The 18 faces of Norman Moses

Norman Moses is one of the elite—a professional actor in Milwaukee. Among the first graduates of the UW-Milwaukee Professional Theatre Training Program, Moses has performed at every union theater in town over the past 30 years. He’s remembered most by local theater followers for his musical comedy roles—Groucho Marx in Skylight Opera Theatre’s Animal Crackers and Horton the Elephant in First Stage’s Seussical, to name a few—he also recently played a supporting part in Milwaukee's biggest offstage drama this summer with his very public resignation from the Skylight during that company’s public meltdown.

The ever-versatile Moses currently plays 18 different characters in an adaptation of Jules Verne's Around the World In 80 Days that runs through August 30 at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. He took time before a recent matinee to talk to The A.V. Club about the show, making it as a professional actor, and “the Skylight situation."

The A.V. Club: Is 18 the most roles you've ever played in one show?

Norman Moses: I think so—but with the economy the way has been, a lot of companies are doing very small cast shows. This is a huge cast. [Laughs.] This show has five actors, and the only one playing one part is the guy playing Phileas Fogg.

AVC: Do you try to develop a full characterization for each person?

N.M.:  [Laughs.] Well, the show is—I wouldn't call it a cartoon, but it’s in very broad strokes.

AVC: How have you been able to make a living in the performing arts in Milwaukee?

NM: I wouldn't say I've made a living. I've had several side jobs, and I do commercials.  When we graduated from the UWM graduate acting program, all these companies began to spring up. And a lot of really well-trained people stayed here and kind of raised the bar in town. We have some of the best theater in the country. It's a well-kept secret. We get paid so little in this business—this whole Skylight thing has made me realize how undervalued we are. People think we're replaceable, which in some sense we are.

AVC: Now that the Skylight storm has passed, you're back.

NM: Somebody should write a book about it. What has come out of all this is that the artists, the patrons, and donors have come together and are talking about these issues. The biggest thing we've learned is that these boards of directors have absolutely no idea what we do. So now we're educating the board. We realize the need for the people on the board to be passionate about it, and we're being educated too. When we had the first big meeting in the park, Terry Kurtenbach, the interim chairman, said "I've been on the board six years, and I don't know any of the actors." It's kind of crazy. The reporter from the New York Times came out here, and we asked him, "Why are you covering this?" And he said because people don't do this. Actors and audiences don't come out in support of people. So it's a unique thing, and we're trying to be a model for people.

AVC: So is the moral that art is not just a business?

NM: I think so. The five people who made this decision had the best interests of the Skylight in mind. The problem was, they were looking at this from a corporate model. So it’s our job to make them understand that we're more like a church. We don't make widgets; we don't produce anything but an experience. At the end of the day. we're not for profit. We, the actors want to be a voice. We've got some big ideas.

AVC: Do you feel like you’ve developed a relationship with your audience over the years?

NM: Absolutely, yeah, All of my fans are over 80. [Laughs.]