Staff

Clay Man Soo (he/him) is an Asian-American actor and teaching artist in Minneapolis, MN. He has acted or taught with The Guthrie Theater, The Children’s Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre, Theater Mu, Great River Shakespeare Festival, History Theater, Park Square Theatre, Jungle Theater, Pangea World Theater, The Lab Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Playwright’s Center, Artistry, New Arab-American Theater, Full Circle Theater Company, Theatre Coup D’Etat, Lyric Arts, BARd Shakespeare Company, and South Dakota Shakespeare Festival. UPCOMING: Ten Thousand Things: Mlima’s Tale, Tiger Lion Arts: The Buddha Prince. TRAINING: B.A. Gustavus Adolphus College; Great River Shakespeare Festival Actor Apprenticeship; Theater Mu Institute; Children’s Theatre Company Internship; Penumbra Theatre Internship; Encompass Collective NYC from the Yale School of Drama. Clay is represented by Wehmann Talent Agency. www.claymansoo.com

clays@pillsburyhousetheatre.org

Bart Buch is a puppet artist, poet and arts educator. He has been creating, performing, directing, and teaching puppet theatre for 26 years. Bart has a BA in Elementary Education, has been teaching for 30 years, and has taught over 300 school and community arts residencies. He worked at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre for 25 years as a Core Artist, served as Education Director for 12 years, and co-founded the Artistic Leadership Team. Bart is a COMPAS Teaching Artist and a 2017-2018 McKnight Theatre Artist Fellow. He makes “puppet poems,” loves music, and working with young people.

bartb@pillsburyhousetheatre.org

Signe V. Harriday is Artistic Producing Director at Pillsbury House + Theatre. Signe is a fierce visionary and powerful storyteller who crafts theatre that awakens our individual and collective humanity. As a director, multidisciplinary artist, activist, and facilitator, she uses theatre as a catalyst to ask questions about who we are and who we are in relation to each other.Past accomplishments include:

Associate Company Member of Pillsbury House Theatre.
Co-founder of Million Artist Movement, a collective of artists committed to Black liberation.
Co-founder of the award-winning synchronized swimming team, The Subversive Sirens.
Founder of Rootsprings Coop, a retreat center for BIPOC artists/activists/healers.
Co-founder of MaMa mOsAiC, a women of color theater company whose mission is to evoke positive social change through female centered work.
Core team member of REP Community Partners.
Signe earned her MFA in Acting at the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard and Moscow Art Theatre.

Current projects: Director of Bridgforth’s bull-jean stories, Associate Director of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower Opera, Choreography for Love of Silver Water, Playwright for Dysmorphia. Recent directing credits: Dining with the Ancestors, Fannie Lou Hammer Speak On It, Hidden Heroes

612-787-3621
signeh@pillsburyhousetheatre.org

Noël holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota and a BFA from Ithaca College in New York. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Multicultural Development Center and the Burning House Group Theatre Company which she co-founded in 1993. She is also a company member of Carlyle Brown and Company. She has taught acting classes and theatre movement in multiple settings to children, college students and adults with developmental disabilities.  Noël is an Equity actor who has performed with Pillsbury House Theatre, the Burning House Group, the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, and Minnesota Festival Theatres in Minnesota as well as the Hangar Theatre in New York.  Noël’s directing credits include Underneath the Lintel, An Almost Holy Picture, Far Away, Angels in America:  Parts I and II, and [sic] at Pillsbury House Theatre, From Shadows to Light at Theatre Mu, The BI Show with MaMa mOsAiC, and multiple staged readings and workshops through the Playwrights’ Center, among others.  Noël  has served on numerous panels including TCG/American Theatre, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright’s Center and United Arts, to name a few.

612-787-3620
noelr@pillsburyhousetheatre.org

Elise Gumm is a lifelong Minneapolitan and creative whose duties include all things marketing, communications, design, web, and social media. They hold a B.A. in Cinema & Media Culture from the University of Minnesota, firmly believe in the power of art to create community, and have been thrilled to be a part of Pillsbury House Theatre’s mission and vision since summer of 2021.

 

612-787-3622
eliseg@pillsburyhousetheatre.org

Kurt Kwan has been creating performances and facilitating dialogues around issues of Diversity and Inclusion with the Breaking Ice company since 2001. He also manages the Late Nite and Naked Stages programs.  As an actor he has performed with Ten Thousand Things, The Walker, Childrens Theatre Company, Mu Performing Arts, New York Asian American Writers, The History Theatre, and Theatre La Homme Dieu.

612-787-3623
kurtk@pillsburyhousetheatre.org

For nearly twenty years Hoyt has been producing, managing, and directing arts-based community development projects and youth development programs, while making his own art in his community. Creating and facilitating unique shared experiences that connect diverse and often nontraditional art audiences drive his art practice. Hoyt’s work has been exhibited locally and abroad at the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Arts At Marks Garage in Honolulu, University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Soap Factory, Soo Visual Arts Center, Intermedia Arts, Franconia Sculpture Park, Art Shanty Projects, and the Walker Art Center among others. He has received awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a Northern Lights.mn Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship, a Jerome Visual Artist Fellowship, and a McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship.

Hoyt has the added benefit of raising a family three blocks from PH+T and is honored to have the opportunity to engage local artists and community members in creative practice towards the development of a vibrant and healthy community for all of its members.

612-787-3655
mikeh@pillsburyunited.org

Julia is a teaching artist, actor and administrator who believes theater is a powerful tool in the transformation of society. Using theater in Ecuador, Turkey, Thailand, and New York City she has supported non-native speakers of English to develop their English language skills, encouraged young people to exercise the power of their voices through social-emotional development, engaged in conversations around race and privilege, and worked towards advancing literacy skills across ages. She has her Master’s in Applied Theatre from the CUNY School of Professional Studies and has worked as a teaching artist for Lincoln Center Theater, the Creative Arts Team, Girls Leadership and the History Theater.
As an actor, Julia has performed with Theater in Asylum in NYC, in various theaters in Milwaukee, and at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. She recently returned to the Twin Cities and is thrilled to be joining the rich theater community here.

612-787-3624
juliasn@pillsburyhousetheatre.org

Masanari Kawahara 川原正也 (he/him/his) is a performer, educator and Butoh practitioner who incorporates puppetry, mask and movement into his work. His most recent puppetry work, for which he was a co-creator and performer, is The Story of Crow Boy (2016/2017/2018) for In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (HOBT) where he is a core associate artist. Other notable collaborative works with HOBT include Make Believe Neighborhood (2018), Queen (2016), A Path Home: A story of Thich Nhat Hanh (2009/2010) and Gotama: A Journey to the Buddha (2006).
Masanari is currently a resident teaching artist at Pillsbury House + Theatre and teaching artist for Upstream Arts working with preschoolers to elders. He has directed the Naked Stages Fellowship program since 2022. He is a member of the Butoh group Nenkin Butoh Dan, which received a 2015 Sage Award for outstanding dance ensemble for Fu.Ku.Shi.Ma. Masanari Kawahara is a Playwrights’ Center McKnight Theater Artist Fellow 2018-2019 and 2010-201.

612-787-3647

MasanariK@pillsburyhousetheatre.org

Since she earned her BFA from Howard University, Aimee K. Bryant has built a lengthy resume as a theatre artist in the Twin Cities. She is an actor, vocalist, director and teaching artist who’s artistic practice is rooted in soul music. joy, and a rigorous curiosity about the way things are.  Her mission is to use performance as a tool for self reflection, healing, transformation, and black liberation. She also identifies as a mother, a roller skater, a Buddhist, a Detroiter, a cyclist, and a foodie. Aimee was named City Pages 2015 Actress of the Year, and is a McKnight Theatre Artist Fellow for 2015-2016. Her debut cd Becoming is available online.

aimeeb@pillsburyhousetheater.org

 

When she’s not at Pillsbury House Theatre, Kellie Larson is a properties artisan for Theater, which means she produces special effects and furniture for the stage. She has been with Pillsbury House Theater for a number of years, designing props for the main stage shows. Her most recent work at PHT was Blood Knot in summer 2019. As a resident artist at Pillsbury House Theater, she works with toddlers twice a week, doing art and yoga together.

KellieL@pillsburyhousetheatre.org

Katie has been a freelance technician and board operator since 2015. They have been working at Pillsbury House + Theatre for just as long and became the Technical Coordinator in 2021. As a freelancer, they have worked in Penumbra Theatre, Artistry, Walker Art Center, and other theatres around the Twin Cities. They work not only with the theater but also with KRSM Radio Station as the stations Programmer. They graduated from University of Minnesota Twin Cities with a B.A. in Theatre Arts in the Technology and Design Track.

katied@pillsburyhousetheatre.org