I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
April 9, 1997
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
Legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson broke the National League's color barrier 50 years ago this baseball season.
His career lasted 10 years in the major leagues, but Warren Bowles' career playing him in the play "Jackie Robinson" has lasted 16.
Bowles, an actor for The Mixed Blood Theatre Company of Minneapolis, will be presenting the one-man performance "Jackie Robinson" 7:30 p.m. today at Bemidji State University's Thompson Recital Hall, located in Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex.
Set in the Brooklyn Dodger's clubhouse at Ebbetts Field during the final game of the 1956 World Series -- the last game Robinson would play -- the play explores the life and accomplishments of Robinson as a baseball player and civil rights pioneer, according to Charlie Moore, who schedules performances for Mixed Blood.
"But it's more than 'I hit a double and stole third,'" he said.
The premise of the play is that a young kid has sneaked into the clubhouse before the game and asks Robinson questions about his life, providing him a forum to look back on his life in the majors and how he got there.
The play, written by former Mixed Blood actor Sharon Waltman, was commissioned by the theater company in the early 1980s, according to Moore. It lasts about 45 minutes.
Bowles has traveled the country performing the play "Jackie Robinson" since it was written, 16 years ago, and performs other similar productions about Martin Luther King Jr. and Paul Robeson.
The play is one of seven The Mixed Blood Theatre travels to schools across Minnesota each year to produce, presenting more than 500 shows a year. Bowles himself does 120 to 150 shows a year.
"I think it's a popular play because people like baseball," Bowles said. "American culture, and Jackie has been an icon of baseball."
Bowles said even though the production has been popular for the 16 years he has been doing it, the audiences -- mostly children -- have been losing touch lately with who Robinson is.
"I've even had a couple of teachers ask me 'Now, Jackie Robinson -- just who is he?'" he said.
But, he admits, he didn't even understand the significance of Robinson's life when he first started performing the play.
"When I first started portraying him, I thought he was just a dumb jock," he said. "I realize now how important of an event the integration of baseball was and what a strong man Jackie was. I've gained such a respect for the man over the years."
Based in the Twin Cities, Bowles was the first black actor to play the title role of "Cyrano de Bergerac" and has appeared off-Broadway, at the Guthrie Theater, and with regional throughout the country.
He has appeared a number of times at the Paul Bunyan Playhouse in Bemidji, most recently in "Driving Miss Daisy." He has also performed the solo production of "Dr. Martin Luther King" at BSU.
Founded in 1976, the Mixed Blood Theatre Company is a multi-racial, non-profit professional theater, according to Moore. In addition to Afro-American history productions, the theater produces plays with American Indian, Chicano and Asian themes.
According to Hobson Union Programming Board Director Annette Altman -- the group sponsoring the play -- it wanted to have the show at BSU in February during Black History Month, but there was not enough time.
She said there were too many events -- such as the play "Daughters of Africa," another Mixed Blood Theatre production -- that may have overshadowed the play. So, it was scheduled now.
Bowles also performed Tuesday in Nevis, and this morning at the Park Rapids Elementary School. BSU's production tonight has admission of $2 for the general public.
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