‘Arts’ Archives
Heart of the Beast Theatre is Moving!
By HOBT The marquee at the Avalon Theatre on Lake Street. Courtesy: HOBT After 36 years at the Avalon Theatre building, 1500 East Lake Street, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (HOBT) intends to move to a new location and sell the building. HOBT has always been a place that welcomes all people no matter where it’s been located. Looking backFrom its humble beginnings inside a church basement, to a Lake Street storefront, to three floors above Lake Street, before settling into the Avalon Theatre also on Lake Street; the organization has helped nurture creative empowerment through the joy and magic of puppetry and education. Now, that legacy will continue in its new home. Going forward in a new location and expanding programming.“We look forward to creating and sharing collaborative spaces for artists, and comfortable, sensory-friendly spaces for anyone in the neurodivergent and disabled community,” says Elina Kotlyar, Interim Executive Director of HOBT. [...]
Heart of the Beast Not Limited To a Place
By HARVEY WINJE Heart of the Beast in the community. Photo Courtesy:HOBT HOBT has occupied four locations that served as indoor workshops, classrooms, performance stages, and offices while always doing production, teaching, and performing at other indoor and outdoor places. These spaces included parks, schools, theaters, community centers, and streets throughout the Twin Cities area and suburbs. Other traveling adventures took HOBT to Washington, D.C.; New Orleans, LA; Brookings and Mitchell, SD; Itasca, MN and to the Gulf of Mexico on a Mississippi river towns tour with ”Circle of Water Circus” (currently exhibited at the Hennepin History Museum). In 2000, HOBT performed at the DMZ–Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. HOBT has been a place that welcomes everyone no matter where it’s taught, performed, or at any one of its four studio/workshop/stage locations:1973-1985: Walker Community Church 3104 16th Avenue So; demolished after May 27, 2012 fire [...]
