Staff

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

Elizabeth has been a freelance stage manager in the Twin Cities for over 10 years. As a stage manager she has worked with Pillsbury House Theatre, History Theatre, Jungle Theater, Mixed Blood Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, as well as others. In 2011 she took became the production manager of Pillsbury House Theatre. Elizabeth is a proud member of Actors Equity Association and holds a BFA in Theatre Production from Rockford College in Rockford, Illinois.

612-787-3634
elizabethm@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

Kari has been directing and acting in plays since she was a kid. As an adult she has worked at Wonderlust Productions, Theatre Latté Da, Twin Cities Theater Camp, and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School. Kari believes in theater that generates new ideas, empowers new voices and sparks creativity.

612-787-3624
kario@pillsburyunited.org

Pramila Vasudevan is the director Naked Stages, artistic director of Aniccha Arts and is an experimental artist who creates immersive performance environments using an interdisciplinary voice of movement and electronic media. She is a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient.

pramilav@pillsburyhousetheatre.org

Hi, I’m Pedro, Minneapolis based, Venezuelan performance artist. I’ve been working with PHT for 3 years, I’m also a teaching artist with Upstream Arts (2nd floor PHT). My work is held under ‘Viva la Pepa’, it encompasses our company’s performance art body of work, Doña Pepa (my draglesque persona), and Drag Story Hour. www.vivalapepa.org

PedroL@pillsburyhousetheatre.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

Masanari Kawahara is a performer, designer and educator who incorporates puppetry, mask, and movement into his work. He was a company member of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (HOBT) from 1998 to 2009. His last production as a company member, A Path Home: A Story of Thich Nhat Hanh (2009) which was chosen as outstanding puppetry by Lavender. He was the co-creator and designer of GOTAMA: Journey to the Buddha (2006), recognized by City Pages as one of the ten great sets/scenic designs of the year. Currently he is working on HIROSHIMA (work-in-progress) to be presented by Pangea World Theater for spring of 2013. He is a Playwrights’ Center McKnight Theater Artist Fellow (2010-2011).

612-787-3647
MasanariK@pillsburyhousetheatre.org