Heart of the Beast

By Jennifer Storm
Contributing Writer
Trollwood Performing Arts Theatre’s latest art venture seeks to engage the entire community in every step of the artistic process. “Water Water Everywhere,” presented by Heart of the Beast Theatre (HOBT), provides an opportunity for everyone to delve into their creative waters and contribute to the creation of the show.

The show provides an opportunity to explore our community’s relationship with water and will feature ideas and stories of the participants. Participants will collaborate to create the puppets, contribute to the writing process, and act in the performance. Area artists have been invited to take part in the project and work with the team from HOBT.  Placing an emphasis on the overall relationship with water, the performance will highlight where it comes from, how it is used, water sanitation issues, and our overall interaction with water.

Heart of the Beast is a puppet and mask theatre company based in Minneapolis and widely acclaimed for its production of the MayDay and Pageant parade presented annually in Powderhorn Park. HOTB is based firmly on a platform of social justice, and seeks to engage participants and audiences in community issues.

Its Minneapolis location is the site of such a movement itself. Once the site of a pornography theatre, the neighborhood rallied to close it down. The building stood vacant until HOBT bought the and renovated it.

With strong community roots, HOBT maintains its focus of transforming urban settings. By involving communities in the creation of theatre projects, HOBT provides an artistic outlook through which to address major societal concerns and consider the many facets of those issues.

A broken water fountain caused HOBT to focus on water conservation. When a malfunctioning water fountain at the company’s main campus forced everyone to resort to bottled water, they were stunned by the immense waste which accompanied their new habit. They added it to their mission to generate awareness of conservation. Community organizers and Heart of the Beast faculty hope that the production will speak to the necessity of living in harmony with water and recognizing conservation as a crucial area of concern.

As HOBT’s mission statement articulates, puppet theatre is an opportunity to watch the creation of a story take place and emerge as something more than just a spectacle. “Puppetry’s power lies in the act of transformation—of bringing something inanimate to life. The act in itself speaks to our lives, which rise and fall and rise again. As we share this act of building and performing, we find that theatre brings people together. It builds community.”

With stunning puppets and colorful stories, HOBT combines the creative vitality of theatre and artistry of puppetry with community concerns.

The experience is presented by FutureBuilders and The Plains Art Museum in partnership with RiverKeepers and the Historical & Cultural Society of Clay County and is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Heritage Fund. Trollwood hopes to have at least 80 program participants ranging in all age categories, in addition to 1,000 spectators. ANYONE IS WELCOME TO PARTICIPATE.

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Theatre Workshops: Open to the Public

Workshop
Thursday, August 19
1:00-2:30pm
3:00-4:30pm
6:30-8:30pm

Community Drop-in Workshops
Saturday, August 14
9:30am-11:30am and 1:00pm-3:00pm

Mandatory Rehearsals for performers
Tues & Wed, Aug 17-18, 6-8:30pm
Thurs, Aug 19, 3-5pm

Free Community Performances
Thurs, Aug 19, 6:30pm
Fri, Aug 20 12 noon