Chad Bauman

Executive Director

Now in his eleventh season at Milwaukee Rep, under Chad’s guidance the theater has grown significantly from a $9M to $14M organization. He’s completed two capital campaigns, one to remodel and expand the Stackner Cabaret and the other to build the endowment, launch the John (Jack) D. Lewis New Play Development Program, create a new A Christmas Carol and deepen the theater’s community engagement programs. Through his efforts, the theater has been awarded UPAF’s Good Steward Award six times and became the only performing arts organization in Wisconsin with a 4 star rating from Charity Navigator. Before moving to Milwaukee, he was the Associate Executive Director at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, where he was instrumental in opening the Mead Center for American Theater, a 200,000 square feet, three theater performing arts complex dedicated to American voices and playwrights. While at Arena Stage, he worked on the Broadway transfers of Next to Normal (Pulitzer Prize; Tony Award), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Tony Award), Wishful Drinking starring Carrie Fisher, Looped starring Valerie Harper and John Grisham’s A Time to Kill in addition to the world premieres of Marcus Gardley’s Every Tongue Confess starring Phylicia Rashad and Red Hot Patriot starring Kathleen Turner. He has been named to Milwaukee Business Journal’s Top 40 under 40 and a “Friend of the Hispanic Community” by the United Community Center. He currently serves as the President of the Milwaukee Arts Partners, Vice President of the Board of Pathways High School, Treasurer of Imagine MKE and Coordinator for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion for AFS Student Exchange Programs. Bauman is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management program and has a Master of Fine Arts in producing from the CalArts. He and his husband Justin live in Whitefish Bay and have been host parents to AFS Exchange Students from Norway, Germany, Denmark and Poland.