Please help us give a wild welcome to UMTAD's new Peers and Reps!

Dance Peers: Aubrey Clark and Sophia Louwagie.
BFA Peers: Wariboko Semenitari and Taylor Barnes.
BA Tech Peer: Micah Kopecky.
BA Performance Peer: Amber Frederick.
BA Reps: Haley Dale, Raymond Niu, Killian Coffinet, Maggie Baukol, and KT Shearer.

Line 3 Student Group: https://www.misiziibirising.com/

H. Adam Harris is an actor, director, teaching artist, and cultural equity consultant. He works at the intersection of theatre, education, social justice, and community engagement. Recent theatrical credits include puppeteering and voicing the title role of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax in the U.S premiere at the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) and The Old Globe Theatre. He’s a frequent performer with CTC: The Hobbit, The Snowy Day, The Jungle Book and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He has worked with the Guthrie Theater, Seattle Children’s Theater, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Park Square Theatre, Pillsbury House Theatre, and the Minnesota Orchestra. He is a proud Penumbra Theatre Company member, credits with Penumbra include The Owl Answers, The Dutchman, The Ballad of Emmett Till, and The Amen Corner. Along with serving on the Ten Thousand Things board, he is also a member of Artist Core, credits with the company include The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Dirt Sticks, The Seven, and Park & Lake. H. Adam is the Education Coordinator at the Playwrights’ Center; a resident teaching artist with the Guthrie Theater and CTC, and a freelance equity, diversity, and inclusion consultant for various organizations. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program. 

Lauren Keating is a director and creative producer of narrative film and series, new and classic theatrical work, and site-specific events. She is committed to work that centers marginalized voices and seeks to engage audiences in imaginative, personal explorations of complex and urgent questions. www.Lauren-Keating.com.

Eric Sharp is a multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Minneapolis. He has appeared onstage nationally and internationally at the Guthrie Theater, Ten Thousand Things, The Jungle Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, and the Toronto and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. He directs and teaches for COMPAS, Mu Explorations, and Penumbra Theatre Company. www.WorkSharp.org.

China Brickey, a proud Chicago native, is an Actress, Vocalist, Musician, Dancer, Teaching Artist and Stage Combatant.  This summer she was named the City Pages’ “Best Actor in the Twin Cities 2020!”  Selected pre-pandemic Twin Cities credits include Park Square Theatre (Lizzie in Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice, Juliet in Romeo & Juliet), Ordway Center for the Performing Arts (Smokey Joe’s Café), and Children’s Theater Company (Ms. Honey in Matilda the Musical). www.chinabrickey.com. 

Zeb Hults held the position of Assistant Technical Director for the University of Minnesota Theatre tech and design program for three years before stepping in as our Production Manager this year. He is also currently the Technical Director for Penumbra Theater in St. Paul, and has worked on several other productions for Ananya Dance Theatre, Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts, Theatre Novi Most, and Circus Juventas. Zeb received his BA in interdisciplinary arts at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and is a beloved figure in our department. 

Gabby is a Gary, Indiana native. She received her training at Perpich Center for the Arts and Education as well as TU dance center. She has performed and worked with choreographers such as Mathew Janczewski, Vanessa Voskuil, Orlando Hunter, and Marciano Silva Dos Santo on stages such as the O’Shaughnessy Theatre, the Southern Theater, and the Cowles Performing Arts Center. She is a core company member of STRONG movement led by Darrius Strong, and she also co-produced her first show at the LAB theater titled “Listen” in 2018. Gabby also teaches jazz here at the University of Minnesota. 

Harry Waters, Jr. created the role of Belize in the first production of Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. He is most famous for his portrayal of Marvin Berry in the movie Back to the Future, which earned him a Gold Record for his rendition of “Earth Angel.” Television acting credits include Adventures in Wonderland, among other guest-starring roles. He worked as an actor on and off Broadway, and in reputable theaters such as Mark Taper Forum, Arizona Theater Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Theatre Works, American Conservatory Theater (ACT), and the San Jose Repertory Theatre. In the Twin Cities, he has appeared at The Guthrie, Penumbra Theater Company, Mixed Blood, Ten Thousand Things Theater, Pangea World Theatre, Park Square, Pillsbury House and Theatre, and Dark & Stormy Theatre. Mr. Waters has directed numerous productions in the Twin Cities and nationally, among them Waiting for Giovanni at New Conservatory Theatre Company in San Francisco and Bulrusher at Sonoma State University. At Macalester College, Harry Waters, Jr. directed Runaways, Proof, Angels in America Part I: Millennium Approaches, The Colored Museum, Tartuffe, In the Blood, The Laramie Project, Cabaret, The Cradle Will Rock, and URINETOWN. Mr. Waters received his MFA in Directing from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and holds a Meisner Acting Technique Teaching Certification with Larry Silverberg.

Chelsea Masteller Warren is a multidisciplinary theatre artist with a focus on scenic and puppet design interested in script-based and devised processes. SCENIC DESIGN work at companies including: Steppenwolf Theatre, Jungle Theater, Victory Gardens Theatre, Studio Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Geva Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, WaterTower Theatre, and Steep Theatre. PUPPET DESIGN work at companies including: Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Jungle Theater, Studio Theatre in D.C., Links Hall, and the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra. She is a founding member of Yellow House, a devised theatre company working in both site-specific and theatrical environments with the goal of placing design and performance in direct dialogue.  Chelsea received her MFA from Northwestern University and is an Assistant Professor of Scenic Design at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. 

Deb Pearson, the beloved BFA program administrator of UMTAD, joins us for a conversation on touring across the world with the Children's Theatre Company (and mistaking scotch for apple juice along the way), BFA callback weekend, and the experience of witnessing BFA students make their way through the four-year arc of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theatre Actor Training Program.