Mixed Blood Theatre to Host 40th Anniversary Gala This Spring

Mixed Blood Theatre's 40th Anniversary Gala will take place on the spring evening of May 14th, 2016, at Paisley Park Studios, the home and recording studio of Minnesota's favorite international recording artist, Prince. Mixed Blood's guests will spend an evening dancing, sipping cocktails, wine and beer, sampling fresh and modern fare at the many food stations, browsing the silent auction for trips, gifts, and adventures, and getting down to the sounds of incredible local musicians.

The gala committee is chaired by Mixed Blood Board Vice President Debra Bryan, and is comprised of 18 Twin Cities professionals who are working with the staff and Board on logistics, design and the flow of the evening. Recently, the Committee met to discuss progress on the evening's silent auction, and Bryan said, "We are so excited about the venue, and the opportunity to celebrate with our long- standing champions, members, and artists. We're also looking forward to meeting new friends."

According to Mixed Blood's Managing Director, Amanda White Thietje, the affair will be one to remember. She says, "Mixed Blood has a forty-year history of celebrating artists of color in fearless, unpredictable, eminent ways. This evening at Paisley Park has perfect synergy; a force of nature on the local and national theatre scene, commemorating its first four decades at the home of a force of nature on the international music scene. This night is long overdue."

Artistic Director Jack Reuler considers the evening a celebration of the work the theatre company has pursued toward social justice and egalitarianism, and a signal of things to come. He says, "When I started the Mixed Blood Theatre Company 40 years ago, I hoped that I could rid America of the "isms" that plague it between Memorial Day and Labor Day of that bicentennial year. Youth and naivete may have sparked the two score years that led us to today, but the fundamental ambition remains the same. Gaggles of rebels, renegades, and rascals have pursued that purpose on stage through irreverence, provocation, and revolution, but always at the intersection of virtuosity and social change. We interpret our mission - the successful coexistence of a multiplicity of peoples - in more sophisticated and nuanced ways today, and we feel that we make bigger dents in attitudes, behavior, and policy. At a recent strategic planning session, there was a heated debate among the participants about whether Mixed Blood is a theater or a movement. That was music to my ears, and it is that healthy tension that allows us to remain predictably unpredictable as we forge ahead to our next four decades, reinventing the way theater is made and what it can say."

Immediately following the gala, Mixed Blood's staff, Board and Gala Committee will host an after party, the "Late Night Revel", at Mixed Blood's historic Firehouse in Cedar Riverside. The dance party will have live DJ entertainment, appetizers, access to food trucks and local Twin Cities cuisine, games, and wine and beer flowing.

Public tickets are on sale now. All details and purchase information can be found on Mixed Blood's website at http://www.mixedblood.com/gala.

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