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Uptown’s HUGE Improv Theater closing in October
The board said performances and classes will cease with the theater’s closure at the end of October.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis theater community was dealt a huge blow Friday after it was announced a popular improv performance space will close next month.
Managing director of Uptown’s HUGE Improv Theater, Sean Dillon, confirmed the news to KARE 11 Friday afternoon. Dillon said performances and classes will cease with the theater’s closure at the end of October. A Facebook post published by the theater chalked up the reasons for the decision as “complex, but they ultimately boil down to money.”
“The Board has concluded that, after a series of expected and unexpected challenges, cash flow just cannot sustain the work HUGE was set out to accomplish,” the post reads.
But while the theater maintains the closure comes amid financial troubles, some members of the community believe the closure is related to the resignation of the theater’s co-founder Butch Roy and artistic director Becky Hauser last month. The resignations came after it was alleged the theater whitewashed casting for an upcoming show. The theater’s co-executive and inclusion director, John Gebretatose, went on to write an open letter, questioning the theater’s commitment to diversity among its performers.
Following the resignations, the board released a statement on its website, saying it was “in the process of developing a plan to ensure we reflect our ideal that improv is for everyone.”
The HUGE Improv Theater Board also denied the rumors in its social media post Friday.
“We want to be emphatically clear: the open letter raising concerns about diversity on HUGE’s stage is not the reason for this closure,” the post said. “HUGE was already in a precarious financial situation, and there simply isn’t a viable way forward.
“Our struggle to find sufficient stable funding in no way diminishes the amazing work that HUGE has produced and supported over the years, and more importantly the diverse and enthusiastic community it has fostered.
“We know work still lies ahead to ensure that improv in the Twin Cities is truly a space for everyone, and we look to our community to continue these vital and challenging conversations.”
Co-founder Jill Bernard, who began improv in 1993, is grateful to have helped take the Minneapolis improv scene to new heights.
“When I started improv in 1993, there were very few women, there were very BIPOC performers, and we’ve sort of changed everything that’s possible for people to really hear and use their own voices on stage,” Bernard said. “And I feel like HUGE was a big part of that.”
The theater said it plans to run its shows through October as planned, as well as its fall term classes. The board encouraged the community to support performers and “participate in the life of the theater to the fullest extent you can.”
“There will be more to share as we move forward, but for now: thank you all for everything you have given to this place, and for always being the beating heart of what makes HUGE HUGE.”
Union Gospel Mission Twin Cities is offering to help those living outside its doors.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Union Gospel Mission Twin Cities has long helped people experiencing homelessness and other problems.
Now, the nonprofit’s outreach team is ramping up efforts to reach people living in an encampment right outside its men’s campus in St. Paul.
The encampment is located northwest of the building off of North John Street and University Avenue East. At least a couple dozen tents are stationed right next to a fence along UGMTC’s property line.
Community Relations Director Sarah Peterka says tents have been springing up for around a year-and-a-half now.
“It ebbs and flows based on the folks who kinda are leading the encampment,” Peterka said. “Weather also plays a factor in it.”
This month, UGMTC received an email from an individual concerned about the encampment, writing, “There is a recurring crisis of a tent city … No one feels safe going to and from the Mission. Please never stop and resolve the issue.”
Peterka made sure to respond.
“[The encampment is] not on our property, so we don’t have the ability to remove those folks or move them on,” she told KARE 11 on Wednesday. “It is Saint Paul public property.”
She went on to say UGMTC is in contact with the city and its Homeless Assistance Response Team.
“We wanna work with the city,” Peterka said, “and make sure everyone that happens to be outside is safe and has resources that they need – and – we wanna be able to swing our doors open and say, ‘Come in and have a meal and learn more about what we’re doing.'”
Union Gospel Mission Twin Cities is a Christian nonprofit that started helping people in 1902. With more than a century of services, the organization did not hesitate to offer help to those living right outside its doors today.
Peterka says an outreach team as well as chaplains have been visiting the encampment weekly, and some people receive the help.
“A handful of folks leave the encampment and come to our emergency services program and into our transitional housing program as well,” Peterka said. “So, sometimes it does work. Sometimes it works to have that invitation or hot meals, a shower, some clean clothes, a safe place to put your head under a roof which is a little safer than being outside.”
“There are a lot of folks who are shelter-adverse out in the encampments,” Peterka said.
The email wasn’t the nonprofit’s first complaint over the last year-and-a-half, as it’s also heard from several nearby businesses.
“Every so often, we receive some kind of comment or concern about the John Street encampment,” Peterka said. “This one complaint actually helped us get together with the city of Saint Paul and the HART team, and we’re working on a comprehensive plan.”
Peterka says in the next week or so, UGMTC plans to meet with the city and its HART team to work out the details of their comprehensive plan.
The nonprofit is also looking ahead to its annual Thanksgiving Day meal, asking the community to help stock its kitchen shelves by Monday, Sept. 30. UGMTC served and distributed 220,868 nutritious meals throughout 2023.
MPD says the homicide occurred near Bloomington Avenue and East 25th Street.
MINNEAPOLIS — Police are investigating a homicide Wednesday evening in south Minneapolis.
According to the Minneapolis Police Department, the homicide occurred near Bloomington Avenue and East 25th Street.
No other information has been released.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Economists say the rate cut will have positive and negative affects on American consumers.
SAINT PAUL, Minn. — The financial world is buzzing after the Fed announced plans to cut the federal interest rate by 0.5%.
The stock market reacted immediately after the announcement was made Wednesday afternoon, with many indexes jumping initially and then ending the day negative.
Economists say the rate cut will send shockwaves throughout the entire economy, but how will the rate cut affect the average American consumer?
Let’s start with credit cards.
University of Saint Thomas Economics Professor Tyler Schipper says the rate cut will have a significant impact on credit card interest rates.
“There are a couple of places where you’ll see the impact relatively early and one of those places will be with credit cards,” Schipper explains.
“Borrowers will see a lower rate on their bill very quickly, maybe a billing cycle or two, that you’ll actually start to see those credit card interest rates come down.”
It’s unclear how significant the interest rate cuts on credit cards will be, but Schipper says it’s very possible they will be close to matching the 0.5% cut on the federal rate.
“A half-percent drop may not seem like a big deal for some people, but if you have a lot of credit card debt, that can have a big impact on your ability to get on top of it,” Schipper says.
The Fed’s rate cut will also have an impact on auto loans.
Professor Schipper says there is a weaker correlation between the federal rate and the interest rates on car loans, but he suspects car buyers should see some relief in the coming months.
“Car loans are tricky,” Schipper says.
“My best guess would be they are responsive, but not as responsive as those credit card rates.”
The rate cut will also affect the housing market.
Schipper says mortgage rates were already going down heading into the Fed’s meeting this week, and we could see another drop slowly over the next few months.
But the immediate impact could be a rush of homebuyers coming back into the market.
“Because people have been sitting on the sideline for so long that they feel like it’s now time to start searching. So there very well might be a psychological effect to this,” Schipper says.
It’s not all good news for consumers.
Schipper says savers will see lower returns on their savings accounts, bonds and CDs, which could affect seniors who are depending on those higher returns to maintain their retirement.
“A lot of those interest rates that were rewarding savers are going to start to come down,” Schipper says.
“Where people might want to store their extra dollars is going to change again as these interest rates come down.”
The Fed will meet two more times before the end of the year, and many economists believe we could see another rate cut, maybe even two rate cuts, by the end of the year.
So, some good news for borrowers, but for savers, those high returns are going to come back down to a normal level.
