Our Artists | Ten Thousand Things Theatre

Artist Core

Artists are invited to join the Artists Core after making significant artistic contributions for several years.
Aimee Bryant is an actor, singer, and songwriter who has performed throughout the Twin Cities and the country. From her many roles with TTT, she cites Emperor of the Moon as her favorite: “I went into the Dorothy Day Center with a really jacked up attitude after a particularly trying morning. Halfway through a scene, I realized I was in a room full of homeless people who were laughing. It completely transformed my mood. I am so grateful to tell stories that illuminate the oneness of humanity with audiences that challenge me to be the most honest, bold and creative artist I can be.”
Maggie Chestovich has performed with many companies, including The Jungle, Guthrie, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Children’s Theatre Company, Frank, Illusion, Eye of the Storm, MN Fringe Festival, Alley Theater in Houston and Berkeley Repertory Theater. She cites “the beauty of evoking imagination and facilitating understanding, the honor of reaching through the myriad barriers to share time with people you would not normally share time or space or laughter or tears with” as the reason work with TTT.
Stephen D’Ambrose As a veteran of many Twin Cities’ stages for nearly three decades, Stephen says he has “interpreted many characters, challenged audiences to suspend their disbelief, but the experience I have had with TTT is unmatched by all this.” For Stephen, whether performing in a formal theater-going venue or high security prison or homeless shelter, his faith in the possibilities of art to bring people together, to speak truths, to experience life as it is happening has been renewed by his work with TTT.
Bob Davis first saw TTT’s work as an audience member, an experience he called “electrifying.” Since then, he has starred in Antigone, Ragtime and Richard III at TTT. He says: “It’s the hardest work I do in theater and the most rewarding.” Davis’s other credits include leading roles with the Guthrie Theater, Jungle Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, Actor’s Theater of Minnesota, Mixed Blood Theatre and Chanhassen Dinner Theaters. He was featured in the nationally syndicated television show Algo’s FACTory and in the films Nobody, Trauma, Herman USA and A Simple Plan.
Kate Eifrig first appeared with TTT as a musician in The Most Happy Fella, learning through that experience that the key to acting is to focus on the story. “With Ten Thousand Things, there aren't many things to hide behind or rely on when doing one of these shows. You don't get to sneak behind curtains, dim lights, big costumes, giant set pieces and the like. This forces all of us to be more interesting, honest and truthful actors.” In addition to her work with TTT, she has been seen on the stages of the Guthrie, Jungle, Ordway, Park Square, Eye of the Storm, and numerous other theaters. City Pages named her “Best Actress of 2005.”
Matt Guidry has performed in nearly ten shows with TTT, the first being The Three Lives of Lucy Cabrol. He says, “The importance of the audience, our relationship with them, is unrivaled in any other theatrical setting I’ve experienced. All of us, artist and spectator, are venturing into the true unknown every time the lights go down...or in this case, don’t go down.” He is also co-director of The Burning House Group Theatre Company (whose 3 Parts Dead was cited by the Star Tribune as one of the top experimental shows of 2007) and Program Director for Upstream Arts, providing arts education to youth and adults with disabilities.
Terry Hempleman During Terry’s first production with TTT (Ballad of the Sad Café), an audience member stood up, walked into the playing area where he was in the middle of a monologue, and high fived him. “I guess that’s what we call connecting with your audience,” he says. Since then, he has acted with TTT in The Three Lives of Lucy Cabrol, Cymbeline, The Most Happy Fella, Miss Julie, Carousel, and Cyrano. He has been seen in leading roles at the Jungle Theater, Guthrie Theater, and Park Square Theatre. He also directed the MN Fringe Festival hit Why Actors Can't Love.
Steve Hendrickson has lived in Minneapolis, New York City, New Jersey, Baltimore, Boston and New Haven, surviving a Force-10 gale in the North Atlantic, Yale Drama School and the smothering attention of four doting sisters. With TTT, Steve has appeared in Measure for Measure, Tempest, Cymbeline, Winter's Tale, Cyrano de Bergerac and Merchant of Venice. The linking motif in all these is that he finished every performance on his knees begging for mercy. He has been seen in leading roles at Pillsbury House Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, Jungle Theater and Old Globe in San Diego.
Michelle Hensley As artistic director and founder of Ten Thousand Things, Michelle has directed and produced 35 TTT shows. Most have made local critics annual Top Ten lists, and many times been named Outstanding Small Theater Production or the Outstanding Small Theater Musical of the Year by the Star Tribune. A graduate of Princeton University, with an M.F.A in Directing from UCLA, she was named City Pages 2001 Theater Artist of the Year, City Pages 2004 Best Director, and the 2005 winner of the Francesca Primus Prize, given by the American Theater Critics Association for outstanding contribution to the American theater by an emerging female artist.
Darien Johnson is an Emmy® award-winning journalist and actor who has been seen on the stages of the Guthrie, Children's Theatre Company, Bedlam, Park Square, History Theatre, Pillsbury House and Illusion Theater. When he first appeared with TTT in Cyrano De Bergerac, he admits he panicked when walking through the prison doors to perform: “How were we going to pull this off? What would they think? Would they talk the whole time? Will they fall asleep?” But he says he now understands the beauty of TTT: bringing respect and humanity to those who most of us don't think much about at all.
Barbara Kingsley has performed in plays across the country but has called Minnesota for the past 30 years home. Her first TTT show, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, “opened a world I had never known, nose to nose with audience, no barriers. It was bold and heady and something I can never get enough of,” she says. Other TTT performances include Emperor of the Moon, Measure for Measure, Cymbeline, The Tempest, The Furies, King Lear and The Good Person of Szechwan. Says Kingsley: “I get to share with great folks who claim no notion of what theater is 'supposed to be' and they laugh and hoot and weep and speak out with honest response to a really good story. How great is that?”
Jim Lichtscheidl has been seen in seven TTT shows: Waiting For Godot, King Lear, At Your Service, In A Garden, Ragtime, Little Shop of Horrors, and Richard III, and will co-star in Stones in His Pockets in 2010. He has also served as choreographer for Ragtime, Little Shop, and Richard III. He has performed with Brave New Workshop, the Guthrie, Jungle Theater, Theater de la Jeune Lune, and Theater Latté Da. His original theatrical creation, KNOCK!, received rave reviews and a 2006 Ivey Award.
Vera Mariner is “serving a happy life sentence with Ten Thousand Things.” Her performing credits with TTT include Most Happy Fella, Annabella Eema, Carousel and Ragtime, and her costume design credits include Good Person of Szechuan, Antigone, In the Garden and Little Shop of Horrors. Vera has studied, read, pondered, debated and agonized about prisons and their occupants. Now, that passion is actually a practice in her roles as a volunteer for the Innocence Project, Minnesota. She also is well known in the Twin Cities as a singer and as artistic associate with Theatre Latté Da.
Ron Menzel first worked with TTT on the Unsinkable Molly Brown. Since that time, he says there are many performances and moments that have both blessed and perhaps scarred him! “The visceral reality of telling a tale the old way and holding an audience's attention have helped forge whoever I am as a performer. I am thankful to our audiences who taught me how to make a story into theater.”
Stephen Mohring Since beginning his work with TTT in 1998, Mohring has built more than 20 sets. While he initially found it daunting to deal with the physical limitations of TTT’s performance locations, he now says it has been a “wondrously liberating experience. I can focus on the true nature of theater, not verisimilitude, but the calling out of the imagination, of make believe. Together with the audience, the actors get to pretend for a short while, and my sets hopefully focus that energy.” He also teaches sculpture and woodworking at Carleton College.
Sonja Parks As she approached her first TTT show, Sonja says, “Having grown up in the Baptist church, the whole ‘call and response-audience participation mode’ was second nature to me. Far from being frightened by the prospect, I felt exhilarated. For me, performing with TTT always feels like I'm back home in church. Amen! And can I get a hallelujah?” Since that first exhilarating performance, Parks has appeared in numerous productions and in the 2009-10 season is co-directing Othello. She has performed at the Guthrie, Penumbra, Children’s Theatre Company, Jungle and Pillsbury House Theatre, and off-Broadway at The Public Theatre.
Matt Sciple Although Matt has appeared in, directed, and written over 80 shows in and around the Twin Cities, the 13 he has worked on with TTT have topped them all. “From The Unsinkable Molly Brown to King Lear to Ragtime to Waiting for Godot, audiences dove into the stories and fed on them, laughing and talking back to the characters. They didn't come to appreciate culture; they came to travel to a world beyond their prison walls, to revel in the glorious complexities of being human, or just to remember what it feels like to laugh with your entire body. How cool is that?”
Luverne Seifert A veteran of the TTT stage, Luverne is also head of BA Performance in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota. He received a BA degree in Theater Arts from Augsburg College and trained in Switzerland with the internationally renowned clown Pierre Byland. From 1994–1999, he performed exclusively with Theatre de la Jeune Lune and served as an Artistic Associate. He has also appeared with Children’s Theatre Company, Eye of the Storm, Open Eye Figure Theatre, Frank Theater, , Red Eye Collaboration, Nautilus, and Shawn McConneloug and her Orchestra.
Peter Vitale has worked on more than 20 TTT productions, putting his eclectic musical styles and experiences to work as music director and composer. Depending on one’s point of view, his resume is either a rich display of varied talents and interests, or an ADHD extravaganza. His credits as an actor/singer/instrumentalist/music director/composer include plays, musicals, operas, choirs, male a cappella groups, symphonies, and a smattering of film and commercial work. He's had the pleasure of working with the Guthrie Theater, Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, Frank Theater, Park Square Theater, Theater Latté Da, Nautilus Music Theater, and the Minnesota Jewish Theater.
Karen Wiese-Thompson When Karen first appeared with TTT in Waiting for Godot, she weighed over 350 lbs and movement was becoming difficult. “I thought that show was going to kill me. Then, at Boys Totem Town, while doing Vladimir's monologue of how desperately he wanted to be seen, a 15-year-old boy, tears in his eyes, grabbed my hand and said ‘I see you.’ All actors want to be seen, but to have the words you say and the characters you play be seen and to have that make a difference in someone's life? That's amazing!” In addition to many shows since then at TTT, Karen has performed with Park Square, Minneapolis Musical Theatre, Pig's Eye, Torch Theatre, and Theatre in the Round.