A message from Scott Rackham, Executive Director of MPTV Friends and Ellis Bromberg, General Manager of Milwaukee Public Television

Mutual Friends - MPTV and UPAF

For more than 25 years, Milwaukee Public Television has been collaborating with UPAF supported organizations to transform your living room into a theater - if only for one night.  Quite recently, you may have experienced the Milwaukee Ballet's Romeo & Juliet on MPTV - born from a partnership that first began with productions in 1978.  Our inaugural Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra production, Stravinsky Celebration, aired June 20th, 1982.  Its success initiated a long-lasting tradition of performances on MPTV including Mahler's Second Symphony which premiered on MPTV in March.  Without ever leaving your chair, you've seen Japanese Kabuki theatre through the Skylight Opera Theatre's Mikado, and tapped along to the rhythm of African and Caribbean music with Ko-Thi Dance Company's Dancing Against the Odds.  Whether past, present, or future, the goal of these partnerships remains unchanged: we strive to inspire, enlighten, and entertain you - our viewers. 

Beyond these and other programs, Milwaukee Public Television is proud to support and participate in UPAF community initiatives.  In 2008, we mark our second year as media partner for the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts.  Since its inception in 1981, the ride has totaled 230,000 participants and generated more than $6 million for the United Performing Arts Fund.  We invite you to join the MPTV Team for this year's ride on Sunday, June 1, and help keep our performing arts scene as dynamic as ever. 

Thank you to the members of the MPTV Friends for helping to make these opportunities and partnerships possible.  We hope that you enjoy our programming this month and look forward to seeing you this summer.

Scott and Ellis