Wisconsin Theater Arts
Wisconsin Theater Arts was founded by Peter and Patti Punzi who met acting in a community theater production of To Kill A Mockingbird. They have performed and directed together over 20 years. They decided to start their own nonprofit to share their love of theater with their community in southeast Wisconsin.
Patti is the Artistic Director at Wisconsin Theater Arts. She is a native Wisconsinite and holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts in dance from UW-Stevens Point with a theater specialization. In addition, she holds a Masters in Education degree from Pacific Lutheran University. Patti spent over 30 years performing, teaching, directing, and choreographing for numerous educational institutions from middle school through collegiate levels as well as community and children's theaters. Her theater and dance students have ranged in ages from two to 80+. She was a public school teacher for 10 years teaching speech, drama, language arts, and history. While teaching junior high, she ran school drama program and was responsible for all aspects of production. She has taught, directed, and choreographed in numerous schools, colleges, and theaters in Wisconsin, Washington state, and New York state.
Peter is the Managing Director at Wisconsin Theater Arts. He is a creative professional with experience in many fields including horticulture, ecology/environment, museum studies, and education. He has a personal passion for the performing arts. In addition to performing and directing community theater Peter is also a singer, songwriter, and music producer. He has over twenty-five years of management experience including ten plus years executive nonprofit management and ten years senior management. His talents include creatively applying best practices to an organization and marshalling the resources necessary to maximize its mission impact.
With so many schools defunding the arts programs, students have less chances to explore the world of theater within the public school environment. We strive to fill that void and give as many opportunities as possible for young people to learn the different aspects of theater arts. Not only do we provide performance based classes and workshops, but we also ensure that those who have the desire to learn the technical theater arts have the ability to do so.
We also offer classes and homeschool families that prefer daytime classes. As a homeschooling family ourselves, we understand this need and work towards growing the homeschool theater program.
Adults also have the opportunity to learn and/or hone their theater skills through our various classes and workshops.
As we grow we'll have production-based summer camps for both performers and technical theater as well as mainstage productions that will be family centered, offering audition opportunities for both youth and adults to perform in small and large plays and musicals. Technical theater positions will also be available as well as wonderful opportunities for both youth and adult volunteers to help bring our mainstage productions to life!
We strive to bring theater arts education and performance to the forefront and provide youth (& adults) a creative outlet to learn, gain confidence, and cultivate their passion for the arts.