Mission, Vision & Values
In the Heart of the Beast (HOBT) is a community of artists working within our larger community to create magic together. Everything that we do, from youth arts programming to performances and workshops for adults is carefully grounded in our mission, vision, and values.
What We Do
Start with water, flour, newspaper, paint. Add a large measure of imagination and a dollop of artistry to make stories about our world come alive through puppets. This is In the Heart of the Beast’s 50 year-old puppet recipe. Since 1973, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre has helped to create and cultivate the puppetry community in the Twin Cities.
We are a world-renowned theater recognized for our large scale puppets and activism. We have brought some of the most talented puppeteers to Minneapolis while maintaining a strong connection to the local puppet community.
In the Heart of the Beast (HOBT) is a community of artists working within our larger community to create magic together. We make puppets large and small, monstrous, beautiful, silly, human, plant, animal, you name it. We use gesture, voice, form, and color, giving life to puppets that help tell stories to represent the world as it is and as we dream it could be.
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 ...”
—Steven Linsner
Mission, Vision & Values
Mission
In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre nurtures creative empowerment through the joy and magic of puppetry performance and education.
Vision
HOBT envisions a world where people thrive through welcoming, accessible, and transformational opportunities in the art of puppet-making and performance.
Values
Limitless Imagination
We open our doors to the expansive and diverse communities that surround us, and center artists in our decisions, process, and plans. We promote creativity as a tool in the movements for social and environmental justice.
"Anyone can be a puppeteer; anything can be a puppet; with puppetry you can do anything."
—Daniel Polnau
Embracing the Mess
Creating puppetry often involves getting messy. We roll up our sleeves and apply this ethos to the physical, emotional, and intellectual aspects of our work. We investigate our mistakes with honesty and curiosity, as opportunities to learn. We move towards opportunities to grow our understanding and empathy.
Personal evolution for societal revolution
We understand we are part of an interconnected web of communities and ecosystems. We repair and strengthen the fabric of these connections through art.