Special performance by Public Theater of Minnesota focuses on organ donor awareness

The Public Theater of Minnesota wants to capture your heart — and as many other organs as you can spare.

Now in its fifth year, the St. Louis Park-based theater is hoping to raise awareness of organ and tissue donation through its latest production, "I And You." The play by Lauren Gunderson focuses on the unlikely relationship between a 17-year-old girl waiting for a liver transplant and a high school jock who secretly loves poetry.

The 2 p.m. matinee performance Feb. 15 at Sabes Jewish Community Center will feature a postperformance discussion about organ and tissue donation, with participation by individuals and families whose lives were changed by organ gifts.

Mark Hauck, the theater's founder and artistic director, said such events help put the "public" in public theater.

"I see it as a civic exercise as much as an artistic exercise," he said. "We are focused on nurturing audiences that don't typically attend theater."

LifeSource, which manages organ and tissue donation in Minnesota and the Dakotas, is making an effort to promote conversation about organ donation through the arts, said spokeswoman Rebecca Ousley.

"Art creates a safe space for people to talk about difficult issues," Ousley said. "The Public Theater is showing the reality of what donation and transplantation can look like, in a safe place where these characters are fictional."

"I'm amazed at how many lives are touched by that decision to check the box on your driver's license," Hauck said.

Hauck, 50, has worked in theater most of his life. He co-founded the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, and he thought that would be the last time he'd ever start a performing group from scratch.

"Starting a theater is kind of a crazy thing," he said. "I swore I'd never do it again." But the theater bug bit when he had a chance to create a professional theater group focused on providing opportunities to new and emerging artists.

For the past four years, the Public Theater has mounted free summer Shakespeare productions at the Veterans Memorial Amphitheater in Wolfe Park. "I And You" is the group's first non-summer production.

Ironically, the theater is moving its summer productions to Silverwood Park in St. Anthony. The noise from passing airplanes became too disruptive for outdoor productions. The theater will continue to be based in St. Louis Park, however.

"Teenagers are smart and funny and not sentimental," he said. And although the central character is a would-be organ recipient, the play isn't about organ donation. Rather, it's about connection.

"What speaks to me about this play is how we treat people with health issues," said Ricardo Beaird, who plays Anthony, the poetry-loving jock. "We think about them as 'that disease' rather than 'that person.' The characters are real people. This isn't a PSA."