Sarah Brown

Sarah Brown,  Actress, Improviser, Dancer & Theatre Educator
Sarah received her Master of Arts in Theatre Education from Emerson College in Boston, MA in 2004.  There she worked for Wheelock Family Theatre, Theater Espresso, and Improv Asylum. She then took the leap to Los Angeles where she studied and performed at IO West in Hollywood. Realizing TV and Film were not for her she returned to her home state of Minnesota. Locally she has worked for the Guthrie Theater, Gremlin Theatre, The National Theater for Children, Brave New Workshop, Savage Umbrella, and Tiger Lion Arts. In the past year she has joined the Barbara Schneider Foundation where she acts in simulation trainings for public service employes to improve their communication and de-escalation skills with people in mental health crises. Her passion lies in the intersection of theater and education where she can help improve people’s lives using the powerful tool of theater. She is grateful to Upstream Arts for giving her this opportunity to do so.

Lindsay Cacich

Lindsey Cacich, Director, Actor & Educator
Lindsey Cacich is a local director, actor, and educator. As an actor she has performed with The Children’s Theatre Company, Piccolo Theatre, Center for Hmong Arts and Talent, Bedlam Theatre, and Upright Egg. Lindsey made her directing debut this past winter with Pedestrian Casualty: Bronx, USA for Twenty Percent Theatre Company. For 2 years, she was mentored in directing by Marion McClinton, assisting him on productions at Pillsbury House Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, Mixed Blood, Ten Thousand Things, Kansas City Rep and 59E59. As a teacher, Lindsey focuses primarily on social justice theater and the creation of original plays by youth, which she has done with Steppingstone Theatre, St. Paul Central High School, and Pillsbury House Theatre. Lindsey holds a B.A. in Theater from Loyola University Chicago.

Jessica Finney, Director, Stage Manager & Educator
Jessica Finney is a director, stage manager and educator. She was a founder and Producing Director for Emigrant Theater (City Pages Best Independent Theater 2007), where she staged My Name Is Rachel Corrie (Top Five solo shows, Star Tribune), Blue Door, Jesus Hates Me, Hunger, THOM PAIN (based on nothing), Tallgrass Gothic (Top Ten production, City Pages and Lavender Magazine), A Corner of the World and The Presence of Children. Last year, she staged Will Eno’s The Flu Season for the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of North Carolina. She has worked on Tegonni: an African Antigone, a collaboration with Collective Artistes (UK), the Performance Studio Workshop of Nigeria and the University of Richmond. Finney is a practitioner of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed and has led workshops in the Twin Cities and on the East Coast (Chapel Hill, NC; Richmond, VA and Portland, ME). A frequent mentor for Pillsbury House Theatre’s Chicago Avenue Project, she has also worked on Pericles and A Christmas Carol (Guthrie), the world premiere of Lillian Groag’s Midons (People’s Light & Theatre) and Raw Stages at the History Theatre. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab and has trained with Augusto Boal. She has stage managed for the Jungle, Mixed Blood, Guthrie, Playwrights’ Center, and Frank along with Madison Rep (WI), People’s Light & Theatre Company (PA) and Portland Stage Company (ME). Member: AEA.

Charles Fraser

Charles Fraser, Actor
Charles Fraser is an actor based in the Twin Cities where he has worked for the Guthrie Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Jon Hassler Theater, Park Square Theatre, Minnesota Shakespeare Project, Minnesota Festival Theatre, Brave New Workshop, Illusion Theater, and Thirst. He has also performed at New Stage Theatre in Jackson, Mississippi, Lincoln Amphitheatre in Lincoln City, Indiana, and aboard Disney Cruise Line’s flagship, Disney Magic. He is featured in the films Pull, Jurisprejudice, Hinkleton, and The Completely Remarkable, Utterly Fabulous Transformation of a Regular Joe. He has taught in elementary, high schools, colleges and universities across the United States as part the Guthrie on Tour as well as the Guthrie’s Schools on Stage, Summer Conferences, Summer Camps, Target Play Dates, and Guthrie in the Parks. He also teaches adult and teen acting classes at the Guthrie Learning Center.

Dylan Fresco, Musician & Actor
Dylan Fresco is an actor, singer, and educator. He has performed with the Children’s Theater, Penumbra Theater, Ten Thousand Things, the Guthrie, Pillsbury House Theatre’s Chicago Avenue Project, the Red Eye, Theatre Pro Rata, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others. Each week, he clowns around with kids and families on a live call-in TV show at Children’s Hospital. He also tells tales, sings romantic Russian ballads, and plays guitar and ukulele at many public and private venues. He is a regular teaching artist for the Guthrie Theater’s educational programs, and has worked with kids at Steppingstone and in the Minneapolis public schools. Dylan is a graduate of Carleton College, and of the Dell’arte International School of Physical Theatre. You can read about what he’s up to at www.dylanfresco.com.

Ryan Hoag

Ryan Hoag, Actor, Educator and Athlete
Ryan Hoag is a 2003 graduate of Gustavus where he obtained a degree in Elementary Education. Instead of moving directly into teaching as a profession, the NFL draft steered his future to Oakland where he was a 7th round pick by the Oakland Raiders in 2003. SInce 2003, Ryan has been on five different teams in the NFL and is currently a member of the upstart United Football League’s Omaha Nighthawks squad. When he is not playing football, Ryan is a teacher in the Minneapolis school district as well as the head mens tennis coach for Minneapolis Washburn high school. During the summer, Ryan is an instructor at the 19 tennis and life camps held at Gustavus annually. Acting and modeling is another passion for Ryan.

Anton Jones, Playwright, Director, Composer and Theatre Educator
Anton Jones holds his MFA from the University of Iowa Playwright’s Workshop. He has directed for Pillsbury House Theatre, The Illusion Theatre, Great American History Theatre and is a two time recipient of the Playwight’s Center/Jerome Many Voices Fellowship. As a composer his music has been heard at Pillsbury House Theatre, Illusion, and as the full score for a runway Show in Hamburg, Germany. As a teaching artist he has worked with North High School to develop a hip-hop adaptation of “Lord of the Flies”, with Penumbra Theatre and St. Paul Academy of Performing Arts to develop original works based off of the styles of August Wilson, as well as teaching various classes with a focus on ensemble created work through theatres such as Children’s Theatre Company, Pangea World Theatre, and The Guthrie Theatre. He is currently working with various Minneapolis Public Schools through Arts for Academic Achievement where he uses his multidisciplinary background to aid teachers and students in integrating arts into their language arts curriculum and learning environments.

3377Julie Kurtz

Julie Kurtz, Musician & Actor
Since moving to Minneapolis, Julie has worked as a performer, director, teacher, and administrator. She began her midwest career (ironically) on the west coast with the Theatre de la Jeune Lune (Susanna in Figaro) at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. She’s also worked locally with the Playwrights’ Center, Ten Thousand Things, Nautilus Music Theater, Workhaus Collective, Pillsbury House’s Chicago Avenue Project, Red Eye Theater and The Strange Capers. She’s worked extensively with Bay Area theatres as well. Julie trained with A.C.T. in San Francisco and holds a BA in Music from Whitworth University (WA). Currently, she teaches private voice with Mt. Calvary Academy of Music, does Interactive Theatre workshops for Breaking Free and is the director/co-founder of Aldrich Arts Collaborative – a neighborhood organization that offers affordable/free art classes and holds gallery exhibitions showing work by professional local artists and Aldrich Arts students.

Norah Long, Vocal Musician
Norah Long is no stranger to the Twin Cities arts scene. When not busy as a Lead Teaching Artist with Upstream Arts, she has appeared on many of our local stages, as well as across the nation and abroad, for the past 15 years. Most recently, she portrayed Kristine in Dollhouse at the Guthrie Theater. Currently, she is starring in The New Chanhassen Dinner Theatres’ production of I Do! I Do! which is scheduled to run through May 2011. She also sings each weekend at St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church in Plymouth. She recently released her first solo CD, View from Violet Hill, a tribute to her family’s legacy of music and faith, which is now available on iTunes, CD Baby, and Norah’s Facebook page. You can find more information at www.norahlong.com.

Don Mabley-Allen, Actor
Don Mabley-Allen is an actor, lighting designer, and co-Artistic Director of Flaneur Productions. As an actor, he has recently appeared in Bedlam Theatre’s The Turducken (2008), Flaneur’s Coriolanus (2007), and The Burning House Group’s Waiting for Godot (2006). He has designed lights for, among others, Barebones Productions’ Fleeced (2008), Bedlam’s Iron Mermaiden (2008), and Flaneur’s Heliotrope V (2008) and The Strong and Capable Shoulders of the Student When He Dreams (2005).

Seth Patterson, Actor
Since moving to Minnesota several years ago, Seth has appeared with many of the Twin Cities theaters as well as nationally with Pillsbury House Theater’s Breaking Ice Company. He is the Managing Director of Torch Theater. Seth has an MFA in acting from Florida Atlantic University.

Sara Richardson

Sara Richardson, Actor
Sara Richardson is an actress and theatre artist in the Twin Cities. She has performed with numerous companies including Jon Ferguson Theater, Four Humors Theatre, Red Eye Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Minnesota Orchestra, Jon Hassler Theater, Genevieve Bennett, Workhaus Collective, Burning House Group, and Brave New Workshop Corporate, among others. Her own collaborated, co-written and directed work has been seen at the Southern Theater, NY Clown Theatre Festival, the Minnesota Fringe Festival and Red Eye Works in Progress. Sara has trained as a teacher in Red Eye Tableau Strategy and has taught for Steppingstone Theatre in addition to her work as a teaching artist with Upstream Arts. Sara trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq.

Matt Sciple, Actor & Director
Since moving to Minneapolis from Louisiana in 1990 (stopping long enough in Dallas to get a BFA in Acting from SMU,) Matt Sciple has directed, performed in or written over 70 plays for theaters across Minnesota. These include The Minnesota Opera, Park Square Theater, Eye of the Storm, Fifty Foot Penguin, Starting Gate Productions, Gremlin Theater, Paul Bunyan Playhouse, Theatre l’Homme Dieu, The Jon Hassler Theater, The Loring Playhouse and Bald Alice Theatre (which he co-founded.) Sciple’s favorite audiences, though, were found in prisons, homeless shelters and chemical dependency centers, touring with Ten Thousand Things, for whom he directed Waiting for Godot and played 30 roles in 12 plays, including Tateh in Ragtime and Edgar in King Lear. In 2007, he was named a City Pages’ Artist of the Year.