1. Mixed Blood Theater

Founded in 1976, Mixed Blood “pays positive attention to difference” as it's dedicated to creating opportunities for people who otherwise wouldn’t be involved in theatre to see and participate in great performance art. On the stage, Mixed Blood is guided by several advisory councils to showcase stories by, about, and for marginalized people, featuring disabled, trans, Somali, and Latinx directors, designers, actors, and box office and front of house staff. Off the stage, the theatre offers no-cost admission, prioritizes accessibility and provides free transportation for folks with disabilities, hosts drama classes for neighborhood youth and workshops for local teachers, facilitates meaningful connections between Minneapolis Police officers and young adult Somali men, and constantly searches for more ways to remove barriers to participation in the community. Now that’s a cause worth applauding.

2. Jungle Theater

The Jungle Theater has been an advocate for gender inclusivity and new works, showcasing plays with strong roles for women both on and off the stage. For example all shows in the 2019-2020 season featured female directors and/or female playwrights, most often both. The Lyn Lake neighborhood theatre also champions historically underrepresented talent with racially diverse casts and production teams.

3. Penumbra Theatre

Minnesota’s only Black-focused and Black-run professional theaters—and one of only three professional African American theaters with a full season in the country—Penumbra Theatre was founded in 1976 in the Selby/Dale neighborhood to put the spotlight on the African-American experience. In addition to a full season of shows on the Main Stage, Penumbra also serves as an educational hub offering leadership programs for young artists, and hosts equity trainings and public conversations around issues of social justice, equity, and the arts.

4. Pillsbury House Theatre

Sharing space with a full bevvy of services inside an urban community center situated at the intersection of four of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city, Pillsbury House Theatre offers far more than a conventional stage and rows of seats. Pillsbury House Theatre is renowned for prioritizing stories that inspire “enduring change towards a just society,” and works as a vital arm of Pillsbury United Communities, integrating the arts into all of the vital work of the respected human service agency. Watch out for productions from the Chicago Avenue Project, which pairs local youth with adult mentors (playwrights, actors, and directors from the Twin Cities) to perform in original plays written just for them, and write plays performed by adult actors.

5. Illusion Theater

The Illusion Theater now preforms its main stage production in The Center for Performing Arts, a multi-use neighborhood arts development project in the Kingfield neighborhood. It sees itself as the "catalyze personal and social change" through the stories they tell on stage. In the spring, they tour around the state to different schools, universities, art series, corporations, faith organizations, and communities.

Bonus: A diverse theater company to keep on your radar!

• Ten Thousand Things: Ten Thousand Things is theater with a mission, bringing theater to unlikely audiences, eschewing a stage and lighting for the simple floor inside a circle of chairs with all the lights on (so everyone is seen, even the audience). Buying a ticket for a show (at venues like Open Book and North Garden Theater) helps them bring free theater to underserved venues, like homeless shelters, correctional facilities, low-income senior centers, and after-school programs.