Setting the Stage for Community Transformation

Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mixed Blood Theatre was founded in 1976 by Jack Reuler, who approached the organization from a community organizer's perspective. Motivated by the quest for racial equity and universal civil rights, Reuler used theater to foster representation and empathy by showcasing diverse stories. Mixed Blood has remained committed to color-conscious casting and commissioning new works to represent people from all backgrounds. Alejandro Tey, Mixed Blood’s associate artistic director, said, “The idea of Mixed Blood Theatre comes from this idea [that] we are all mixed blood. We gain something from sharing our perspectives. We gain something from seeing people who are not like us on stage or on screen.”

In recent years, amidst the global climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuler and the board initiated a thoughtful leadership transition, bringing in Mark Valdez as the new artistic director. Valdez hired Tey and they are working to shift the organization’s mission to focus on raising awareness and advancing community action and change.

“Folks who practice theater…have skills that translate really well toward community building. I mean, this is what we train to do. We figure out communication in different ways. We figure out collaboration. We figure out consensus building. We figure out how to navigate hierarchies…not around a product, but around a story, around a piece of art, around emotions, around people's varying needs and how to figure out how to prioritize those,” said Tey. Mixed Blood’s current goal is to create immersive, participatory theater that connects audiences emotionally and provides concrete steps for making a difference, as exemplified by their upcoming NEA-supported play UPSTREAM—a cross-sector, youth-centered, and immersive performance that will showcase a small-scale model of comprehensive solutions that effectively address climate change. To do this, the production will activate the space at the Open World Learning Community school, a public middle and high school in the Latinx neighborhood of West Side in Saint Paul.

A community-involved production, students (grades 6-12), teachers, community members, scientists, farmers, artistic staff, and designers will work behind the scenes as designers and production staff to transform the school into an imaginative stage where audiences can engage in climate action. Jake Pinholster, founder of the Arizona State University’s Media and Immersive eXperience Center in Mesa, Arizona, and one of the country's leading designers of and thought leaders on immersive experience, will serve as a consultant and the production’s lead designer. Part of the production development process is for Mixed Blood’s artistic staff to workshop with the students at each grade level within the school to come up with characters, scenarios, and narratives for the play. “Young people are going to inherit this climate crisis, they are going to inherit this planet, and it's going to be up to them to really deal with all of what's going on,” explained Tey. 

The production design’s central location was originally planned to be the school library, which is beautiful but small. This caused the production team to think outside of the box and begin plans to turn the auditorium into the central location and transform the hallways and classrooms. Tey said, “I think the most important insight into this particular creative process is it's all emergent. It's all changing based on what we are discovering as we play with our collaborators, as we actually get into rooms with each other and explore. I think what we're looking at is how to balance the needs of the project with the needs of a functioning school, with the needs of audience members who are going to experience the [play].”

The school theater teacher Rebekah Rentzel shared with Mixed Blood Theatre that the design and technical students run all of the school’s tech, and, wanting the students to make a significant impact in UPSTREAM, asked Tey to let the students have a larger role in the production. Pinholster met with the students to see how they imagined the look of the show and ultimately let them have an active role in the design phases. Tey said, “He [Pinholster] comes with an expertise on immersive experience, but…guess what? [The students] come with an expertise on their school and on the spaces we're going to be moving through. Let's let those minds meet and come up with something phenomenal.”

During the production, audience members will be able to participate and interact with actors and the environment that surrounds them. Tey said, “The goal is to provide a menu of invitations, and if you don't want to take them, that's fine. You can sit and watch, and you will watch a play take place. There will be characters. There will be scripts. There will be dialogue. There will be a story that unfolds, and you can experience it as an observer, if you choose. But there are going to be plenty of invitations for you to take action in a way that actually will change the outcome of the story and also of what goes back to these organizational partners. There will be a real-world impact.” Describing some of the potential climate actions that the audience members could participate in, Tey said, “You as an audience member can change a light bulb, participate in phone banking, help plant a community garden, and more. That would be amazing.” 

The actors will play a crucial role in addressing climate change by using their creativity to raise awareness and inspire action in the stage environment about the climate solutions that are possible. Tey said, “As artists, we’re trying to create the bridge. How are we going to create [a] story that can help a lay audience member interact with those climate solutions?” Throughout the production, the actors will improvise and make adjustments to their dialogue and actions, as each interaction with an audience member could lead to a different conversation. “We're going to start a conversation and we're going to see where it goes. We have scripted the opening of that conversation, but the rest of it we're having with you. We're going to play with you. We're here to play,” explained Tey. Fresh Energy [organizational partner and nonprofit focused on the advancement of Minnesota’s transition to a clean energy economy] suggested that the performers reframe the conversations with audience members to meet them where their personal interests are. “You care about hunting. Okay, cool. Well, guess what? The hunting season is shortened and has changed because of the way that our planet is changing. Or maybe you don't care about any of that. Maybe you like technology. Let's talk about electric cars and electric vehicles. Let's talk about electric buses and how that could completely change how our energy is used in urban space,” Tey explained. 

The climate conversation is often dominated by dread and powerlessness, which can hinder progress. Tey said, “I was just in a meeting yesterday with the folks over at Fresh Energy and their big message is, ‘We need hope. We actually have solutions. The work that needs to be done is not actually around the technical solutions because those exist.’”

Tey discussed his hopes for the impact of this production and said, “If we can leverage this project to make any changes to the actual building, to the actual infrastructure or anything that leaves you all greener than when you came, I would love to do that. We're still in more of a research phase than even a generative phase. We're discovering…the possibilities of what we can do.” One of the climate actions that could take place during UPSTREAM is using youth testimony to advocate for electric school buses. “We'd leave the [school] doors, get on the electric bus, and learn. Then we can walk away with those students' testimonies…that can go back to the organization and they can use that to actually get that grant. That's the kind of real-world impact that we're hoping to have with the project.”