Mission speaks

Editorial
There is supposed to be a critical distinction between the commercial theater and non-profit theater. The commercial theater asks its audiences what they want to see and produces theater in response to those answers. We in the non-profit theater must lead audiences to what we think they should want to see. A commercial production is like the production and sale of a widget that must take in more than it costs to produce while a non-profit production is subsidized in order to beat back Commerce as the lone determinant of success. Generally, I have found that we as a field of regional theaters have not lived up to that expectation and have looked all too often to last year’s small-cast Off-Broadway hits as staples of our seasons. Commercial producers have been arbiters of taste for non-profitdom. This is antithetical to our very birthright as a movement. While in recent years, a healthier food chain has begun to evolve, with non-profit theaters creating new work that moves to larger non-profits and then to the commercial domain, future success should not be the criteria for a commitment to new work. Non-profit theater must do new work to add to the canon of dramatic literature and to help realize the organization’s mission. New work as the rule and not the exception has, I believe, led to the institutional health of Mixed Blood. Non-profits of all sectors sometimes forget that mission is not grant-speak, but something that is accomplishable. Mixed Blood, for example, will be ultimately successful when it is no longer necessary. We raise funds not to keep our doors open, but to eventually close them because our mission has been accomplished, and the decision to produce new plays, whether commissioned or with a small track record, comes from our mission. For me, new plays represent the greatest opportunity to say to audiences, artists, and the field what I have to say about a just, tolerant world. As a member of a Minneapolis family that is five generations old, it allows me to think globally and act locally. Mixed Blood’s raison d’etre is to model successful pluralism in which a multiplicity of peoples coexist on stage in important ways. New multi-playwright shows like Bill of (W)Rights, Point of Revue, Messy Utopia, and Red Ink focus our energies toward that objective. The legal difficulties, the labor-intensive nature, the cost, and the disparate writer, director, and actor personalities have never dissuaded me from loving this “many writer” genre. Mixed Blood also uses theater to address artificial barriers to people succeeding in American society. Language is one of those barriers, hence our multi-lingual premieres League of Nations, Found, and Love Person.

As if it weren't hard enough

In fact, as I look through the new work that we have done in the 21st century, the cohesive factor is that they are all hard shows to produce (much to the consternation of production managers, technicians, and sometimes directors). Salt Fish and Bakes, a West Indian tale by Gavin Lawrence, required a meal to be cooked on stage in the exact time of the performance so that it could be served to patrons near the play’s end. Vestibular Sense required actors with autism and a working roller coaster on stage. Hijab Tube needed a Muslim cast (which is harder than it should be to find in the Twin Cities). Bill of (W)Rights moved audiences all over our 1887 converted firehouse. For Messy Utopia, the stage and seats were removed and replaced with swivel chairs and a kabuki-like hanamichi. Conventional wisdom in the field warns that even simple new plays cost more to produce and can reliably expect lower box office revenue and attendance. Mixed Blood’s experience has not been consistent with that. Even those shows that we produce that are not original rarely have any name recognition. Yet the payoff has been indisputable. Funders, subscribers, the media, board members, colleagues, and artists recognize, value, and reward such a commitment as long as it’s accompanied by a real commitment to excellence.

Excellence is essential

Knowing that audiences and critics don’t care about hard, we have been forced to strive with greater resolve for absolute excellence. We cannot expect a double standard between the tried-and-true and original work. No new play can be compromised or be exempted from absolute excellence because it is new, nor should critics or audiences be expected to “give us a break” because of what we are trying. Risk and excellence are not mutually exclusive. For me, from the moment a commission is awarded, the aim must be towards opening night, not the development process. That development process (handled differently by different organizations) is necessary to attain quality, but new plays are meant to be seen by audiences. I am blessed at Mixed Blood because production costs have always been fixed costs, not variable costs. When I present a season or script, the board and staff may challenge the selections based on mission and organizational aspirations, but they never question the cost or cast sizes. And in some ways, the risk has been moderated in recent years. For us, the close involvement of Michael Dixon and Liz Engelman in the fabric of our work has redefined so much for Mixed Blood, from our ability to attract a higher caliber of script and playwright to bold new ambitions that expand our understanding of how plays can be made. Simply said, the chemistry between playwright and dramaturg is vital, and the existence of dramaturgy cannot be negotiable. I have also been delighted with the trend in how plays reach theaters. For one thing, the myth that new plays are not being produced has been shattered. Actually, new plays are being produced everywhere, and funders are being deluged with proposals for ambitious new ways of creating theatre. (I am grateful that our theatrical immunologists have found an antidote for the second myth; “premieritis.” Many theaters have gotten over the need to be the first to produce a show. The term “rolling world premiere” has been adopted by multiple theaters who sequentially produce the initial productions of a new play.) I had feared too that the advent of submission through email would open the floodgates. With the cost of copying and mailing gone, I imagined every script in a closet or trunk making its way to my inbox. But my experience has shown that scripts are being submitted by advocates – artistic directors, literary managers, and sometimes agents – far more often than playwrights. That objectivity has led to fewer, better scripts being submitted and, therefore, a higher percentage being read more quickly, getting more focused attention. This networking, complemented by my involvement in the invaluable National New Play Network, has made being a player in the new play universe more fun, rewarding, connected, and successful. As I look back over three decades of artistic leadership, I find that our focus on the creation and production of new plays has only intensified and accelerated. I see no end to that trajectory. If such a devotion leads to financial ruination – and I have absolutely no reason to believe that it will – we will have gone out of business on our own terms, contributing to and influencing our community and field in valuable ways for a long time.
Headshot of Jack Reuler
Jack Reuler
Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jack Reuler founded the Mixed Blood Theatre Company at the age of 22. Mixed Blood has presented 75 world premieres and scores of regional premieres. In 2006, he received the Local Legend Award from the United Negro College Fund and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2006 Ivey Awards. In 2009, he also received a Sally Irvine Award for Vision, an Actors’ Equity’s Spirit Award and was named a Facing Race Ambassador by the St. Paul Foundation.