At the Foot of the Mountain Theater Company

2000 S. 5th Street, Minneapolis, MN (1974-1991)

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A group of men and women created At the Foot of the Mountain (ATFM) as an experimental theater in 1974,(1) during the “second wave” of feminism in the United States.This period called for separate spaces that were geared to (and, in plentiful instances, exclusively for) women who sought to grow and work outside of hegemonic patriarchy. Popular attitudes may continue to consider the theater as a queer space for men, but this is certainly not exclusively the case.

The theater group employed women for all aspects of each production and welcomed queer themes; they were part of a spectrum of subjects that included “battered women, women and work, nurses, women in religion, adolescent girls, pornography, the decision whether or not to have children, and many others.”(2)	"The Girl's Room" (1983?) "The Story of a Mother" (1987) "Raped: A Woman's Look at Bertolt Brecht's The Exception and the Rule" (1987)

Many consider that ATHFM’s feminist slant was a “naturally queer-inclusive” venue for lesbian theater, but feminism and queer women did not always mix. Locally, the mixture worked because two of the group’s founders, Martha Boesing and Phyllis Jane Wagner, became partners in 1975.(3) Their romance helped to ensure the inclusion of queer plays in the company’s repertoire.

Like other theater groups at the time, queer or not, At the Foot of the Mountain did not call a particular theater space home. Instead, the group produced plays in (typically) the small community theaters that exist throughout Minneapolis—including the West Bank Firehouse/Mixed Blood Theater, the Southern, and even traveled to national venues.(4)

Minnesota already boasted an impressive theater heritage by the 1970s, so many of ‘The Mountain’s” actresses were well-trained and met the audience’s high expectations. Performances generally garnered positive reviews at this time, though the theater’s frequent insistence on crowd participation startled some spectators. The Mountain’s structure struggled between theatrical production for art’s sake and production to achieve political goals. This contention eventually spelled the organization’s downfall in 1991.

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Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: 100 Queer Places in Minnesota History, (1860-2010)

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(1)Bemis, Sandra M. “The Difficulties Facing Feminist Theater: The Survival at the Foot of the Mountain.” Volume I, 1987.

(2)Hedin, Nancy and St. Martin, Michele. “A Stage of Their Own.” Minnesota Women’s Press: http://www.womenspress.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=2782&TM=45219.55. Retrieved 4/24/10

(3)Harding, James Martin and Rosenthal, Cindy. Restaging the Sixties: Radical Theaters and Their Lagacies. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2006. Page 126.

(4)Boesling, Martha. “About Martha” From her website: http://www.marthaboesing.com/about.htm