MPT co-founder Barbara Leigh continues her creative work as an independent artist, exploring contemporary issues in collaborative endeavors and offering workshops, performances and other arts-related services.
Confusadora Spufatina Barbara participates in Woodland Pattern’s annual Poetry Marathon (sometimes via Zoom) as a new humorous character. She is active in the Wednesday Writers group.
Bee the Change: The Pollinator Project Barbara worked with Quasimondo Physical Theatre, Charlie Koenen, Arts@Large, Sierra Club and Unitarian Church Earth Justice Ministry to create a new show for Milwaukee County schools and parks, educating about endangered pollinators. The project includes workshops and a resource guide (available here soon).
As an independent artist, Barbara continues to offer her professional expertise, enthusiasm and sense of whimsy in the following areas:
Theatre/creativity workshops empowering people of all ages and abilities.
Performances of “Humor and Healing” and “The Art of Healing from A Patient’s Point of View”.
Grantwriting, specializing in forging partnerships and collaborations which yield results.
Artistic and administrative consulting for individuals and organizations, particularly for start-ups. Ask for details on any of these projects.
biography
Barbara Leigh is an originating artist and co-founder of Milwaukee Public Theatre.
She worked on her Ph.D. in French Theatre from the University of Wisconsin-Madison by studying in London and Paris, and at the schools of Marcel Marceau and Etienne Decroux.
Returning to the U.S., she became the Associate Director of the Wisconsin Mime Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin. She founded the London Theatre Workshop, Ltd in 1971.
In 1974 she and Mike Moynihan co-founded Friends Mime Theatre, re-named Milwaukee Public Theatre in 1991. This professional outreach theatre provided free or low cost original theatreworks and arts workshops that focused on giving voice to people of all ages, cultures and abilities.
Dr. Leigh worked as an artist in education throughout Wisconsin since 1975 and developed hundreds of workshops and collaborative performances and keynotes for diverse clients. She co-produced Cultivating Community through Public Art projects, among them several years of the All-City People’s Parade, whose goals were to bring people together across barriers of race, class, culture, age and ability. Professional artists and community members created theme parades, building and celebrating through giant puppets, floats, masked creations, music and dance.
After suffering partial paraplegia in a serious accident in 1987, she became active on issues dealing with healing, disability and diversity, notably in The Survival Revival Revue, a one-woman musical comedy.
As MPT’s Development Director since 1991, she expanded the company’s healing arts programming and community partnerships.
As Artistic/Producing Director of MPT, Dr. Leigh co-created or produced over 100 original theatre and video plays and revues. She presented workshops and talks on acting, ensemble creation, diversity, healing and disability issues throughout the country and in Canada. She also appeared in a variety of television commercials and educational and corporate video productions.
Dr. Leigh's work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wisconsin Arts Board, Milwaukee County, City of Milwaukee, and numerous foundations, corporations and individuals. Awards include the GE Angel Award, the Milwaukee Sentinel/PAC Hall of Fame Award, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Community Leadership Award, a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and others. She was named “Artist of the Year” by the City of Milwaukee in 2014.