Mixed Blood Theatre

What Mixed Blood Theatre does

Mixed Blood Theatre (legal name Mixed Blood Theatre Company) is an independent, privately funded 501(c)(3) social-justice theater organization founded in 1976 by Jack Reuler as a program of the Center for Community Action and incorporated as a standalone nonprofit in 1980. Headquartered in a converted 1887 firehouse at 1501 South 4th Street in Minneapolis's Cedar Riverside neighborhood, the organization operates a 180-seat accessible venue (the Alan Page Auditorium) and a touring repertoire of nine productions—most notably Dr. King's Dream with 2,000+ performances—blending classical and contemporary work on race, immigration, disability, and civic life.

The company's product portfolio spans four interlocking categories: (1) a year-round season of theatrical productions; (2) community engagement programs including Story Circles (SNCC-rooted narrative practice), Story Circle Training, the trademarked Equitable Dinners (licensed from Out of Hand Theater), Know Your Rights Training (co-developed with ACLU-MN and the Immigrant Law Center of MN), and the Share Your Story archival project; (3) advisory councils covering Latin-X, disability, and climate-resilience communities; and (4) facility rentals of the Firehouse (auditorium at $2,500/week, rehearsal room at $1,140/week) to nomadic artists and mission-aligned organizations. Accessibility services—ASL interpretation, audio description, captioning, free disability transportation—are embedded across all programming.

Revenue is generated through four streams: individual donations (one-time, recurring, and planned giving), foundation and government grants (NEA, Minnesota State Arts Board, Saint Paul–Ramsey County Public Health, McKnight, Mellon, Kresge, Best Buy, and ~20 other institutional funders), venue rentals, and ticket donations (suggested at $50/$40/$25/$0 per ticket under a radical hospitality model). Go-to-market is community-led, leveraging advisory councils, in-home Equitable Dinners, Juneteenth Story Circle Day partnerships, and Know Your Rights Training to reach disability, Latinx, immigrant/refugee, and East African Muslim audiences. Following Jack Reuler's June 2022 transition to Artistic Director Emeritus, Mark Valdez leads the company, supported by a 12-member board spanning design, transportation, insurance, healthcare, law, and advocacy sectors.

Name

Mixed Blood Theatre

Legal name

Mixed Blood Theatre Company

Website

https://mixedblood.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1976

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Mixed Blood Theatre is a Minneapolis-based 501(c)(3) social-justice theater that operates a 180-seat accessible venue from a converted 1887 firehouse and pairs theatrical productions with civic engagement programs—Story Circles, Equitable Dinners, and Know Your Rights Training—serving disability, Latinx, immigrant/refugee, and Cedar Riverside communities.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Performing Arts Theater

NAICS

Theater Companies and Dinner Theaters (71111), Performing Arts Companies (7111), Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation (71)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Regional & Repertory Theatre Companies (MPAGABAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Community Theatre & Storytelling Festivals (MPAGAEAI), Community & Amateur Theatre (MPAGABAD)

Keywords

• Social justice theater
• Community engagement programming
• Live theatrical productions
• Venue rental services
• Accessibility-focused performing arts

Headquarters

HQ city

Minneapolis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Individual Donations: One-time and recurring donations from individuals supporting the theatre's social justice mission. Options include online one-time gifts, recurring monthly/annual donations, and stock transfers.
2. Venue Rentals: Rental of the Firehouse facility including the 180-seat Alan Page Auditorium, rehearsal room, lobby, and dressing rooms to artists, community organizations, and event hosts.
3. Foundation and Government Grants: Funding from government entities (National Endowment for the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, Saint Paul-Ramsey County Public Health) and foundations (McKnight Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Best Buy Foundation, and others) for operating support and programs.
4. Planned Giving: Bequests and legacy giving programs allowing supporters to include Mixed Blood in their estate planning.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Mixed Blood Theatre is a nonprofit social justice theater company that produces an annual season of inclusive, socially conscious theatrical productions at its 180-seat Alan Page Auditorium in Minneapolis and on tour. It complements its productions with community engagement programs (Story Circles, Equitable Dinners, Know Your Rights Training, Share Your Story, Story Circle facilitator training) and earns supplemental revenue by renting its converted 1887 firehouse facility to mission-aligned artists and community organizations. All artistic programming operates under a radical hospitality model that makes performances accessible regardless of ability to pay.

Product overview

Mixed Blood Theatre operates as a social justice theater company with a unified portfolio centered on its core mission of using theater to disrupt injustice. The primary offerings include: (1) Theatrical Productions at the 180-seat Alan Page Auditorium featuring socially conscious plays; (2) Community Engagement Programs including Story Circles (a civil rights-rooted narrative sharing practice), Story Circle Training (facilitator education), Equitable Dinners (a trademarked program licensed from Out of Hand Theater for community dialogue over meals), Know Your Rights Training (immigrant rights education), and Share Your Story (archival arts project); (3) Advisory Councils engaging Latin-X and disability communities; (4) Climate Council for environmental sustainability; and (5) Rent the Firehouse venue rental service. The company also offers its converted 1887 firehouse as performance and event space for mission-aligned artists and community organizations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Theatrical Productions Annual season of challenging, inclusive theater productions exploring social justice themes. Productions blend classical theater with contemporary music and narratives, featuring both world premieres and established works, and tour to multiple cities nationally.
• Story Circles A legacy community engagement program rooted in civil rights organizing, developed by SNCC and adapted by Mixed Blood to help communities process trauma, reduce anxiety, and deepen belonging through structured narrative sharing.
• Equitable Dinners A trademarked community dialogue program bringing together strangers and neighbors from diverse backgrounds to talk about complex issues like race, affordable housing, mental health, and climate resilience over a meal fueled by theater. Licensed from Out of Hand Theater in Atlanta and hosted in private homes across the metro area.
• Story Circle Training Train-the-facilitator program providing conveners with tools and resources to host and facilitate their own story circles. Available both in-person and virtually.
• Know Your Rights Training Rapid response programming providing interactive Know Your Rights training sessions, developed in partnership with ACLU and Immigrant Law Center of MN, to help participants practice high-stakes scenarios in a safe theatrical environment.
• Share Your Story Archival arts project gathering stories from those affected by Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities for historical documentation and community healing purposes.
• Rent the Firehouse Venue rental service for Mixed Blood's converted 1887 firehouse featuring a 180-seat auditorium (Allen and Heath QU 24 sound board, ETC Nomad lighting board), rehearsal room, lobby, dressing rooms, and meeting spaces. Used for performances, rehearsals, political rallies, town halls, and community events.

Quantifiable outcome

• Productions touring to multiple cities nationally with repeat performances
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Penumbra Theatre: St. Paul, MN-based nonprofit theater with a parallel social-justice and racial-equity mission, comparable staff scale, and a similar mix of productions, community programs, and youth training. Often cited alongside Mixed Blood as Minnesota's flagship community-anchored theater.
• Pillsbury House + Theatre: Minneapolis-based nonprofit combining social services with a theater program; operates on a comparable small staff and budget scale with similar pay-what-you-can/accessible programming for underserved Minneapolis neighborhoods.
• Ten Thousand Things: Minneapolis-based nonprofit touring theater known for low-cost/free performances in non-traditional venues for underserved audiences. Comparable in size, mission, and touring model to Mixed Blood's Equitable Dinners and community-venue programming.
• Pangea World Theater: Minneapolis-based Asian/Pacific-Islander American theater with a similar community-embedded, social-justice orientation, multilingual programming, and small-team operating structure.
• In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre: Minneapolis-based community theater using puppetry/mask to address social issues, with similar accessibility programming and a comparable small-staff nonprofit operating model.
• Theater Mu: Minneapolis-based Asian American theater producing world-premiere works, with a comparable scale, Asian American/multilingual programming approach, and nonprofit community-engagement model.

Broad incumbents

• Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Chicago-based regional theater known for socially engaged, risk-taking productions. Operates at materially larger scale but shares Mixed Blood's commitment to controversial, issue-driven work and Asian American/multicultural casting and authorship.
• Arena Stage: Washington, D.C.-based regional theater that explicitly centers social-justice themes and world premieres, and operates robust community-engagement programs that overlap with Mixed Blood's mission. Significantly larger budget, but mission-aligned.

Regional players

• Penobscot Theatre Company: Bangor, Maine-based regional repertory theater operating a similar mix of mainstage productions and community programming at a comparable small-staff scale, but in a different geography.

Others

• National New Play Network: National alliance of professional theaters that produces new work; Mixed Blood has been a recipient of NNPN awards and grants. Acts as an ecosystem enabler rather than a direct competitor, but is closely tied to Mixed Blood's new-play development pipeline.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@mixedbloodtheatrecompany
• Facebookfacebook.com/MixedBloodTheatre
• Instagraminstagram.com/mixedbloodtheatre
• TikToktiktok.com/@mixedbloodtheatre_
• Xx.com/mixed_blood

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Mixed Blood Theatre