Chamber co-founder Davis left his mark on local theater

Although Montgomery Davis relinquished his leadership of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre two years ago, his death in his sleep last Sunday at the age of 67 leaves a sad void in the state's professional theater community. Davis was the godfather of local theater, in the best sense of that term.

An actor and director, he founded the Chamber Theatre with his close friend and professional colleague Ruth Schudson 32 years ago to give Equity (union) actors another place to work in Milwaukee. At that time, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and the now-defunct Melody Top summer stock theater were the only companies in town that hired Equity performers.

When he and Schudson rented Vogel Hall at the Marcus Center to mount "Don Juan in Hell" on Father's Day 1975, they began the expansion of professional theater in Milwaukee that greatly accelerated in the 1980s and '90s. More jobs for seasoned actors meant more seasoned actors living in Milwaukee, and that was an important factor in the proliferation of other professional companies. Davis began the process that in the following decades reached theatrical critical mass.

Renaissance Theaterworks, In Tandem Theatre Company, Milwaukee Shakespeare, Cornerstone Theatre, First Stage Children's Theatre, Boulevard Ensemble, Windfall Theatre, Bunny Gumbo Theatre Company, Clavis Theatre (closed), Bialystock & Bloom (closed), American Inside Theatre (closed), Northern Stage Company (closed) and Great American Children's Theatre, (closed) followed. Two more companies founded after the Chamber's birth, Theatre Tesseract and Next Generation Theater, merged to become Next Act Theatre. Davis directed Great American Children's Theatre's first production and continued staging shows for the company for eight seasons.

Actor James Tasse worked closely with Davis in the Chamber offices as well as on stage, and he described his former boss last week as a "joyous gardener who planted many seeds, prayed for sun, stepped back and watched."

"I consider Monty Davis a pioneer," added C. Michael Wright, Davis' successor at the Chamber. Wright noted that the U.S. regional theater movement was only beginning to blossom when Davis and Schudson took the leap of faith to start their company.

It's not unusual for arts organizations to reflect the preferences and personalities of their founders, and the Chamber personified Davis. A Princeton University graduate who studied voice in London, he strongly favored literary theater and was among Milwaukee's leading Anglophiles. British playwrights and plays had a home at the Chamber Theatre, and Milwaukee theater-goers became experts in the work of George Bernard Shaw, one of Davis' favorites.

For 20 years, Davis and the Chamber Theatre produced an annual Shaw Festival, staging the dramatist's famous and obscure works. The festival even presented an American premiere of a Shaw play.

"Monty was an extremely sophisticated man, very direct and very, very smart," said Rhoda Nathan, the New York based president of the Bernard Shaw Society. A retired professor of English at Hofstra University, she traveled to Milwaukee to see Shaw Festival productions.

"He staged Shaw with élan and panache, and Monty was daring. Very few people in New York would dare to do 'Back to Methuselah,' but Monty did."

Davis reviewed a new biography of Shaw for the Independent Shavian, a Shaw Society journal. It will be published in the next issue, Nathan said.

Michael Stebbins, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's moribund Professional Theatre Training Program, said Davis was an inspiration for young stage artists beginning their careers and a role model for working in regional theater.

"Monty did it all out of pure love of the craft," Stebbins said. "He was such a well-rounded theater artist because he did it all."

Stebbins went on to say that he originally thought he wanted to be an actor only, but Davis' example opened his eyes to the importance of developing directing and producing skills. Today he is the producing artistic director of Rep Stage in Columbia, Md. Before Davis' death, Stebbins had cast his role model in a production of Shaw's "Mrs. Warren's Profession," which is scheduled for early next year.

Offstage and out of the spotlight, Davis was a bit of a character. In recalling him last week, Nagle Jackson, the artistic director of the Milwaukee Rep for much of the 1970s, noted how buoyant and gentlemanly he was. Davis moved here from New York in 1973 when Jackson offered him a spot in the Rep's acting company.

"I never heard Monty say a bad thing about anybody," Jackson said. "The worst thing he would do was lift his eyebrows if he didn't like someone."

Those of us who knew Monty can picture those arched brows.

A memorial for Davis will be held at 6 p.m. June 4 in the Cabot Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. Online thoughts and memorials can be sent to