Bohemian Flats

By Liz Neerland

mud

Dredged by hand over limestone chips piled at the edge of the Mississippi below St. Anthony Falls. Simple wooden houses, built by their owners and arranged haphazardly. No streets, no running water, no electricity. Flooding every spring, freezing every winter.

Home.

Director and playwright Liz Neerland dips into historical records, photographs, and family archives to bring a vivid portrait of the struggles of a diverse and lively Minneapolis immigrant world to the stage. Our story begins in 1869, and a tiny village grows and thrives literally at the river’s edge, as the years pass and the burgeoning city of Minneapolis tries to crowd it out. Births, marriages, deaths, floods, fights, fires, all play out in a collection of tiny cottages right on the west bank. Nothing now remains but a park bearing the name: Bohemian Flats.

March 16 - April 7, 2013

The Ensemble