Mixed Blood Theatre's Center of the Margins Festival Kicks Off 11/11

Mixed Blood Theatre's Center of the Margins festival offers it all in a line-up of three disparate but complementary plays that explore the complex world of disability.

The groundbreaking showcase includes a world premiere love story asking whether autism is a disability or a difference (Ken LaZebnik's ON THE SPECTRUM); a powerful play pairing two of the country's top deaf actresses in a tale of friends who use scars, injuries and calamity to mark the miles of their relationship (GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES by Pulitzer-nominated Rajiv Joseph); and a gripping drama about unconditional love with an all-women cast led by Jevetta Steele (Cori Thomas' MY SECRET LANGUAGE OF WISHES).

Center of the Margins is on stage November 11-27 in the Alan Page Auditorium of Mixed Blood's historic firehouse theatre at 1501 S. 4th St., Minneapolis with the three plays running in repertory. All performances will have projected supertitle captioning and all performances of GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES will be performed with American Sign Language. In addition, to greatly expand access to ON THE SPECTRUM, Mixed Blood will live stream a performance on November 22 at 7:00pm and offer a digital version of the show after its run.

The festival features Mixed Blood's new Radical Hospitality practice, which offers no-cost admission to all mainstage productions for any audience member. Radical Hospitality offers two ways to attend a Center of the Margins performance: 1) First come, first served no-cost admission: Audience members can provide contact information (either online or in the lobby prior to the show) to access these seats, or 2) Guaranteed admission: Audience members can guarantee entry for an individual performance by paying a $15 fee online at www.mixedblood.com or by calling the box office at 612-338-6131. Seating for the festival begins 30 minutes before show time and there are no assigned seats for either first come, first served or guaranteed admissions. People with disabilities can make complimentary guaranteed reservations by calling the box office or emailing boxoffice@mixedblood.com.

Additionally, Mixed Blood has received a grant from VSA Minnesota to provide complimentary cab service to its patrons with disabilities. Audience members can call the box office and arrangements will be made for Red and White Taxi Service to transport patrons to and from the theatre.

GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES
By Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Aditi Kapil
Opening Night: November 11, 7:00 p.m.

In this bold, gender-bending re-interpretation of Pulitzer-finalist Rajiv Joseph's masterful play, two deaf girls, age 8, meet in the school nurse's office, beginning a life-long intimacy, which is revealed through the injuries they sustain-both physical and emotional-over 30 years. Featuring two of the most gifted deaf actresses working today, Alexandria Wailes and Nic Zapko, this tough and lyrical piece uses American Sign Language (ASL), chalkboard drawings and a live soundtrack by composer Nicolas Carter on the Paraguayan electric harp, to investigate love, sexuality and true friendship.

"It is a great honor to have a theatre and theatre artists give so much of their creative energies to crack open new meanings and ideas in a play I have written," said Joseph, whose Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist. "The kind of adventure and risk fostered by Mixed Blood is inspiring and exciting to me. I'll be making my first ever trip to the Twin Cities to see this production and I can't wait."

Director Aditi Kapil returns to Mixed Blood after last season's Agnes Under the Big Top, a tall tale, and reunites with both actresses in this show. Kapil and Zapko collaborated on The Deaf Duckling, Mixed Blood's bilingual (ASL and English) educational touring show about growing up deaf. Kapil's play, Love Person, a four-part love story in Sanskrit, ASL and English, featured Wailes and had its world premiere at Mixed Blood in 2008. It won the Stavis Playwriting Award in 2009.

MY SECRET LANGUAGE OF WISHES
By Cori Thomas
Directed by Marion McClinton
Opening Night: November 11, 9:30 p.m.

A gripping drama by Cori Thomas, My Secret Language of Wishes explores unconditional love, the definitions of family, and the challenges and legalities at the intersection of race and custodial care. An ensemble of six women-Brittany Bradford, Signe Harriday, Nora Montañez, Mo Perry, Taj Ruler and Jevetta Steele-discovers the meaning of love without boundaries: black or white, gay or straight, rich or poor, with or without disability.

Thomas is winner of the American Theatre Critics Association's 2011 Osborne New Play Award and author of Pillsbury House's 2010 Pa's Hat directed by Marion McClinton. My Secret Language of Wishes was recently workshopped at the Lark Theatre in New York City, and Thomas is in residence at Mixed Blood throughout the rehearsal period. "This is my first chance to be part of the production process and it's exciting. I'm thrilled that Marion is directing what I consider its real world premiere. He has a passionate understanding of my work," she said.

ON THE SPECTRUM
World Premiere commissioned by Mixed Blood Theatre
By Ken LaZebnik
Directed by Jack Reuler
Recipient of an Edgerton Award and TCG New Generations Future Audiences grant
Opening Night: November 12, 7:00 p.m.

Is autism a disability or a difference? This simple but profound question is at the center of a new play by Ken LaZebnik (author of Mixed Blood's Vestibular Sense and Theory of Mind). In On the Spectrum, a young man (Skyler Nowinski) with Asperger's-passing as "typical" after years of mainstreaming and therapy-connects online with Iris (Laura Robinson, an actor with autism spectrum disorder) who proudly champions her autism as a difference, not a disorder. This love story between an "aspie" and an "autie" reveals the contradictions between finding success as oneself and on the world's terms, and the conflict between the desire for acceptance and achievement. Regina Marie Williams is featured as Elisabeth, the young man's mother.

"On the Spectrum is the third play about autism that Jack [Artistic Director Reuler] and I have worked on together," said LaZebnik. "The works come from a personal place for me and are, I hope, honest and authentic. I'm particularly proud of how this play is a romance between two people on the spectrum, rather than a show with one autistic character who is the outsider in a neuro-typical world. Those on the spectrum are in the majority in this play."

More information on Center of the Margins is available at 612-338-6131 or online at www.mixedblood.com.