Interviewing the director of any organization, arts or otherwise, often requires a good deal of mental fortitude—not least because of the selfmarketing minutiae one has to endure. Not so with David Gordon.

He is an actor, a published writer, a playwright and a native of Long Island, N.Y., who makes his home in Spring Green, Wis. He is Jim DeVita. And this artist-for-all-seasons will be appearing in the Rep’s production of David Mamet’s Glengarry...

Change and loss are such defining parts of the human condition that it’s impossible to imagine art without them. Dani Kuepper, fresh in her role as artistic director at Danceworks, can surely attest to this.

Change and loss are such defining parts of the human condition that it’s impossible to imagine art without them. Dani Kuepper, fresh in her role as artistic director at Danceworks, can surely attest to this.

Reginald Baylor has one finished painting and two still in progress hanging on the white brick walls of his basement studio.

Russian Wulfgar, Vegalum, Niacin, Banshee, Socky and Donnybrook: Though they sound like characters from a science-fiction novel, they’re actually a group of Milwaukeeans who are giving new meaning to the expression “playing with fire.”

UW-Milwaukee photography student Jeremy Novy, 28, believes in the power of art— specifically, street art. Novy has completed more than 50 public or street art projects throughout the city.

The owners of El Rey grocery stores faced an unintended competitor when they constructed a massive $5.5 million store at 916 S. Cesar Chavez Drive: themselves. They had planned on closing their cramped old location down the street once the new one, the largest Hispanic supermarket in the city, opened this spring, but business has been so strong at both storefronts that it now looks like they’ll coexist.

Bobby Tanzilo is a familiar name around town. He’s been a sportswriter, music critic, online editor and alternative rock musician. Tanzilo has also become a prominent local advocate of Italian culture and history, authoring scholarly articles and books, organizing exhibitions at places as varied as the County Historical Society and Bacchus, and helping run the Italian Film Festival (March 7-9 at the UW-Milwaukee Union Theatre).

Louise Lambrecht is rife with character—and characters. As a mother, grandmother and wife of 35 years, she exudes plenty of character in her personal life. And as an author, she creates characters that readers yearn to care for and love as their own. Writing under the pen name of L.M. Favier, this Milwaukeean’s first published book, A Sackful of Quarters (Xlibris Press), is an eclectic walk in a delightful field of complex short stories on love, parenting, anorexia, loyalty, womanhood and physical abuse.