By CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Learn to be Latina at the Mixed Blood Theatre throws political correctness out of the window and presents the notion of “palatably ethnic” entertainment to post-9/11 audiences. In the hysterical comedy written by Enrique Urueta and directed by Mark Valdez, the Lebanese-American heroine, Hanan Mashalani, played charmingly by Jaime Elvey in… [Read more…]
March 16, 2012 by Sophie Kerman
by SOPHIE KERMAN For those of you with Mexican heritage – or for those of you who, like me, are ashamed of knowing so little about the Twin Cities’ sizable Mexican population – the Mixed Blood Theatre has brought an expanded production of Joe Minjares‘s Minnecanos to the Parkway Theater in South Minneapolis. Minnecanos has, in fact,… [Read more…]
February 14, 2012 by Anna Rosensweig
by ANNA ROSENSWEIG What happens when two over-privileged adult children throw a birthday party for their wealthy father? This is the premise of Crashing the Party, a new play by Josh Tobiessen that wonders whether the tenacity needed to achieve the “American Dream” can be passed from one generation to another. Once one generation has… [Read more…]
November 15, 2011 by Sophie Kerman
by SOPHIE KERMAN Over the past few days, Anna and I have explored the three very different plays on offer at the Mixed Blood Theatre‘s Center of the Margins festival, which celebrates the often-neglected perspectives of individuals with disabilities. We have to commend the Mixed Blood for undertaking such a project to begin with: there… [Read more…]
November 15, 2011 by Anna Rosensweig
by ANNA ROSENSWEIG For the the third play in its Center of the Margins festival, the Mixed Blood Theatre Company offers the world premiere of On the Spectrum, an encounter between two young adults who live with different degrees of autism. Written by Ken LaZebnick and directed by Jack Reuler (Mixed Blood’s founder and artistic… [Read more…]
November 14, 2011 by Anna Rosensweig
by ANNA ROSENSWEIG Mixed Blood opened its Center of the Margins festival over the weekend, which features three plays that explore “the complex world of disability.” Staging these plays together thankfully avoids making any one stand for a supposedly universal experience of disability, and wards off the impression that there’s an ideal way to represent… [Read more…]
November 12, 2011 by Sophie Kerman
by SOPHIE KERMAN The Center of the Margins festival at the Mixed Blood Theatre has the admirable mission of producing plays involving populations that we don’t often see on stage. My Secret Language of Wishes, the second play to premiere as part of the festival, centers around a seventeen-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and the women who,… [Read more…]
October 17, 2011 by Sophie Kerman
by SOPHIE KERMAN For a play inspired by an ethnographic study, Four Destinies has a whole lot of heart and a surprising amount of humor. Playwright Katie Hae Leo was drawn to write the play – which opens Mu Performing Arts‘s 2011-12 season in its world premiere – after reading a study by Kim Park Nelson on adopted children,… [Read more…]
September 27, 2011 by Sophie Kerman
by SOPHIE KERMAN What could the Mixed Blood‘s production of Neighbors have to say to the New York Times Sunday Book Review? Quite a lot, I imagine, and I bet the characters in “Neighbors” would have some strong words for the Times. The NY Times article in question is called ”The Post-Black Condition” (September 25, 2011), a… [Read more…]
September 22, 2011 by Sophie Kerman
by SOPHIE KERMAN “Provocative” is too cliché a word to describe Neighbors, the Mixed Blood‘s season opener. Although the publicity materials for this recent play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins use words like “subversive,” “real,” and “scathing,” the Mixed Blood has earned the right to tell it like it is: this ensemble will sneak up behind you, rip you… [Read more…]
April 22, 2012 by Anna Rosensweig
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