Biography

Tim Backes is a Milwaukee-area theatre artist with experience in performance, directing, stage management, and graphic design. By day he is an English teacher and the director of the theatre department at South Milwaukee High School, a position he has held since 2018. Since 2020 he has also served as the artistic director for Greendale Community Theatre. 

Backes has been performing in community and professional productions in the Milwaukee area since 2007. In 2015 he joined All In Productions as an artistic associate and gained experience in a variety of roles, including stage management and production management, and helped the company establish its structure and organize as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. He made his directorial debut in 2017 with All In Productions‘ acclaimed production of Next to Normal at Next Act Theatre in Milwaukee. 

In 2023, Backes independently produced the premiere production of his first full-length original play, Embers. In 2024, Kith and Kin Theatre Collective produced a world premiere staged reading of his second play, Caesura. Both plays are slated for Fall 2025 productions; Embers with All In Productions, and Caesura with Kith and Kin (under Backes’s direction). 

Backes is also a web and graphic designer, having done all of the graphic design work for Greendale Community Theatre since 2022 and South Milwaukee High School’s theatre program since 2018.