On Stage, a Non-Profit Theater Outreach Organization, brings local actors to college classrooms and community venues throughout the Twin Cities. Actors and students perform scenes from a play, followed by an engaging discussion that encourages critical thinking about current events and stories. Topics include social, political, and cultural issues like gender and racial violence and inequality, LGBTQ+ discrimination, environmental justice, cultural diaspora, and feelings of alienation and aging.

Saint Paul College recently hosted a reading and discussion of two plays, “Burn and Dash” and “Quinceañera.” “Burn and Dash” explores a child bride kidnapping within Hmong culture. The play takes place in the back of a van with two young girls from nearby villages who become friends and plan to escape a potential life as child brides. In “Quinceañera,” a girl confronts long-buried secrets that explore themes of motherhood, grief, queerness, self-discovery, and the pressure young girls face when someone close suddenly dies.

SPC’s Intro to Theater class hosted a reading and discussion event for both plays. Patti Gage, an SPC Intro to Theater faculty instructor, supports On Stage because they bring diverse stories to students and introduce them to smaller local theaters. The themes her class discussed included tradition, family expectations, womanhood, spirituality, and letting go of the past. Students focused on plot structure, characterization, and themes that align with our desired learning outcomes.

Students were highly engaged in the discussion and opened up in ways they usually don’t in the classroom. Bringing in On Stage to lead a discussion about themes that resonate with everyone sparks students’ interest in plays in ways they might not have considered before.

Patti Gage

SPC Theater Instructor

Culinary Arts hosted a second event focused on “Celebrating Women in Culinary Arts.” Culinary Arts Instructor Jason Ross appreciated how the event showed how food can be part of a much larger and important conversation, especially when incorporated into topics like politics and culture. He added, “Sometimes we take ourselves seriously at school with pursuing goals and learning outcomes, so a little fun for fun’s sake is a refreshing way for our students to gain new perspectives. Jason further highlighted two interesting comments from his students: 1) “It was interesting to think of cooking and how it applies to a theme,” and 2) “This was a great opportunity to expand our full creativity.”

Since its start in 2016, On Stage has produced 37 plays for over 9,500 students across twelve theater companies in the Twin Cities. They aim to improve in-class learning, make local theater more relevant to younger and non-traditional audiences, and lay the foundation for future theater attendance. These Plays will run at the Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis from September 19 to 28.