Our Artists

Randal Berger, Artist

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, Artist

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.

Charles Fraser, Artist

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.

Lorissa Gottschalk, Artist

Lorissa Gottschalk is an MFA in Writing candidate, enrolled at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is a participant and scholarship recipient of the Prague Summer Program where she studied with Philip Lopate and Patricia Hampl. She writes poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Her poetry was recently selected, choreographed, and performed with the Kaori Kenmotsu poetry and dance competition. Prior to her MFA studies, Lorissa worked as the Program Director at Wilderness Canoe Base, which provides canoe trips in the BWCA to youth from the cities. Additionally, she worked for Wilderness Inquiry both as a trip leader leading wilderness trips for persons with disabilities and as a Program Associate with a focus on Communications and Marketing in the office.

Kym Longhi, Artist

Kym Longhi is an associate artist with Margolis Brown Theater Company (MBTC) and has been a core member of the performing ensemble for nearly 10 years. From 1998-2001 she also served as Director of Education for Margolis Brown Theater Company, where she developed arts partnerships with area schools, designed arts-infused curriculum, and created teacher training programs. Her teaching experiences during the past 20 years range from working with developmentally disabled students (K-12), to teaching mime on a Navajo reservation, to serving as guest instructor for the Leadership in Education doctoral program at the University of St. Thomas. She has taught for the Walker Art Center, Park Square Theatre, and numerous schools throughout the Twin Cities. She has served as affiliate faculty at the University of Minnesota for the past five years.

Norah Long, Artist

Norah Long performs nationally and internationally as well as throughout the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Her experience ranges from classical theater to concert, opera, and musicals. Credits include leading roles at the Guthrie, Denver's Arvada Center for the Arts, Florida Stage, Riverside Theatre, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Ordway Center, Children's Theater Company, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Jungle Theater, Skylark Opera, Madison's Opera for the Young, and many others. As a concert soloist, she has performed with Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Opera Roanoke, Plymouth Music Series, and has toured Japan and Germany. She has been a member of the St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church music staff since 1994. Her most recent CD is entitled Sweethearts of Song: The Songs of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.

Linda Back McKay, Artist

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, Artist

Suzy Messerole is the Co-Artistic Director of Exposed Brick Theatre, which uses theatre as the basis for workshops and training's about issues of diversity for high school students and teachers. A director, performer, playwright and teaching artist, Suzy recently assistant directed Jane Eyre at the Guthrie Theatre, and has directed shows for the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theatre BFA program, History Theatre, Theatre in the Round, Outward Spiral Theatre, and many others. Suzy has led educational workshops at the Children's Theater Company, SteppingStone Theatre for Youth, and Pillsbury House Theatre. Suzy is a 2007 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a member of Pangea World Theatre's Creating Peace ensemble, and was recently named the U.S. Representative for Women Playwrights International.

Amie Pence, Artist

Amie Pence is the Art in Education Coordinator with VSA arts of Minnesota. She earned her degree in Art Education from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Her experiences include teaching in the Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and Duluth school districts, coordinating daily activities for people with disabilities as a Service Facilitator, and developing and implementing a visual art program for people with special needs in Mankato.

Carolyn Pool, Artist

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.

Matt Sciple, Artist

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.

Maren Ward, Artist

Maren is the co-founder of Bedlam Theater, started in 1993 as a means to create theater with her talented friends. Over the years Maren has worked as an actor, director and administrator with the company and is now Co-Artistic Director. She hopes to provide inspiring and nurturing leadership to the company as it grows and evolves as a radical theater arts epicenter. In addition to her work at Bedlam, Maren has been centrally involved in the production of the Barebones Halloween Show since 1998. In 2003, she became a director with the zAmya Theater Project, which is dedicated to using theater as a means for making connections across the homeless and housed populations. She has also performed with Frank Theater, 10,000 Things, In the Heart of the Beast, and Open Eye Figure Theatre.