Actor suffers cardiac arrest on stage at Mixed Blood

Warren Bowles was in critical condition after collapsing Friday night.

By GRAYDON ROYCE, Star Tribune

September 18, 2011 at 1:06PM
Warren C. Bowles
Warren C. Bowles (Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Veteran Twin Cities actor Warren Bowles was hospitalized Saturday in critical but stable condition after suffering cardiac arrest Friday night on stage at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.

Bowles, 63, collapsed near the end of the opening-night performance of "Neighbors," the theater's season-opening production. Paramedics revived him and took him to the Hennepin County Medical Center.

Jack Reuler, Mixed Blood's artistic director, said Saturday morning that he had been told that Bowles' heart was beating on its own.

Actress Sarah Agnew, who is in the production, said Bowles was on stage in a solo scene when he collapsed.

"It was terrible, and we were all very afraid for him," she said.

Earlier reports had indicated Bowles suffered a heart attack. The difference is that a heart attack is caused by a blockage in the coronary artery, while a cardiac arrest is a heart arrhythmia that causes the heart to stop beating.

"It was pretty miraculous work by the EMTs," Reuler said of the responders who treated Bowles.

Weekend performances of the show have been canceled, but it will resume at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday with a replacement for Bowles, Reuler said.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299

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GRAYDON ROYCE, Star Tribune