The Mixed Blood Theatre Company is a professional

multiracial Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

company in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, Minnesota. It was founded in 1976 by artistic director Jack Reuler, to explore race via the use of theater.

History

Jack Reuler founded Mixed Blood in 1976 to explore issues around race within the theater framework. Mixed Blood operates out of an old Cedar-Riverside firehouse. In the 1990s Jack Reuler worked with Syl Jones, playwright who had formerly worked in the corporate setting, to create customized plays and workshops for corporate and governmental clients ranging from Medtronic and Honeywell to the William Mitchell College of Law and the Ramsey County Attorney's Office. Syl Jones would write the play or workshop, merging his corporate experience with his playwriting skills. Jones formerly won accolades for his new works at Mixed Blood (''Cincinnati Man'') and Penumbra (''Shine''), both in 1992. Mixed Blood Theatre was the first company to use the Joe Dowling Studio in the

Guthrie Theater The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions between Sir Tyrone Gut ...

with its play

Yellowman Winston Foster , better known by the stage name Yellowman, is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall deejay, also known as King Yellowman. He first became popular in Jamaica in the 1980s, rising to prominence with a series of singles that established ...

in 2006. In 2021 Jack Reuler's retirement was announced and in 2022 Mark Valdez was announced as the new Artistic Director.

Works

Mixed Blood's plays range from

chamber theatre Chamber theater is a method of adapting literary works to the stage using a maximal amount of the work's original text and often minimal and suggestive settings. In chamber theater, narration is included in the performed text and the narrator migh ...

political satire Political satire is satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where Political discourse analysis, political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing ...

s. The theatre presents over 500 performances annually in the Alan Page Auditorium of its historic firehouse theatre, as well as in schools, churches, community centers, juvenile detention centers, and workplaces. Mixed Blood seeks to "addresses injustices, inequities, and cultural collisions, providing a voice for the unheard—on stage, in the workplace, in the company’s own Cedar Riverside neighborhood and beyond." Mixed Blood is a member of

Theatre Communications Group Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is a non-profit service organization headquartered in New York City that promotes professional non-profit theatre in the United States. The organization also publishes ''American Theatre'' magazine and ''ARTSEA ...

(TCG) and the

National New Play Network The National New Play Network (NNPN) is the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 stat ...

(NNPN).

References

External links

* {{coord, 44, 58, 15.35, N, 93, 14, 57.75, W, region:US, display=title Theatre companies in Minneapolis Arts organizations established in 1976 1976 establishments in Minnesota