Local Production Company Pushing On After Costly Car Wreck
Mixed Metaphors Productions announces new mission, partnership with QC Family Tree
When a car crashed into Kat Martin’s home while she was hosting a Christmas party last December, it was a miracle no one got hurt. However, the loss suffered that night went far beyond the damage done to her home.
As co-founder of Mixed Metaphors Productions, an experiential, multimedia theatre group based in Charlotte, Martin was storing materials for the company’s various productions in the front of her home — right where the driver made entry.
“We lost every bit of material that I’ve been artistically hoarding for the past two years; everything I’ve ever bought, every supply, everything was lost in that crash,” she said.
Having used that space for rehearsals as well, Martin said it felt like MMP was starting from scratch as they transitioned into 2025. In need of resuscitation, Martin and the MMP team organized their inaugural fundraising gala, Heavenly Bodies: The Gala.
Held on April 5, the gala featured a silent auction, food, music and some big announcements for the company’s future including a fresh, new mission statement: “To disrupt narratives of erasure through immersive theatre, installation art, and new oral history from Charlotte, North Carolina.”
MMP also announced a new three-year partnership with QC Family Tree, which it partnered with for the production of Kudzu: A Story of Belonging, named Best Immersive Theatre Production in Queen City Nerve’s 2024 Best in the Nest issue.
Read more: ‘Kudzu: A Story of Belonging’ Explores the Impact of Gentrification (2024)
Together, QC Family Tree and Mixed Metaphors Productions will co-produce The 704 Cycle, a community-devised-and-led immersive and experiential theatre series that will begin this summer with It Be Like That Sometimes.
Returning to the QC Family Tree’s Big Blue House in Enderly Park where Kudzu was produced, It Be Like That Sometimes will explore the impact of injustice and oppressive societal narratives on the mental health of those most affected, according to Martin.
Using immersive theatre, music and installation art, the production will ask, “How does systemic injustice encroach on the domestic space and the most sacred space of all: our minds?”
Martin said the partnership comes at “a time for growth” spurred not only by the destruction of MMP’s property but the new threats brought by the second Trump administration.
Martin and her team are well aware that grant funding may be harder to come by this year, as the company’s grant applications almost always incorporate keywords and phrases that have been flagged and condemned by the anti-DEI administration.
“The list of words we’re not supposed to say on grant applications are all of our favorite words,” she said. “We’re going to use those words. That’s what we do. That’s what we’ve been doing. We’ll be continuing to do that regardless of any larger picture question.”
These hardships only inspire her to work harder in telling the stories that often go untold in the more mainstream corners of Charlotte’s performing arts scene.
“We feel even more determined to make sure that we continue to disrupt these narratives,” Martin said. “We will not be held down. We will not be stopped. We know how to make something out of nothing and we’re not going to stop.”
While last weekend’s inaugural fundraising gala helped, as of the time of this writing MMP was still about $5,000 shy of their goal. The company is not just trying to replace sets, props and other materials but will now need to find rehearsal space, which they didn’t have to pay for before the wreck.
Martin said she didn’t realize just how stable the company had become until they lost it all last December.
“If we had an opportunity for a pop-up or to partner with a museum, we had everything we needed. We could just go and do it. Now, we really are starting from scratch after that accident,” she said.
Read more: ‘SwimCap’ Aims to Correct the Narrative Around Black People and Swimming (2023)
It’s a lamentable loss, but considering that the home wasn’t empty at the time of the collision, Martin knows it could have been a lot worse.
“We’re all alive,” Martin said. “That night could have had a body count. We feel like — not to be toxic positive — it was a catastrophe. But we do feel a motivation to be like, ‘We are here, and we will make the most of it.’”
Check out Mixed Metaphors Productions’ Linktree for info on how you can help them reach their fundraising goals and more. Follow the company on Instagram to get updates about It Be Like That Sometimes as the production nears.
