Cate Belleveau founded the 

Mask & Rose Women’s Theater Collective in 2006, driven by a desire to address the historical lack of representation and opportunities for women in the arts. 

Her inspiration was rooted in several key goals and beliefs:

• Empowering Women’s Voices: Belleveau noted that when she was growing up, women were often limited to roles such as secretaries, nurses, or stay-at-home mothers. She created the collective to provide women of all ages—from teenagers to elders—with a platform to use their gifts and find their voices.

• Recognizing Historical Contributions: A core mission of the theater is to ignite public recognition for the "essential contributions" women have made to theatrical and dramatic literature throughout history.

• Theater for Social Change: Belleveau believes theater should be more than just entertainment. She often uses the collective to produce "issue-oriented" plays and original works, such as Labels, which aimed to spark conversations about race and social classification.

• Mentoring Future Generations: Beyond empowering adult women, she was inspired to offer local youth high-quality theater experiences, hoping to foster dialogue on themes that affect their lives.

• Persistence Through Loss: The collective’s commitment was further solidified when it lost its original venue in the old Masonic Temple in Bemidji. This loss prompted Belleveau to relocate the theater to her 160-acre rural campus in Puposky, creating the unique, off-grid Wild Rose Theater to ensure these stories continued to be told.