Penumbra's goals are: To increase public awareness of the significant contributions of African Americans in creating a diversified American theatrical tradition. The Penumbra Theatre Company, an African-American theatre company in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was founded by Lou Bellamy in 1976. The theater has been recognized for its artistic quality and its role in launching the careers of playwrights including two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson. The 135-seat theater serves as a space to showcase the exploration of the African-American experience.

Paul is important to this story,” said Lou Bellamy, talking about the 40-year history of the company he founded, Penumbra Theatre, and the new Minnesota History Center exhibit that celebrates Penumbra. Penumbra Theatre founder Lou Bellamy and artistic director Sarah Bellamy.

(Courtesy of Penumbra)“I can’t think of being anywhere else,” Bellamy said of the nation’s largest African-American theater. “For me, it was a simple statement by Booker T. Washington: ‘Cast down your bucket where you are.’ You don’t have to go anywhere to do things. And from that little 260-seat theater, we have reached around the world.”That reach is evidenced by the fact that two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson — the former St. Culdcept revolt gameplay. Paul resident who was inspired to become a playwright by Penumbra company members and whose work was given its first professional production by the theater — is now produced across the globe. (He’s also nominated for a posthumous Oscar for the screenplay for the new film of his “Fences.”) Bellamy can’t read them, but he owns copies of Japanese translations of some of the plays Penumbra has done.Honoring the 40 years of Penumbra — under founder Lou Bellamy and current artistic director Sarah Bellamy (Lou’s daughter) — seemed like a great idea to the theater’s board and to staffers at the History Center, who had never done an exhibit about a theater.

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But creating an exhibit out of an art form that demands to be experienced live presented challenges. (To supply a live element, on select Tuesdays and this Saturday’s free “Family Day,” Penumbra actors will perform excerpts from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Fences.”).

Written by Langston Hughes and first performed in 1961, “Black Nativity” has become a holiday staple for many African-American theater companies. At Penumbra Theatre, the story has been framed within different historical eras: the Reconstruction period, featuring the northward journey of recently emancipated African-Americans; biblical times in northeast Africa; a contemporary setting in St.

Paul and a retelling of the nativity story with choral accompaniment. Pictured are Novik Stubbs, T. Mychael Rambo and Phillip Bond in the 1988 production. (Courtesy of Penumbra Theatre: Connie Jerome)“How are you going to do an exhibit about a theater company?

Don’t you need to see the shows?” asks Kate Roberts, senior exhibit developer at the History Center. “The key for all of us was when we talked to Lou and Sarah and began to understand that a play is always more than a play for them. Their goal, from Day 1, has been to foster community conversation. They see themselves as part of a trajectory of African-American thought. When that fell into place for us, we thought, ‘Wow, this is a story that will connect to our visitors on so many levels.’ ”Beginning with a video in which TV personality Hoda Kotb, among others, expresses surprise that Penumbra exists in St. Paul, the “Penumbra at 40” exhibit includes costumes, play scripts, video clips, filmed interviews with company members, a thrilling audio clip of a curtain call from the play “Black Eagles” and a wall that brings together 40 years of programs. There’s also a section devoted to Wilson’s pivotal work, “Fences,” which includes a knock-out poster by artist Seitu Jones, the bat Lou Bellamy carried when he portrayed the play’s protagonist, Troy Maxson, and a huge chunk of the set (so huge that the center had to chop off part of it to fit it into the building).

August Wilson wrote “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” in 1982. It tells the story of a jazz artist and her band in 1920s Chicago. It is part of Wilson’s 10-play series, “The Twentieth Century Cycle,” which chronicles each decade of African American experience in the 20th century. Penumbra staged the play in 1987, 1996 and 2011. LeFebvre designed the costumes for the 2011 production.“One thing we wanted to make sure was that the work Lou does, especially around August Wilson, was represented.

He has set such high production values over the years and the aesthetic is so particular at Penumbra. We wanted people to see that,” said Sarah Bellamy.The “Fences” artifacts are her favorite part of the exhibit, partly for personal reasons: As a child, she appeared in the play with her father.“I can’t tell you what a cool experience that was, to see him in that powerful role, in tremendous command of his craft,” said Sarah. “To watch that, night after night, and be able to look out into the audience and see their reactions, to witness the power of that work at such a young age is really part of what makes we want to preserve and protect it now.”. Lou Bellamy is most moved by a segment devoted to the history of the Langston Hughes holiday show, “Black Nativity,” including footage of performers who are no longer alive.