Mission Statement
We believe that the performing arts should engage, challenge, stimulate, inspire, educate, reflect, empower and nourish artists, audiences and communities.
We are committed to the cultural enrichment of Saint Paul's ethnically and economically diverse East Side neighborhoods.
We will work as a catalyst and magnet for local arts and culture by developing new programs and partnerships which create opportunities for adults/youth to actively participate in drama, music, dance, cinema, multimedia and other arts and cultural activities.
We will strive to increase acces to arts for East Side residents by attracting affordable dramatic, musical, dance, cinematic and other arts and cultural performanes at he Mounds Theatre facility and by offering facilities and programing support to artists and performers.
Description
The Historical Mounds Theatre in Saint Paul has been open to the public for the last 10 years. The theatre itself was given to the Portage for Youth, a nonprofit, after school and summer enrichment center for at-risk young women.
As many of our programs were arts related, we are now headed in a new direction for 2011. We will still continue arts programming for youth, but we are also adding a new dinner theatre component.
Over the years, the Mounds Theatre has established connections to supportive communities, businesses and theatre patrons and a history of having professional productions at the theatre.
In addition the Mounds Theatre has tested dinner theatre in February and March of 2010 with their professional production of "Knotareel Getaway Cruise". Building on that success and what was learned from that production, Mounds Theatre has planned a full year of dinner theatre with five scheduled productions running from January to December 2011.
The Mound Theatre believes they can run a successfu business and provide laughter and quality, professional dinner theatre to people for a reasonable price during these current economic times.
Mounds Theatre feels a wide variety of communities will benefit from their dinner theater. First, the patrons, from individuals to groups to business events to bus tours, will be able to come and laugh and maybe leave a little lighter than when they came. The theatre already has a connection with the deaf community and is planning an ASL interpreted performance for each of the five productions. The local, professional actors will have another place to find employment and another opportunity to share the joy they are able to create. Something done on this scale, with this quality in mind, is sure to also enrich the very community of which the theater is a part, making a wonderful dinner theater experience more readily available to a whole new area of the Twin Cities.
