BY LAURA HALL
Meena Natarajan, the artistic and executive director of Pangea World Theater, greeted me warmly outside their offices on Lake Street. She then guided me to the neighboring coffee and tea shop where we spent the next hour discussing Pangea’s ambitious artistic mission: a mission, as stated on their website, that “illuminates the human condition, celebrates cultural differences, and promotes human rights by creating and presenting international, multi-disciplinary theater.”
Natarajan explained that the origins of the theater can be traced back to Dipankar Mukherjee, the current artistic director at Pangea. In the early 1990s, Mukherjee was a resident director at the Guthrie Theater, which during that time was a mostly white theater community. “He [Mukherjee] would come out of the theater and create relationships with the Latino theater, the Asian-American theater, the African-American [theater],” explained Natarajan. To better support these different theater communities, Mukherjee, along with Keith Lee, Kathy Haddad and Luu Pham, opened Pangea World Theater in 1995. It created a space for many diverse artists.
Pangea recently hosted “#//<Embedded>//#,” a one-man show by out-of-town artist Pratik Motwani. Staged at the Southern Theater—with the Pangea staff on hand to welcome all the attendees, a welcome that made you feel more like a friend than a stranger—Motwani’s one-man show, equaling in energy to any full-cast production, steadily and enjoyably brought the audience into a world where the character’s virtual life and real life blended into one.
With the use of multiple projection screens, Motwani expertly intertwined two characters, both played by him: Cinnamon 1, the character being projected onto a large screen, whose sweet and naive charm easily won over the audience, and Cinnamon 2, the onstage character, representing Cinnamon 1’s virtual alter ego. With the all-too-eager help of Cinnamon 2, Cinnamon 1 is guided down a technology rabbit hole. And much like Alice in “Alice in Wonderland,” Cinnamon 1 is exposed to many exciting new experiences, including a virtual hot tub and instant online likes. After continuous consumption of this new exciting technology, Cinnamon 1 begins to lose his grip on reality, eventually turning into a technologically addicted young man who, unlike Alice, never emerges from the rabbit hole.
Not only is Pangea bringing in talented out-of-town artists, such as Motwani, they are also drawing from the local artist pool, and finding these artists, as Natarajan explains, “really comes up organically just by talking to people in the community.” Their Indigenous Voices Series is a perfect example of this. While Natarajan was attending an event at the Two Rivers Gallery in Minneapolis (a gallery supporting emerging Native artists), she asked the gallery director how best Pangea World Theater could support Native artists. What then followed was the creation of the Indigenous Voices Series—a series that features local as well as national and international Indigenous playwrights, directors and performers. Now in its 19th year, the Indigenous Voices Series has expanded into a month-long festival, happening Oct. 14-Nov. 17, 2019. Listed below is the lineup for the festival.
When asked what she hopes for Pangea in the future, Natarajan automatically responded with, “We really want our own space on Lake Street. That’s the future of the Theater.” With Pangea’s many positive contributions to the Twin Cities theater community, it seems only appropriate that this dream will become a reality for them very soon.
Indigenous Voices Festival: Oct. 14 – Nov. 17
“Honoring Who?: Ending Racism in Sports”
Facilitated by Angela
Two Stars
Oct. 14 | 3:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
All My Relations Gallery, 1414 E. Franklin Ave. Mpls. 55404
“Tatanka” by Tom LaBlanc (Work in Progress)
Directed by Dipankar Mukherjee.
Assistant Director: Sir Curtis
Kirby III
Oct. 25 – 26 | 7:30 p.m.
Pangea World Theater Studio, 711 W. Lake St., Ste. 101, Mpls. 55408
“Don’t Feed The Indians” –
A Divine Comedy Pageant
Written and Directed by Murielle Borst-Tarrant (Kuna/Rappahannock Nations)
Music by Kevin Tarrant (Hopi/Hochunk) of Silver Cloud Singers
Nov. 7 – Nov. 10 | Thursday 10 a.m.*, Friday & Saturday 7:30 p.m.
The Southern Theater, 1420 S. Washington Ave., Mpls. 55454
*Student matinee. Contact [email protected] for more information.
Staged Readings
“Soledad” by Carolyn Dunn
Directed by Murielle Borst-Tarrant (Kuna/Rappahannock Nations)
“Ingah Izitchigay Nibi Ohnje/I Will Do It For The Water” by Sharon Day
Directed by Dipankar Mukherjee
Assistant Director: Sir Curtis Kirby III
Nov. 14 -17 | Friday and Saturday 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 2:30 p.m.
Pangea World Theater Studio, 711 W. Lake St., Ste. 101, Mpls. 55408
“Two Brothers” by Ikidowin Youth Theater Ensemble
Directed by Sir Curtis Kirby III
Oct. 29 | 7:30 p.m.
Pangea World Theater Studio, 711 W. Lake St., Ste. 101, Mpls. 55408
For tickets or more information on the Indigenous Voices Festival visit https://www.pangeaworldtheater.org/indigenous-fest.
