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Our Artists

Randal Berger, Actor

Randal Berger is a Founding Member of the Burning House Group Theater Company, has appeared at The Ordway Music Theatre, The Old Log Theater, The Playwright Center, and The Music Box Theatre. Randal trained with The Margolis Brown Company for two years, performed with the company in its productions of The Bed Experiment and Inside/Out. He received his BFA from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, after which he performed professionally for two years there at Casa Manana and Stage West Theaters. Randal can be heard as Kyle Katarn in the trilogy of the Star Wars: Dark Forces audio series, and can also be seen in his first feature film, Herman USA, in which he asks "This any good, Harry?"

Jason Bohon, Actor

Jason Bohon has worked as an actor for Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Theater Latte Da, Minnesota Orchestra, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare & Company, and American Globe Theatre. He is currently the Artistic Director of the 3 Sticks Theatre Company, based in Minneapolis, and teaches with Youth Performance Company and the BFA Actor Training Program at the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater. He holds an MFA from the London International School of Performing Arts in cooperation with Naropa University, and a BFA from the University of Central Missouri.

Mehri Davis, Visual Artist

Mehri Davis is a visual artist working primarily in photography and two-dimensional mixed media drawing. Originally from Ohio, Mehri has shown her artwork around the Twin Cities and Ohio areas at Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center, Ursus Art Space, Bagel Street Deli, Casa Nueva, O'Hooleys Pub, Arts/West, Cosmic Coffee and Ginkgo Coffee. She has lead collaborative art projects with youth, homeless adults, people with mental illness and people with disabilities creating videos, sculpture installations and murals. She currently works as a Special Education Assistant in the Saint Paul Public School district and teaches drawing classes in Saint Paul through Young Rembrandts. Mehri holds a Bachelor's Degree in Community Art from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Laressa Dickey, Poet & Dancer

Laressa Dickey is a poet, dancer and teacher. Her artistic work has been influenced by the exploration of many forms, including painting, ballet and modern dance, site-specific performance, contact improvisation, and mosaic work. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Minnesota, and her poems have appeared in Limestone, Permafrost, Isotope, the Konundrum Engine Literary Review and other journals. She was awarded a 2008 residency from the Blacklock Nature Sanctuary Artist’s Residency program. Laressa has taught poetry and movement both at community and university levels, including at the Julia Tutweiler Women’s Prison, Intermedia Arts, and SASE’s Wings program. She has had the privilege of working and performing with Global Site Performance and the BodyCartography project. She grew up on her family's tobacco farm in rural Tennessee amidst tall poplars. 

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, 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, 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 New York Sentinel 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. 

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. 

Justin Lansing, Musician

Justin is a singer-songwriter and a banjo player for the Minneapolis-based children's folk band The Okee Dokee Brothers.  In addition, Justin has toured with the Medicinal Strings,  a foundation that brings communities together through music, for over three years, playing banjo, writing songs and performing daily for many different types of communities.  Justin grew up in Denver, Colorado, and attended Lake Forest College, graduating with honors in Spanish and Sociology/Anthropology and distinction on his senior thesis.  He recently returned from Thailand where he taught English to 3-5 year old students.  He is dedicated to underprivileged populations, having worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico at an overnight homeless shelter and at a Catholic Worker house for Latino families on the south side of Chicago. 

Kym Longhi, Visual Artist, Dancer & Actor

As a multidisciplinary artist, Kym is fascinated by the connection between art and the body. Her work ranges from performing physical theater to creating sculpture from beads - and she has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally.   Kym cultivated her artistic vision through 25 years of creating and performing work in the theater, and since 1998, extended her sensibilities to creating visual works of art. Her performing experience encompasses classical speaking theater, experimental theater, mime and dance. Her training in mime includes the privilege of studying intensively with Marcel Marceau. She has toured nationally and internationally as a performer, including Spain, Singapore, Japan and two extended tours in Australia.  She is currently an associate artist with Margolis Brown ADAPTOR Company and has been a core member of the performing ensemble for 14 years, performing and collaborating in the creation of all the company's physical theater productions. Last year, she was seen in the role of Volumnia with Flaneur Productions in Shakespeare's Coriolanus, in Off-Leash Area's Border Crossing, and in Jasper Johns with Skewed Visions. Her most recent endeavor was writing and directing Herocycle, a multidisciplinary work combining aerial dance, physical theater and opera that crashed the exploits of Evel Knievel into the ideas of Joseph Campbell.  Currently Kym is working with Off Leash Area on their new work, Ivan the Drunk and his Terrible Tale of Woe.  Kym has served as affiliate faculty for the University of Minnesota's theatre program since 2001, where she teaches a physical approach to acting. In visual arts, her design commissions for the theater include costumes for “Papier-mâché Cabaret” and puppets, masks and a full size theater curtain made of sleepwear for MBTC's Sleepwalkers.   Her beadwork has been exhibited in regional, national and international exhibits including “Alchemy o Amulets o Altars” at the Phipps and “The Audacious Bead” at the Bead Museum in Washington D.C.   She received "best in show" in "The Beaded Figure IV" which opened at the Museum of Art and Design in New York in April 2005 and toured nationally until 2006. Kym was exhibited as a finalist in Beaded Dreams 2006, and in 2007 her beadwork toured Japan and was exhibited in the Hakone's prestigious open-air museum.

Norah Long, Vocal Musician

Norah Long performs regularly across the US and internationally in a variety of genres. Her theater credits include leading roles at the Guthrie, Denver’s Arvada Center, Florida Stage, Riverside Theatre, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Ordway Center, Children’s Theater Company, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, and many others. As a concert soloist, Norah has performed with Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Lorie Line, Opera Roanoke, Plymouth Music Series, and has toured the U.S., Japan and Germany. She also sings each weekend at St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church in Plymouth where she’s been on staff for 15 years. Norah has two recently released CDs: Sweethearts of Song: The Songs of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald (available via www.skylarkopera.org) and Christmas Around The World (available via www.lorieline.com), and her first solo CD, View from Violet Hill, is due for release in November 2009. Also due for a November launch is her new website, www.norahlong.com.  Until then, you can keep track of her artistic endeavors and upcoming performances at www.facebook.com/norahlong.news and www.reverbnation/norahlong.  Or, just visit an Upstream Arts workshop and say hi!.

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).J

Joe Mailander, Musician

Joe is a musician and song writer presently writing and playing children's folk music for his band, The Okee Dokee Brothers. He has traveled with The Medicinal Strings Bluegrass Band for three years performing free concerts for underserved communities. Joe is a graduate of St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, where he graduated with honors in Latin American Studies and Spanish. He worked as a camp counselor in high school, a tutor while studying abroad in Guatemala and Chile.  Now, Joe works part time at Youth Frontiers, a nonprofit organization that partners with schools to create more positive school communities.  He is happy to work with Upstream Arts any chance he gets!

Linda Back McKay, Poet

Linda Back McKay, also known as "The Poetry Diva", is a Minneapolis poet, writer and teaching artist. A roster artist with VSA arts of Minnesota, Young Audiences of Minnesota and South Dakota Arts Council, among others. She enjoys teaching students of all abilities and is particularly interested in mixing writing with visual and theater arts. She is author of several books and also works in the advertising industry as a writer and producer.

Suzy Messerole, Director & Performer

Suzy Messerole is the Associate Artistic Director of the History Theatre and the Co-Artistic Director of Exposed Brick Theatre.  A director, performer, playwright and teaching artist, Suzy recently assistant directed Jane Eyre and The Government Inspector at the Guthrie Theatre, and directed Blue Collar Diaries at the History Theatre.  She has directed shows for the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theatre BFA program, History Theatre, Theatre in the Round, Outward Spiral Theatre, and many others. Along with Aamera Siddiqui, Suzy will perform her play Venus Nefanda at the Women Playwrights International Conference in Mumbia, India this fall.  She is currently working on a new project with Ms. Siddiqui, Evolution: The Making of a Self which will debut in Winter 2010.

Carolyn Pool, Actor

Carolyn Pool is a Twin Cities based actor/performer whose work has been seen all over the country. She has appeared with notable companies such as Park Square Theater in Of Mice and Men, Steel Magnolias, Proof, Born Yesterday, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and Fortinbras, Great American History Theater in Main Street, The Jungle Theater in Honour and Bone Dry, The Burning House Group in What the Butler Saw, Pillsbury House Theater in Angels in America and Florida Stage in Mercy of a Storm. Currently, she can be seen in the short film Good Morning which is showing at film festivals across the United States and in the soon to be released Midnight. Carolyn is thrilled and honored to be among the teaching artists for Upstream Arts.

Sara Richardson, Actor

Sara Richardson has worked as an actor for Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Minnesota Orchestra, Jon Ferguson Theater, Genevieve Bennett, Workhaus Collective, Burning House Group, 3Sticks, Four Humors and Brave New Workshop Corporate, among others.  Active in the new, collaborative and ensemble-created theatre community, Sara’s work has been seen at the NY Clown Theatre Festival, the Southern Theater, Red Eye Works-in-Progress Series, Foolfest, and Festival des Tombées de la Nuit (Rennes, France), among others.  Sara trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France.  

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.

Harry Waters Jr., Actor & Educator

Harry Waters, Jr. is an esteemed actor in comedy, musical, and dramatic roles. He created the role of Belize in the first production of Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes in 1991. He is most famous for his portrayal of Marvin Berry in Back to the Future (1985) which earned him a gold record for his rendition of "Earth Angel." Acting Credits also include Adventures in Wonderland, and Big Bully starring Rick Moranis and television series such as "MASH" and "227". Mr. Waters was formerly creative director at the non-profit San Diego Junior Theatre in San Diego.  Born in Denver, he is a graduate of Princeton University and University of Wisconsin. He worked as an actor in New York City on and off Broadway for more than a decade as well as at theaters around the country. Venues include the Mark Taper Forum, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Theatre Works and the San Jose Repertory Theatre. He was a member of the Frank Silvera Writers Workshop in Harlem which has developed the work of new, African American playwrights, directors, designers and actors since 1973.  He is working in collaboration with novelist/playwright Jewelle Gomez on a play about James Baldwin. The project is being sponsored in its development by Intersection for the Arts.  Mr. Waters has taught acting, script development and has directed numerous productions around the country. He is currently a professor in the Theatre Department at Macalester College.