established theater company with a fine reputation.

- Sir, it's true.

I come from Scotland, but I'm afraid I cannot help it.

- That, sir, is what I find a great number of your countrymen cannot help.

- [Marie] Recently, Marie has gained acclaim for her theatrical adaptation of the book, "Boswell's London Journal."

Titled "Boswell," the play is about a young girl in the '50s who discovers the journals of 18th century biographer and diarist James Boswell as he and his friend, Samuel Johnson, go on wild adventures.

- I found this book when I was a little girl in my parents' library in Riverbend, the big house I grew up in.

And I opened it up and it said, "And then I went into the courtyard and there was the most luscious looking woman.

And we had a lovely dalliance that lasted for, oh, about an hour and a half, and then we went and had tea and crumpets at the such and such, a tea house."

I'm like, "What?"

At 10, I'm like, "What?

I don't know about this world.

What is this?

What is this?"

And day-to-day, it's very exact.

It's very non-judgmental, except when he goes into his guilt trips.

This is the very book which I pulled off the shelf in my family home.

And God, I could just open it now.

Wouldn't it be something?

- Look at all those notes.

- Here are all my notes.

So this is what I studied when I put together the play of "Boswell."

I even... You see this writing here?

I even went to the Yale Library, Beinecke Rare Books Library in New Haven, Connecticut, and saw the real thing.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

Something in my brain just said that would work on stage.

That would work on stage.

- At Christmas, you do him so winningly, so warmly, that he could not help but be persuaded.

10 years later, he agreed.

Huzzah!

- I started off in 2005 writing a play called "Boswell's Dreams" while I was still at Renaissance.

That was a larger play, nine people, more scenes, more diffuse.

And after I'd left Renaissance, I decided I wanted to do this play in Scotland, because it's about a Scots, a rather well-known Scottish figure, James Boswell.

I produced that in collaboration with University of Wisconsin-Parkside and UNLV, Las Vegas.

So we all took it to the Fringe.

- [Sandy] The Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland is the world's largest performing arts festival.

It takes place over several weeks every August.

- And it was rewritten, condensed, because the Fringe, you have to be out in 65 minutes or less.

So I shrank it down, shrank the cast down, renamed the play, reworked it, and it did really, really well there.

And oddly enough, we ended performing in a space that was right across the way, right across the Royal Way from James Boswell's apartments where many of the scenes in the play took place.

So it was very sweet in that way.

- Serendipitous.

- Serendipitous, yes.

- But Fringe Festival in Edinburgh is massive.

- Oh God, it's huge.

- So for you to have gone there, performed, produced this show at Fringe, you could have gotten lost in the shuffle.

- Could have.

- How did that Fringe experience turn out - Could have.

for "Boswell?"

- Turned out really, really well.

In fact, someone from New York saw it and said, "Bring it to Off-Broadway."

- [Joan] These conversations, this is what people said and did.

- Still do.

- Both men feel so real.

Had it not been for certain forks in my road, certain pilgrimages, I would not be standing here today.

Journeys help us realize who we are.

- That's great.

You want to do it once more?

- [Sandy] Marie has now turned her focus to directing theater, a role she wasn't sure she could do at first.

- I had to grow into it.

I avoided it for many years because I wasn't sure I had the sense of authority that a director needs.

Okay, well then let's plow through.

Because you have to guide this group of people.

It took me a while to sort of grow into it, but now I really love it.

For one thing, it's much more compressed than playwriting.

And this is where I sit and dream on paper.

Which can last from two to four years.

But in directing, you're hired and you've got about a year to figure out what you want to say, to study the script, to work with the producers, and hire all the designers, and then talk with all the designers.

I think that's my favorite part, is collaborating with them on understanding the play and how it will manifest.

So let's set that up once more.

Through lights and set.

And even though I'm not the designer for lights and set, we have to understand the same thing about the play in order to agree on what that quality should be, and then they go and do it.

- Creating that environment, yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I think people think just director and actors, but to think that you're- - Yeah, oh no.

The designers are such a huge part of it, and I love working with designers.

It's just fabulous.

(gentle music) - [Sandy] Having such a diverse and successful career in the arts, we asked Marie what advice she has for those seeking a career in theater.

- Network, meet people.

I think getting together with others to make things, the collaborative form of theater, is so helpful and so important.

If we five women hadn't banded together to create Renaissance, I don't think I would be at the same level of development that I am now without that support system.

Talk to other people.

Make yourself a goal, set a goal for yourself, and have someone else hold you accountable to it.

(dramatic music) (bright music) - [Sandy] Thanks for watching this special feature about actor, producer, director, and playwright Marie Kohler.

If you enjoyed this video, please like, subscribe, and turn on notifications for more stories like this in our community.