Where’s Bedlam gonna BE???

May–July 2011, Bedlam’s gonna be all over town:

BUT WHAT ABOUT A BUILDING????

When we first heard we would have to leave our Cedar Riverside venue last summer, we spent a wild & crazy few months looking at (way, way too many) great potential sites around the Twin Cities. Thanks to all the great community supporters, neighborhood organizers, city staff, et al – we got well on the way to figuring out how to make sure our next move was the right one for Bedlam and the Twin Cities. Ultimately, it became clear that the next step was to seriously consider geography, not just for what we (Bedlam and the T.C.) are NOW, but what we think we’d like to become, 10, 20 years down the bikepath as well.

GEOGRAPHY??? Ok, yes, we love South Minneapolis, West Bank and are really, really grooving on the Hiawatha Corridor and Greenway bikepaths. Meanwhile, there is some serious forward thinking movement in several other areas that we were convinced were worth considering. To that end, the 10th Annual Bedlam Community 10 Minute Play Festival was scheduled on Broadway Avenue in North Minneapolis at the Capri Theater in May, and the 5th Annual Infiammati Fire Circus on University Avenue in St. Paul. While these aren’t the only areas on the drawing board necessarily, they are the areas with which we personally had the least experience, and made the most sense as prioritizing 2011 projects to get to know a little better.

Though its been hard to be without a Bedlam destination/venue this winter and spring, we really want to INVEST in the next long term home as an exciting and solid evolution of everything we’ve learned so far, something the realizes the fantastic dreaming and scheming you’ve all contributed to.

MEANWHILE, we’re also having a kick-ass time Bedlam-IZING spaces around the Twin Cities: Walker Art Center, Intermedia, HOBT, big open parking lots on University Avenue – and thanks to work with Mixed Blood and the Brian Coyle Center, have continued our youth work in Cedar Riverside in 2011 more than ever.

Once we make some geographic decisions this late summer, it still may be the case that the future COMPLEX is a couple/few years in the making. So we may also decide to open up a mini-Social outpost in the meantime.

We hope you’ll stay a part of these conversations as we figure out the Bedlam NEXT, join us at all the fantastic shows and events this spring and summer. We make it with you.