Our Mission |
Professionals creating works of relevance to the people of the Midwest, with particular attention to the voices of women and other under-represented groups.
TheatreMidwest strives to:
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Meet Our Current Leadership Team
Jennifer Allton
ACTING - TheatreMidwest: Thanksgiving Play. The Phipps Center for the Arts: 84 Charing Cross Road, Population 485, Savannah Sipping Society. YellowTree Theater: Expecting Isabel, Steel Magnolias. DIRECTING- TheatreMidwest: Burst. THEATRE SERVICE - The Phipps Drama Council and Play Selection Committee. STAGE COMBAT CHOREOGRAPHY and TRAINING - St Catherine / St Thomas Universities: Richard III, Good Morning Juliet, Good Night Desdemona, Antigone. Sandbox Theatre: Zelda Wonderland. Red Performance Lab: Ravenous. Zanzibar Productions Full Frontal: Love and Lobotomies. Simpson College Theater: Henry 5, Noises Off, Kiss Me Kate, several workshops. EDUCATION - University of Missouri – Columbia: BA Theater Arts. University of Nebraska – Lincoln: MFA Theater Performance. Actors Center Chicago: 4 semesters Meisner Technique under Victor D’Altorio and Eileen Vorbach; Society of American Fight Directors: Actor Combatant, Proficiency in Hand to Hand, Rapier + Dagger, and Quarterstaff, ongoing training in Found Object, Knife, Short Sword, and Broadsword.
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Claire Boston
ACTING - TheatreMidwest: Dairy Queen, Atlas of Mud, When the Messenger is Hot. Giving Tree Theater: Silent Sky, Pride and Prejudice, Puffs, The Tin Woman. Theatre Cedar Rapids: Dracula, Underground Play Festival. Dreamwell Theatre: Visages. London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art: Twelfth Night, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore. REPRESENTATIVE ROLES - Mirrorbox Theatre: Rolling. Dreamwell Theatre: The Humiliation Play. 50/50-An Arts Production Co.: Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Dracula, All the Natalie Portmans. DIRECTING- Theatre Cedar Rapids: A Walking Shadow. DRAMATURGY: TheatreMidwest: Burst. EDUCATION - Buena Vista University: BA Theatre. London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art: Classical Acting Diploma.
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Katie Braden
ACTING - TheatreMidwest: Burst, Atlas of Mud, When the Messenger is Hot, Atlas of Mud. Ivy Theatre Company (NYC) Co-Founder: A Real Boy (59E59), Reach, Mill Fire, Outside/Inside, The Perfect Wife, Like Poetry (LaMaMa), Incongruence, Black Ice. The Secret Theatre (NYC): The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Romeo and Juliet, Edward II, The Spanish Tragedie. Shakespeare Forum (NYC): The Scarlet Letter, Romeo and Juliet. Workshop Theater (NYC): Acting: Full Frontal. Directing: Turtles & Bulldogs, After, Vowed & Wowed, Food for Thought. FILM - Wherever You Go Pictures (NYC): Unpacking. EDUCATION- Gregory Abels Training Ensemble, NYC, Certificate. Simpson College, Iowa, BA Theatre Arts.
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Katie Buchholz
THEATRE MANAGEMENT TheatreMidwest: Atlas of Mud, Nickel and Dimed. Des Moines Performing Arts: Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King (Merchandiser); Theatre Simpson: Festival of Short Plays 2013 & 2012 (Box Office Manager), Alice’s Trip, The Glass Menagerie (House Manager). THEATRE PERFORMANCE Theatre Simpson: University, Festival of Short Plays 2011, The Learned Ladies. MULTIMEDIA Iowa Watch: Multimedia Director (Senior Project); Simpson Student Media: Director of Digital Content; Iowa Momentum: Communications Intern. BRAND AMBASSADOR/OTHER Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival: 2020 Bacon Queen; ACTION Talent Group. BUSINESS Businessolver - Interim Supervisor Member Services. EDUCATION BA Multimedia Journalism
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Audrey Kaus
THEATRE TheatreMidwest: Burst, Stripped, Hitler’s Tasters; Des Moines Playhouse: The Addams Family; Stage West: Carrie, the Musical; Theatre Simpson: Kiss Me Kate, Tartuffe, These Shining Lives, Waiting for Philip Glass. EDUCATION Simpson College BA in Theatre. BUSINESS Principal Financial Group
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Joan Korte
ACTING - TheatreMidwest: Atlas of Mud, When the Messenger is Hot. Fair Assembly, Dallas TX: Romeo and Juliet. Texas Shakespeare Festival: King John, Tartuffe, 110 in the Shade. Wesleyan Theatre Company: August: Osage County, The Lion in Winter, The Glass Menagerie. BUSINESS - Professor of Theatre, Nebraska Wesleyan University. DIRECTING: ACADEMIC Nebraska Wesleyan University: A Doll’s House Part 2, The Book of Will, A Christmas Carol, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Bridges of Madison County, 12th Night, Nell Gwynn, Mamma Mia, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Noises Off, The Importance of Being Ernest, The Learned Ladies, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Clean House.
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Deidra Mohr
DIRECTING TheatreMidwest: Dairy Queen, When the Messenger Is Hot, Hitler’s Tasters; ACTING TheatreMidwest: The Friendly Hour; Kata Clysmic: The Rocky Horror Show, Vagina Monologues; California Theatres: Young Frankenstein, Burning Opera LA, Ragtime in Concert, Company, Not Your Mama's Broadway, The Nitch, Stepping Out, Marat/Sade, Mousetrap, Laramie Project. FILM/TV My Friend Max, The Night, Lost Soulmates, Antique America. AWARDS Cloris Award - Des Moines: Best Supporting Actress for The Friendly Hour with TheatreMidwest
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Nadine Purvis Schmidt
THEATRE: TheatreMidwest: Nickel and Dimed. TheatreSquared: Superior Donuts. Bare Bodkins Theatre Company: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest. Cleveland Shakespeare Festival: As You Like It, Henry IV. Land Stewardship Project: Look Who’s Knockin’. BUSINESS Southwest Minnesota State University: Professor of Theatre, Director, Producer, Theatre Program Coordinator. EDUCATION: MFA in Acting, University of Arkansas
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Jordan Stangeland
DRAMATURGY: TheatreMidwest: When the Messenger Is Hot, Dairy Queen. ACTING: Southwest Minnesota State University: The Awesome 80’s Prom, Young Frankenstein, Trenchcoat in Common, Miss Electricity, Sense and Sensibility. COSTUME DESIGN: Southwest Minnesota State University Drama Club: You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. COSTUME SHOP ASSISTANT: Southwest Minnesota State University: Young Frankenstein, Sense and Sensibility, Hi Ho Robin Hood. PROP DESIGN: Southwest Minnesota State University: Sense and Sensibility.
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Jacklin Stonewall - Stage Manager
*THEATRE* STAGE MANAGEMENT: Theatre Midwest: When the Messenger Was Hot, Hitler's Tasters. COSTUME DESIGN: TheatreMidwest: Atlas of Mud; East Marshall Performing Arts: Sister Act. ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE: Martha Ellen Tye Theatre: Jesus Christ Superstar, Company, Nunsense. EDUCATION: Iowa State University Aerospace Engineering (BS), Industrial Engineering (MS) Vertical Divider
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Eliz Tomaras
STAGE MANAGEMENT TheatreMidwest: Atlas of Mud, Thanksgiving Play, Brilliant Traces; Theatre Simpson: A Year with Frog & Toad, The Servant of Two Masters, Fall From Grace (Festival of Short Plays 2011). THEATRE DESIGN TheatreMidwest: Atlas of Mud (Costumes); Theatre Simpson: Backstory, Betrayal, Women Beware Women, Festival of Short Plays 2012. ACTING Theatre Simpson: Henry 5, Peer Gynt. DRAMATURGY: TheatreMidwest: Nickel and Dimed. BUSINESS Corey Chancellor State Farm
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Tom Woldt
DIRECTING TheatreMidwest: Atlas of Mud, Thanksgiving Play, Brilliant Traces, The Friendly Hour; Repertory Theatre of Iowa: The Diary of Anne Frank, That Championship Season; Des Moines Playhouse: A Streetcar Named Desire; Duluth Playhouse: Singin' In the Rain; Yellow Tree (MN): Expecting Isabel; Williamston (MI): Five-Course Love; Guthrie Theater (Studio): Hopscotch; Other Professional: Seven Year Itch, Jesus Christ Superstar, I Do! I Do!, Any Wednesday, Noises Off, Lysistrata the Bluegrass Musical!, Mother Courage, Night at the Carlton With Ray Charles; Guest Residencies; The 39 Steps, One Man-Two Guvnors, On The Razzle, As You Like It, Charley's Aunt, Antigone; Simpson College: Peer Gynt, Love Letters, Learned Ladies, Henry 5, Into the Woods, Rumors, Trojan Women, Love's Labour's Lost, Godspell, Quilters, The Woman in Black, Twelfth Night; Other Academic: Machinal, The Winter's Tale, The Marriage of Figaro; The Bacchae, Jesse and the Bandit Queen, Tom Sawyer, The Woolgatherer. PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT/CHAIR (ACADEMIC) University of South Dakota, Simpson College, Doane College. ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Lyric Theater, Inc. now Jon Hassler Theater (Founding Co-Artistic Director). OTHER MANAGEMENT ACTION Talent Group (Founder/CEO), Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (Regional/National Officer), C.G. Craig, Inc. dba Eastern Onion (General & Sales Mgr). ACTING Goldfinch Theatre: Macbeth; Stagewest: Time Stands Still; Other: Taming of the Shrew, The Glass Menagerie, Desire Under the Elms, The Matchmaker, Brigadoon, Carousel, My Fair Lady, Equus, A Flea In Her Ear, Mister Roberts. AWARDS John F. Kennedy Center Gold Medallion for theatre and education; Simpson College: Outstanding Junior Faculty member. EDUCATION Guthrie Theater: Intern (Directing/Stage Management); University of Nebraska-Lincoln: PhD (Theatre); Minnesota State University, Mankato; MFA (Directing); South Dakota State University: BS (Communications and Theatre).
HOMEPAGE tomwoldt.com |
SCRIPT READING TEAM
Our project and season planning is built around a rigorous script-seeking, -finding, and -reading process.
All of the management team personnel listed above participate in this process.
We benefit further from the participation of several additional volunteer reader/responders. Currently, they are:
All of the management team personnel listed above participate in this process.
We benefit further from the participation of several additional volunteer reader/responders. Currently, they are:
- Tiffany Flory
- Julia Franklin
- Carol Moore
- Ann Woldt
RECENT NEWS
Recovery GrantDecember 2020. We are thrilled and grateful to receive an Arts and Culture Recovery Grant. With much thanks to the Iowa Arts Council, Federal and State Governments, and the people of Iowa, we will continue to tell compelling stories in the new year!
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GivingTuesday 2020December 1, 2020. TheatreMidwest participated in GivingTuesday, a global generosity movement aimed at unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.
We couldn't be more thankful to our supporters who donated nearly $1,000 to help us continue our goals of Radical Hospitality - our strategy to reduce barriers that keep people from seeing theatre by reducing cost and increasing representation in Midwestern theatre offerings! |
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United Way Equity ChallengeOctober 2020. Our organization participated as a local sponsor in United Way's 21-DAY EQUITY CHALLENGE for the Greater Des Moines Area. The self-guided learning journey encouraged central Iowans to develop a deeper understanding of how inequity and racism affect our lives and our community.
Each weekday participants received emails with links to articles, videos, podcast, and more that highlighted different topics, including Understanding Privilege, Housing and Redlining, Justice System Inequalities, Allyship, to name a few. |
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Polar Vortex AwardSummer 2020. The 2020 Cloris Awards took on a Do-It-Yourself nature this year as many theatre seasons were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A celebration of Des Moines areas theatre took place online instead as each organization awarded themselves for their achievements.
Katie Privitera and Erin Tracy accepted TheatreMidwest's POLAR VORTEX AWARD for putting on our production of Brilliant Traces, a play set during a blizzard, IN AN ACTUAL IOWA BLIZZARD! It was an immersive experience to say the least! |
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"MIDWEST?"In the middle. West of the East Coast (but East of the West Coast.) Our roots have taken hold in the almost-exact-middle, as did our first production, in Des Moines. The journey continues from there. |