Since so many of our TCS members are from the Iron Range, the Mixed Blood Theater has asked us to forward this announcement:
The Iron Range is so much! Deep green trees and deep blue lakes. Snowy hockey winters and hot boating summers. A vibrant yesterday, a complicated today, and an unknown tomorrow still to be made. Your home.
Minneapolis’s Mixed Blood Theatre is partnering with local folks and organizations to create a new play with and for the Iron Range, and we want you to be part of it. Tell your stories, ask your questions, dream your future because…
In the spring of 2024, we are all together putting on a play about the Iron Range. About you, your family, and your friends. With Iron Range folks involved every step of the way, as actors, tech folks, costume creators, you name it.
WAIT, WHAT?
Yup! A play! Through conversations, story circles, workshops, interviews, and readings, we will gather stories and visions for the future of The Range. There may be characters from local history in the story, or characters from down the street. Or ice people. Or pirates. Who knows? There will definitely be taconite, and participants will be paid for their work.
We don’t know yet where the play will be performed, because we are still learning. We do know that, because the Range is big, we have to focus our play-building activities some, so we will be holding events mostly in Virginia, Eveleth, Chisholm and Hibbing.
WHO WE ARE
Mixed Blood Theatre uses theater to disrupt injustices, advance equity, and build community, creating the ripple effects for social change. Mixed Blood has performed in 78 Minnesota Counties. Our programs aim to enhance the quality of life, contributing to the livability, health, and vibrancy of the communities in which we live and work. We strive to create an inviting, welcoming, affirming artistic home.
The Lyric Center for the Arts is partnering with Mixed Blood, hosting activities and supporting the whole process. The Lyric Center provides artistic and educational opportunities for children and adults across the Iron Range while renovating the historic Lyric Building. Lyric affirms the arts are crucial to a healthy, prosperous community and that access to arts and cultural experiences lifts up the quality of life for both residents and visitors of Virginia and surrounding communities.
Playwright Alison Carey is co-founder of Cornerstone Theater Company, which has been working with communities around the United States for over 35 years, including Marmarth, North Dakota, Montgomery, West Virginia, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. After visiting in the summer of 2022, she loves the Iron Range already.
Questions? Ideas? Please reach out to Mark Valdez at mark@mixedblood.com or by phone at (612) 338-6131. And look forward to more info about upcoming events, on zoom and in person! See you soon. We can’t wait.
