Designer Rick Graham created the look of dozens of Milwaukee stage productions
Jim Higgins
Milwaukee audiences didn't see Rick Graham on stage, but for more than 40 years here, he affected what they saw.
Graham created scenic or lighting designs for dozens and dozens of local productions, including Milwaukee Ballet's "Peter Pan," Next Act Theatre's "I and You," Renaissance Theaterworks "The Road to Mecca" and Theatre Gigante's "Three Other Sisters."
And, from 1978 until his retirement in 2016, Graham was a lecturer, assistant professor and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, training and encouraging generations of students in technical theater.
Graham died May 25 in Glendale from complications of a long illness, according to his wife, Melanie. He was 73.
Born in North Carolina, he first studied architecture before transferring to the North Carolina School for the Performing Arts, where he earned his bachelor of fine arts degree. Graham moved to Milwaukee in 1973 to design for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
Graham created scenic or lighting designs for nearly every company in town, including some 36 Milwaukee Ballet productions. A longtime collaborator of Theatre X, he was made a company member in 2001. Graham also was resident designer for Theatre Gigante.
"He served the play," said actor-playwright John Kishline, who collaborated with Graham for decades at Theatre X and elsewhere. "He just wanted to make it better, in whatever way he could."
Praising both Graham's intellect and his temperament, Kishline said, "I don't believe I ever had an argument with Rick about anything that mattered." They last worked together in 2018 on "Against the Grain" at Danceworks Studio Theatre. But, Kishline said, "it was hardly work."
"In our work together, his guiding principle was to incorporate what was essential, informative and beautiful into the scenic and lighting designs, with a strong intention to support and facilitate — never standing apart from the storytelling," Next Act producing artistic director David A. Cecsarini wrote in an email.
"Two of the most thrilling designs he created for Next Act had one remarkable feature in common: a tree," Cecsarini wrote. "For 'Faith Healer,' there was a tall, leafless and eerily-looming tree lurking in the background, as if listening and wondering about the story unfolding. In the California near-desert setting of 'Last of the Boys,' a more scrubby, scrappy deciduous remnant was seen silently clinging to life, while 'the boys' wrestled with their past lives in Vietnam.
"Rick was a talented scenic painter and was wonderfully inventive with techniques to alter surfaces. With a large, sloppy brush, a pail of goop, box of sawdust and some dry grass, he transformed the Next Act (carpeted) stage to a packed earth desert floor — two square feet at a time."
"He created a wonderful, imaginative Neverland for 'Peter Pan' and a truly Bohemian world for 'La Bohème,'" said Milwaukee Ballet artistic director Michael Pink in an email. "I will miss his authenticity and integrity."
Graham's work was included in the Milwaukee Art Museum exhibit "Contemporary American Scene Designers" in 1987. He also designed MAM's 1998 exhibit "1888: Frederick Layton and His World."
In addition to Melanie, survivors include his sons Aleksandr and Dylan, his brother Stephen and his sister Karen.
His family suggests memorial contributions to Doctors Without Borders, Milwaukee Ballet or an arts group of your choice.
Contact Jim Higgins at jim.higgins@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jhiggy.
More:Milwaukee Opera Theatre turns canceled 'Doc Danger' into musical radio play
More:Audio producer is Milwaukee Symphony's lifeline to audiences during coronavirus pandemic