The Birth Play Project Open House

The Birth Play Project (or the BPP) is a Minneapolis-based company of artists dedicated to placing reproductive stories in public memory. 

We entered the world of fundraising for the first time this past autumn by surpassing our goal on Give to the Max Day, and our May 3rd Open House is our very first fundraising event! 

We are raising money to cover the rental fee for our world premiere production at the Hive Collaborative in January 2026. 

The Birth Play Project is under the fiscal sponsorship of Springboard for the Arts, meaning all contributions are tax-deductible. Read on to learn more about what we've accomplished so far this year and what else we're dreaming up. 

Celebrating the launch of our new WEBSITE at a company meeting! 

Our work so far in 2025...

We have organized the year into three trimesters (we enjoy the body literacy connection) and this fundraiser finds us at the end of Trimester 1. This year, we have: 

• Offered three professional development sessions for our associate artists and the larger community (dialect workshops led by Gillian Constable); 
• Submitted three grant/program applications; 
• Established two new online homes: a Substack account to host our monthly newsletter and collected writings, as well as a customized website by Liv Kemp of Anecdote Designs; 
• Produced one public performance as part of "Running Errands" at the Bryant Lake Bowl; 
• Showed up for one Minnesota Senate hearing to support reproductive justice legislation; 
• Completed the first draft of our theory of change!  

We accomplished all of this through collaborative work at four full company meetings and 10 leadership meetings, as well as countless hours of independent work from our associate artists.

Our 2024 Give to the Max donors ensured that our leadership team will be PAID for all this work! 

Associate artists Gillian Mueller and Madeline Wall at the Minnesota Senate Building to support SF 2109, a bill that would require equitable reimbursement for freestanding birth centers statewide.  

What the rest of the year holds...

Our audiences and donors are essential during this unique "year without a production," as we continue the quiet work of building organizational sustainability. In Trimester 2 this summer, we are focusing on: 

• WRITING: we are developing a new script (you can hear an excerpt at our May 3rd event!), and cultivating our associate artists' writing practices. 
• ARCHIVING: we're going through materials, both physical and digital, that we have in storage - this means clean-outs of costume and prop closets, as well as editing our archival footage of 2023's Mary's Wondrous Body into a presentable cut. 

In Trimester 3 this autumn, we will move towards pre-production and rehearsals for Reasons to Run, a world premiere by Tia Tanzer and Madeline Wall coming to the Hive Collaborative in January 2026. 

This exciting new venue gives us a discrete fundraising goal for this spring: we want to raise $1,500 to cover our rental fee.

This price is low already thanks to a generous bartering agreement with the Hive: we will be doing some cleaning in their space throughout 2025, as well as working box office and concessions. Still, space rental is the single largest expense we encounter aside from artist compensation, so it would be amazing to have that covered. Any additional funds we raise will go towards paying our collaborators. 

How you can contribute...

1. Attend our Open House Fundraiser at the Elision Playhouse this Saturday, May 3rd! Stop by and connect with us anytime between 11am and 4pm. Visit this link to learn more about the event and purchase a ticket.

Map of offerings at our fundraising event by associate artist Robert McGrady. 

2. Give directly to this campaign by clicking that green "donate" button! Your contribution is tax-deductible. 

3. Mail us a check made out to "Springboard for the Arts" with "The Birth Play Project" in the memo line to this address:

The Birth Play Project

3948 1st Ave S, Unit A

Minneapolis, MN 55409

4. Visit our website, engage with our Instagram account (@birthplayproject) or subscribe to our Substack! These are the best ways to get the latest BPP news, and we always appreciate amplification, so go ahead and share our posts with friends, beloveds, and co-conspirators alike. 

THANK YOU for considering a contribution to our work! 

Gently now, 

The Birth Play Project