Mikael Burke invites younger audiences to explore empathy through imagination. Photo courtesy of David Hagen for The Story Theatre.
JACK WILLIAMS | CULTURE CO-EDITOR | jrwilliams@butler.edu
Members of the Butler community are achieving extraordinary things, both on and off campus. From first-years to alumni to administrators and back, each Bulldog has a story to tell. Read on to discover the next of our Bulldogs of Butler through a Q&A style interview.
It only takes a few minutes of talking with Butler alumni Mikael Burke to see the sense of purpose and passion that drives his productions. His approach to theater could resonate with a seasoned director as easily as it does with a couple of college students staging their first production in a friend’s apartment.
Known for his ability to blend powerful storytelling with moving social themes, Burke has directed productions including “Short Shakes! Romeo & Juliet” at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and “The Salvagers” at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Now, Burke brings his creative vision to the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) in Minneapolis with his new project, “Milo Imagines the World”, a heartfelt story about imagination and understanding based on the acclaimed book by Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson. Burke shared what Milo has to offer the audience as well as how his experience at Butler influenced the trajectory of his career.
THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN: Before we dive into your experience as a director, could you describe the plot of “Milo Imagines the World”?
MIKAEL BURKE: This story follows Milo and his sister on a journey through the New York subway system to visit their mother, who is incarcerated. Milo people-watches [on the subway]. He thinks he knows what’s going on in a person’s life based on one glance at their external qualities. He assumes each person must be [a certain way]. We dive into his imagination and experience what he thinks that person’s life might be. Each of those worlds we visit are manifested in different ways [through] musical stylings. One of them is a country-western line dance number, while another is Hamilton-inspired.
TBC: It sounds like this is a story about empathy. How might that speak to our current cultural and political moment, especially considering your audience is younger?
MB: The theater is a gym for empathy. We can practice working that muscle [by] taking a walk in someone else’s shoes. In the beginning, we’re with Milo. We’re right on his little shoulders, and we’re having just as much fun as he is, making an assumption about that person and imagining what their life could be. And then, in one [imagined story], a character enters with a really harsh judgment. Milo thinks, “Wait a minute, what’s going on? Why am I thinking about things like that?” He wonders, “What do people think about when they look at me? Do they only see the outside?”
Toward the end, we meet Milo’s mom for the first time and see her come out in her orange jumpsuit. The hope and dream is that these young people who may have seen someone in an orange jumpsuit and assumed they’re a bad person might take an extra moment to go, “Actually, I don’t know that person yet. Let me see who they are first.” We’re teaching them that when you encounter someone who moves through the world in a different way than you do, [you should] reach for an embrace rather than push away. Hopefully, the world will be a little bit more loving on the other side of that.
TBC: As a director, how do you juggle collaborating with people from so many different areas of art?
MB: “Milo Imagines the World” is a co-commission between the Rose Theater in Nebraska, the Chicago Children’s Theater in Chicago, and the Children’s Theater Company (CTC) here in Minneapolis. It’s a big musical about the power of imagination, so there’s a lot of elements at play. We’ve got a scenic designer, lighting designer, costume designer, sound designer, props designer, wigs and hair and makeup in addition to the [original author of the book] and the musician, composer and lyricist.
[What] makes it all work is continuing to keep [the] focus on [what helps] keep the story clear. If [an idea] seems really exciting, but it’s hard for us to articulate why it relates to the story, then that’s still a fun idea — it’s just not useful.
TBC: How did your experience at Butler influence your career trajectory?
MB: I was a Butler theater major. I started out in undergrad thinking I was going to be an actor but found myself interested in directing. By the time I had graduated, I had directed six different pieces. Butler is the place that taught me the true limit of theater is your imagination. You have to dare to dream and then be scrappy and figure it out.
That sensibility has served me immensely in my career, particularly in my first few years out of undergrad working with companies like No Exit and React in Indianapolis. I did a little bit of everything, so when I got out of school, I had a really wide tool kit that I could utilize in different capacities. My work at Butler became my first foot in the door. It was the seeds that became the small company that my friends and I started that eventually folded into No Exit.
TBC: Who were some of your mentors along the way, and what did they teach you?
MB: I have so many. Wendy Meaden gave me one of my favorite phrases: If you can’t fix it, feature it. It taught me to embrace making mistakes and lean in. That’s a really big thing as a director. Anna Shapiro told me that you’ve got to get comfortable watching it wrong as a director. I can’t force the thing to look the way I want it to look or be how I want it to be immediately. Otherwise, no one else gets a chance to grow and learn and get better. Diane Timmerman is a huge mentor of mine; we looked up to her as a superhero of a human who was able to do so many things while still being cool, calm and collected. Justin Wade, artistic director of React, taught me to be confident in my artistry and go after what I want. He and Diane made me believe I could make a career as a director anywhere I wanted to go.
TBC: What is your advice to students hoping to get involved in the Indy theater scene?
MB: If you’re waiting for permission, permission will never come. You’ve got to go out and start making the thing in whatever way you can. Get a bunch of your friends together, find a space or an apartment, and put up a reading, put up a play, invite people to it. They might not come. They might not even respond to your invite. But [if you] do the work, eventually people will start to pay attention.
In the meantime, connect with as many people as you can and go see as many things as you can. Say hello to people at the parties or events around the theater; volunteer as a stagehand. Meet the folks at the places you want to work at, and never forget to remind them that you’re a director or an actor. [Tell them,] “Come see me in this thing that I’m working on, while I’m also being a really good stagehand for you.” If you build it, they will come. But if you wait to be told that you can build it, it’ll never get built in the first place.
“Milo Imagines the World” will run from Feb. 4 to March 9, 2025 on the UnitedHealth Group Stage. The opening night is Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025 at 7 p.m.