Collaborative politics are at the heart of Pangea. We believe that ensemble building is movement building, and ensemble does not end when the project is complete. The stage is a point of entry, and movement building is a lifelong journey. If you are in conversation with us, sharing your creativity and your spirit, we thank you for being our collaborator.
As our world becomes increasingly polarized, and we see our communities increasingly siloed and pitted against one another, work like ours becomes ever more important. The degree that we allow ourselves to be separated from one another is the degree that we are denied justice for our own communities.
By creating art together, we put the idea of solidarity into practice. We embody it. We have tough conversations that cause true transformation.
While you may never know what it means to live another person’s life, we can learn what it feels like to be open to one another. Interdependent. What it feels like to let that person pour their weight onto you, and what it feels like to let them receive yours as well.
In a circle, there are no margins. There is only the center, where the fire burns and where the work happens, and the people who hold the circle together.
Offstage and onstage, there would be no Pangea without our collaborators. For instance, in 2008, when so many theater companies closed their doors because of the recession, Pangea World Theater and Teatro Del Pueblo banded together, sharing resources, co-producing work, and building one another’s audiences. That is not only how we survived, but it is how we continue to grow together to this day.
By joining with New Native Theatre, Penumbra Theater, Teatro Del Pueblo, and Theater Mu, we formed the Twin Cities Theater of Color Coalition. And for the past seven years, we have been standing together to raise our voices as one for equity in philanthropy for BIPOC theaters and artists. Alone, we can only bemoan inequities in the field, but together, we have engaged in crucial dialogue with funders in our community, who have taken important steps to make their funding practices more equitable. And this work continues.
On Lake Street, after the murder of Mr. George Floyd, and the civil unrest that followed, we joined together with businesses and leaders in Downtown Longfellow to form Longfellow Rising. Together, alongside incredible partners like Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Moon Palace Books, and Gandhi Mahal, we have continued to activate the space at 27th Ave & Lake Street, ensuring this space continues to serve as a hub for diverse communities to come together, and a place of gathering and joy.
There are so many more important collaborations we could name today. But what matters most is that when you work with Pangea, you are at home. Your whole self is welcome here. Always. That is our commitment to you, and it is also one of our greatest sources of joy.