The Twin Cities

The Twin Cities might seem dormant; and indeed, they spend half the year frozen and buried under feet of snow. But these cities – my cities – are not sleeping. The art we make here is innovative and radical. As theatre artists, we have opportunities to investigate, collaborate and learn. We can put our experiments up for audiences who have voted to support our work as well as our myriad ways of making it. And we are constantly teaching and encouraging young artists to pick up where we leave off. Yes, in the Twin Cities, theatre is awake.

The Twin Cities are home to brilliant collaborators, people who craft the way they engage in a process with others as mindfully and as rigorously as they craft language. These artists and organizations make art out of process, and it happens all over this city. Whether it’s the latest instance of devised work from Savage Umbrella or Live Action Set, or a one-off collaboration between a dancer and a puppet maker, the artists of the Twin Cities are ready to jump in, get dirty, and make stuff with one another.

Whether it’s the latest instance of devised work from Savage Umbrella or Live Action Set, or a one-off collaboration between a dancer and a puppet maker, the artists of the Twin Cities are ready to jump in, get dirty, and make stuff with one another.

This is what I talk about when I talk about theatre in town: our spirit of collaboration and support for one another’s work. To anyone who disagrees, I challenge you to come by Late Nite, which is a series of new work by underground artists that plays at the Pillsbury House Theatre in the late fall. It’s curated by E.G. Bailey and Laurie Carlos and the standing-room-only crowd does not hold back. Maybe it’s because everyone ate together before the show – and if you eat together, you’re family – or maybe it’s because the work performed is risky and revolutionary, or maybe it’s because the DJ is really, really good. Whatever it is, the applause in that theater is heartfelt. And loud.

Pillsbury House is also home to the Chicago Avenue Project, which is a program that teaches kids from the Powderhorn neighborhood to create and perform their own plays. Each child is grouped with three professional theatre artists; together this group makes a ten-minute play featuring the young artist. The program, led by Ellen Fenster, teaches kids how to express themselves through art. It also facilitates professional artists meeting each other, working together and supporting each other. In other words, it builds and strengthens our community.

If you want to start something – a group of movement-based theatre actors, an improv comedy team, a collective of playwrights – the Twin Cities is a great place to do it. We have venues, funding, and likely a group of artists who would want to help you, who have had a similar idea, who are game to try. We did it – a group of brilliant playwrights and I – we created the Unit Collective in August 2009. The Unit does a bit of teaching, a bit of collaboration with other companies, and also this really rad evening called Madness where actors rehearse fresh-off-the-printer ten-minute plays for a half hour before performing it for an audience. I’m proud to say that we’ve grown and are growing, constantly learning and expanding our community.