"Animate" by Mixed Blood Theatre at the Como Zoo

photo by Rich Ryan

Earlier this year, Jack Reuler announced his retirement as Artistic Director of Mixed Blood Theatre, a company he founded in 1976. Mixed Blood has truly become a model of inclusivity, diversity, and accessibility in theater, amplifying often unheard voices on stage and off, and making sure everyone is able to be in the audience with its Radical Hospitality program. But before he retires, Jack is directing another incredible site-specific piece. The new play Animate, written by Ken LaZebnik, is an immersive ambulatory play at the Como Zoo that is, of course, about a zoo. Specifically about the ethics of zoos, accepting donations from wealthy people of questionable character, and "does the good of the many supersede the good of the individual," human or animal. It's an impressive logistical feat, features a ton of #TCTheater talent, and asks some big questions without providing easy answers. In fact, the audience is asked to provide their own answers to the big questions of the show. Unfortunately, the entire (free) run is sold out, but stay tuned in case more dates are added (click here for details).

"Autonomy" by Mixed Blood Theatre at the St. Paul RiverCentre

Mixed Blood Theatre's latest project is wildly ambitious, and they accomplish it quite brilliantly. Reminiscent of Safe at Home, a walking play staged in nine locations at CHS Field with precise timing, Autonomy is a driving play staged at nine locations within the exhibit hall at St. Paul RiverCentre. It's a play about climate change, immigration, and autonomous vehicles (aka self-driving cars). A great guideline for making theater is "content dictates form," so when the content is about cars, why not surround the audience with classic cars and have them drive around in golf carts? A little on-the-nose, but it's quite effective. It's really too bad they're only running it for one weekend. There are four more groups of performances but only extremely limited tickets remain. Autonomy is a forward-thinking experiment in theater like you've never seen before.

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" at Mixed Blood Theatre

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time racked up awards in both London and NYC, including winning the Tony Award for best play in 2015. Just last year the Broadway tour stopped in Minneapolis, which I saw and was impressed by the clever and inventive storytelling. Now available for regional productions, Mixed Blood Theatre is bringing us their take on the play. The West End/Broadway production was very tech-heavy, and I was curious what this story with a smaller-scale production and in a smaller house would look like. It turns out I like it even better, but I generally always like smaller cast, smaller scale, smaller house versions of plays and musicals which make the story feel more intimate and real. In this case, the 15-person Broadway cast has been reduced to just 9, with very smart casting and direction by Mixed Blood's Artistic Director Jack Reuler. There are still some pretty impressive tech effects, but also some great low-tech effects that all serve this story of a 15-year-old boy with an unspecified autism-like condition who goes on an epic journey in search of the truth. And it still has a real live puppy and real live maths!

"Safe at Home" by Mixed Blood Theatre at CHS Field

NFL player Colin Kaepernick started a controversy when he chose not to stand during the National Anthem at a football game last year, saying "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color." Imagine if a star starting pitcher chose to take the mound in Game 7 of the World Series and not throw a pitch to draw attention to the issue of immigration reform. Professional athletes are idolized in this country, and their words and actions speak loudly. Should they then use the opportunity to speak out on issues that matter to them, or simply play the game they're paid to play? Such is the subject of Mixed Blood Theatre's immersive, site-specific, ambulatory play Safe at Home. In nine short scenes, this story of a baseball player using his celebrity to make a statement is told in various locations in and around CHS Field, the beautiful new ballpark of the St. Paul Saints. It's an incredible one-of-a-kind theatrical experience, and I'd love to see this world premiere play created by Gabriel Greene and Alex Levy and directed by Jack Reuler performed at ballparks around the country. But in the meantime, head to St. Paul's Lowertown neighborhood to experience this engaging mix of baseball, politics, and theater.

"Orange" at Mixed Blood Theatre

Being 17 is hard enough, but for a young woman on the Autism spectrum raised in India and returning to the strange land of her birth - Orange County, California - it's even more challenging. Mixed Blood Theatre's Playwright in Residence Aditi Brennan Kapil premieres her 7th new work there, the funny, poignant, imaginative story of the unusual but perfect Leela in Orange. In just 90 minutes with no intermission (a morning person's dream), the excellent three-person cast takes us on Leela's one-night adventure and, aided by a really cool set, makes us feel like we're right there with her as she begins to grow up and gain her independence.

"In the Time of the Butterflies / En el Tiempo de las Mariposas" at Mixed Blood Theatre

Mixed Blood Theatre often has surtitles during their plays, I assume to make them more accessible to the hearing impaired. But in the case of their new play In the Time of the Butterflies, the surtitles are needed to translate from spoken Spanish to English and from spoken English to Spanish. I don't speak a word of Spanish, but like in foreign films, you soon get used to reading the words while simultaneously getting the emotional content from the actors' performances. And there is much emotional content in this play. It's based on the historical novel of the same name, a fictionalized account of the Mirabel sisters. The four sisters were political dissidents in the Dominican Republic who worked to overthrow the dictator Trujillo, aka El Jefe, who is believed to have ordered the deaths of 50,000 people during his thirty-year reign. Three of the sisters were among those numbers. The one surviving sister, Dede, tells their story and keeps their memory alive.

In the Time of the Butterflies is constructed in the framework of memory. Dede is telling her story to a Dominican-American writer who is writing it down to tell the world. It's a painful story, but a pleasant one too as Dede remembers the happy times with her sisters in their family's garden. The story is told partly through Dede's reminiscing, and partly through scenes of the sisters interacting with each other and reading diary entries. It starts when they are young girls with hopes and dreams, and continues as they see those dreams thwarted by El Jefe. He invites the sisters to a party, and when Minverva rejects his advances, he puts their father in jail and they are forever on his "naughty list." As the years advance, the sisters, especially Minerva who studies to be a lawyer but is prevented from practicing, become more and more involved in trying to end Trujillo's dictatorial reign. Youngest sister Maria Teresa joins her, and eventually so does Patria. Dede reluctantly gives the group a place to meet, but is concerned for her family's safety. And rightly so - Minerva and Maria Teresa are jailed and tortured. They are eventually released, but their story, along with Patria's, comes to a tragic end. Dede is left to deal with her feelings and represent the heroism of her sisters to the world.

the Mirabel sisters

This bilingual cast of seven is equally great and expressive in English and Spanish, flowing back and forth between the two languages smoothly. As the only man in the cast, Raul Ramos is downright creepy as the evil dictator, and also plays several other roles. Maria Gonzalez as the one surviving sister is elegant and proud, mournful and hopeful. Hope Cervantes is the attentive and curious modern American writer, who has her own story about coming home to the land of her ancestors. The four sisters are wonderfully played by Maggie Bofill, Claudia de Vasco, Adlyn Carreras, and Thallis Santesteban, with a genuine feeling of camaraderie and occasional tension between them. They also look beautiful, thanks in part to the parade of dresses they're put in by costumer Jeffrey Bleam. From the innocent white dresses of the opening scene, to the flowery dresses in the garden, and everything in between, they manage to look classic and period-appropriate yet fresh and modern.

This play is the second in a year of plays written by women produced by Mixed Blood* (written by Caridad Svich based on the novel by Julia Alverez). The first was the hilariously biting comedy Elemeno Pea by Molly Smith Metzler, and the remaining are TBA. I think this is a fantastically bold choice by Mixed Blood, but not surprising considering their commitment to diversity of all kinds, which is not just words but can be seen in every play they produce. As Artistic Director Jack Reuler notes in the playbill, "In our so-called liberal entertainment industry, the gender balance of writers, directors, and producers remains profoundly imbalanced. We are proud to walk our talk, practice what we preach, and live our mission in this arena." Right on. I'll be watching.




*My one complaint about Mixed Blood Theatre, which I admire more and more the more I see of their work, is that they consistently do not put artist bios in their playbills. As someone who likes to make connections between the many shows I see, I find this disappointing. But it's a very minor quibble for a theater that does such amazing and diverse work.

"Avenue Q" at Mixed Blood Theatre

The Tony award-winning musical Avenue Q is Sesame Street for adults.  Particularly young adults in their early 20s who are transitioning to adulthood and realizing that Sesame Street didn't tell the whole story.  The happy sing-song-y score sounds like something you would hear on a kids' show, but with songs like "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist," "Schadenfreude," "It Sucks to Be Me," "If You Were Gay," and "The Internet is For Porn," you know you're not in kids territory anymore!  The show is delightfully irreverent and non-PC; pretty much every ethnicity and social group gets skewered.  But in the end it's a hopeful story about friendship and enjoying what you have in life when you have it, because "everything in life is only for now."  I've seen the show on Broadway and on tour, and Mixed Blood's production (directed by Artistic Director Jack Reuler) is just as wonderful and inventive.

Like Sesame Street, many of the characters in Avenue Q are puppets.  Mostly human puppets but a few monsters as well (aka people of fur).  But unlike Sesame Street, the actors portraying the puppets are completely visible.  The puppets were designed to look like their human counterparts and they wear identical clothing, so it's almost like you're seeing double.  This amazing cast does a fantastic job of matching their human emotions and movements to their puppet's emotions and movements.  The human emoting complements the puppet's movements so the puppet actually looks sad or confused or upset.

The show is perfectly cast, not a weak link among them.  In the Broadway/touring version several of the actors do double duty as more than one character.  There's less of that here; instead, several of the actors join the band (led by Jason Hansen) when they're not onstage.  In fact, there's only one member of the band who doesn't also play a character onstage.  The most ingenious example of this is Eric Mayson, who plays Trekkie Monster and also plays bass in the band.  He's dressed in black with a full-sized monster puppet strapped to his back.  He walks around backwards onstage, and then goes back to the band with Trekkie still on his back while he plays the guitar.  There is one instance of an actor playing dual roles; like in the Broadway version, the same actor plays our monster heroine, Kate Monster, and her nemesis, the sleazy lounge singer Lucy T. Slut (her name says it all).  Bonnie Allen does this brilliantly, at times having conversations with herself, smoothly going back and forth between the boozy, throaty voice of Lucy and the girlish voice of Kate (Ruth Christianson inhabits the puppet Kate when Lucy's on stage).  The center point of this triangle is Princeton, the naive and idealistic newcomer to Avenue Q who learns that adulthood isn't as easy as he thought.  I've seen Tom Reed before in a different incarnation - as Lounge-asaurus Rex, host of Sample Night Live (a monthly showcase of the local arts/music/theater scene), which I saw once last fall and am still hoping to get back to sometime soon.  Tom is very funny and clever as Loung-asaurus Rex, ad libbing songs and entertaining the audience between the acts.  But I could hear a great voice behind the comedy, which he shows off in this show.  Other puppet residents of Avenue Q include roommates Rod and Nicky (think Bert and Ernie).  Seth Tucker will break your heart as Rod, the closeted gay Republican investment banker who wants nothing more than to be loved.  He dreams one night of having his love for Nicky (Brian Skellenger, one of my Chanhassen faves) returned, and it's a beautifully cheesy and romantic scene with the puppets flying and twirling through the air (Lauren Chapman choreographed the puppet and human movements).  The non-puppet residents of Avenue Q include engaged couple Brian ("unemployed and turning 33") and Christmas Eve (a stereotypical Japanese immigrant who has two masters degrees but can't get a job), played by Shawn Hamilton (who also plays the sax, onstage and off) and Rose Le Tran.  The superintendent of Avenue Q is none other than Gary Coleman (Brittany Bradford) - "I had a lot of money that was stolen by my folks."  Rounding out the cast of characters are the adorably sinister "bad idea bears" who represent that little voice inside of us that says things like "spend all your money on beer!" or "have a long island iced tea, they're yummy!"  You know it's a bad idea, but they're so darn cute they're impossible to resist!

I didn't realize the Mixed Blood Theatre was a black box theater until I walked in and the stage was on the opposite end of the room.  The brick townhomes of the Broadway/touring production have been replaced by simple black and grey boxes with sliding sections that reveal the various apartments in the building.  It's an efficient and clever use of space, with scene changes accompanied by drum solos by Andy Mark.

This is a fabulous show.  If you're familiar with this blog, you know I love everything.  But really, this production is fun, hilarious, accessible, light-hearted, and heart-warming, with great performances of catchy, singable songs.  The house was packed last night and the audience was clearly having a good time.  It's playing through the end of the month, so get your tickets now!

Update: the show has been extended through May 29.