Minnesota Folklore Theater Inc

Minnesota Folklore Theater creating Art in the Northwoods

Minnesota Folklore Theater was created in 2009 to address the need for the performing arts in the undeserved communities of Akeley, Nevis, Walker, La Porte , Pine River areas of Northern Minnesota.  We also are engaging our neighbors in Cass Lake and the Leech Lake area.  We are a community based producing and performing company creating and performing plays and musicals in line with our mission.   The mission of Minnesota Folklore Theater is to create, develop and present professional musical and dramatic productions that will further the knowledge and appreciation of the culture and heritage of the United States.

The Theater is dedicated to maintaining standards of artistic excellence; celebrating and illuminating the human condition; reaching a large audience of all ages, including families; and fostering a humanistic work environment with adequate and appropriate emotional, financial and creative support for all those associated with us.

 

The children’s theater mission:   The Children's Theater Company at Minnesota Folklore Theater exists to create extraordinary theater experiences, and to advance theater as a means of educating, challenging and inspiring young people.  With this we produce two children’s theater productions each season focusing on classic children’s stories and implementing them with a theme of our location.  In the past we have taken Grimm’s tales and placed them in Northern Minnesota.

 MNFL Theater  Seeks to be a model for excellence in theater. We strive to lead in the creation of new work for young people, in theater training and generating initiatives for using theater in education and community development.

 

Minnesota Folklore Theater will create a cultural center for all diverse populations and families, where theater is the centerpiece, out of which emerge programs and activities celebrating diverse art forms, ideas and cultures. We will utilize the power of theater to open discussion, touch hearts and question accepted notions.

We believe:

·       Everybody in our community embodies complex realities, imagination and possibility, and their concerns must be central to our programming choices.

·       Young people have the power to know the world and to transform it.

·       We are part of a larger world and our theater has a responsibility to illuminate connections, build bridges, and celebrate diverse cultures.

·       Theater must encourage the power of imagination and critical thinking.

·       Artists must be valued and provided with the tools to achieve excellence and realize their vision.

·       We do our best work when all are involved as collaborators in the pursuit of the artistic vision.

·       We must be attentive stewards of our resources.

·       We must embrace the fundamental attributes of young people: curiosity, risk taking, candor and imagination.

 

We are looking to engage a broader youth audience by bringing  more students to our youth productions through school presentations and groups to our facility  and providing study guides for their use in engaging them in the a

 Our major audience base has been the Senior community of citizens over 65 and this next season we will engage in efforts to bring the arts to our senior communities and providing opportunities for them to participate in the arts with in their facilities.

 

 The 2017 season will include children’s productions one and the other plays are under discussion at this time.  Our founder with over forty years in children’s theater presentation will be guiding this project and will be a leader in hiring decisions for artistic staff for these projects.

 We have developed a strong relationship with are communities we serve and help strengthen the arts presence in these undeserved communities.  In the past three years we have brought our children’s Theater to the students of the Nevis, Park Rapids and Walker Akeley Hackensack schools with the elimination of the student one acts and other arts cuts in these schools we are becoming a important link to the arts.  With the increased presence of the arts we will help to build stronger communities. 

Join us as we keep the ARTS ALIVE