About Our Name

Our original name was Powderhorn Puppet Theatre in honor of the neighborhood in which our theatre is located, Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis. In 1979, company member and poet Steven Linsner suggested the name “In the Heart of the Beast” as a metaphor for our theater. He wrote,

To be puppeteers in the Heart of the Beast…

…is to find ourselves in the great world Beast made of families, races, ages, sexes, classes, corporations and nations, people, (and creatures!) all different, working out a way to live together.

…is to work puppets. To hold life in our hands, to sense how we are all like puppets—worked by instincts, voices, and forces above us and below us.

…is to carry and protect something very old like a heart within us, a secret, a promise. Like carrying a flickering candle through a dark place. Like carrying a family in a horse-drawn wagon.

…is to travel the roads of history and loss, in search of something like a new heart: new communities, new families, new work, new holidays.

…is to tell the story of people who live in the heart of the beast—as courageous and resourceful as they really are.

TCG Conference - Artistry in a New Century - Twin Cities, June 7-9, 2007.

Image Description: A photograph taken in the city shows a large white bird puppet towering over an audience while a gathering of miscellaneous white antlered creatures gather in front.