On this page, you can stories about how people connected to Pillsbury House Theatre and found their voices. Theatre has the power to unleash creativity in everyone.
Look for more stories here in the coming months.
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"I have always been interested in how art can be used as a tool for healing and engagement," recalls Minneapolis College of Art and Design Professor Natasha Pestich, "but I was blown away by the effort at Pillsbury House to think about it in new ways and impressed by how many things happen here."
Throughout the month of August, she led three student-leaders and countless volunteers from MCAD and PH+T in transforming the building's main lobby into a space that more honestly welcomes the neighborhood and represents the creativity of the programs and services available. The new lobby includes couch covers designed by interns from the Full Cycle program, columns decorated with words that convey our values, and custom-made furniture. The overall design emphasizes a safe and comforting environment in a diverse and ever-changing community.
Student-leader Schuyler Huber reports, "Through my time at Pillsbury, I became acquainted with a wide assortment of people whom I never would have otherwise met, and it was valuable to me to discover how much one can accomplish and now how it will propel me further."
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Pillsbury House + Theatre's Director of Teen Programming James Williams and PH+T Resident Artists work with juvenile offenders ages 13 to 19 housed at the Hennepin County Home School, a residential treatment center for youth designated at moderate or high risk to reoffend.
PH+T spends three weeks with the kids developing a performance through workshops in movement, storytelling, spoken word, drumming, writing, and puppetry. Kids learn to express themselves as individuals in a healthy way and to rely on one another as a group. A performance before residents at the County Home is followed by two performances at Pillsbury House Theatre where family and friends sit with judges, lawyers, and parole officers to see the young men's transformation.
Counselor Jessica Larson reports of one participant, "The play definitely helped him have confidence and improve his writing skills. Now he's working on his GED, and he is using what he learned in the play to master his writing test."
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Beth Milligan saw art as a way to transform people's lives and devoted herself to that work. In her incredibly full life, she was the Development Director for the Vinland Center, the Executive Director of Grey Wolf Press, a writer, and a passionate theater-goer. She passed away in November of 2000 at the age of 44, after a short bout with breast cancer.
Her family felt that directing memorials to Pillsbury House Theatre would be a fitting tribute to Beth's life because PHT embodies her own beliefs about the intersection of the highest quality art and inspired social services.
The Beth Milligan Fund at Pillsbury House Theatre supports women artists and artists of color in the creation of new work. Her sister Sarah Milligan-Toffler calls it a "perfect fit." In the past ten years, Beth Milligan and the Milligan family have helped produce plays like The Bi Show and Playlist as well as the just-announced world premiere production of Tracey Scott Wilson's Buzzer, a co-commission with the Guthrie Theater.
Consider including Pillsbury House Theatre in your estate planning.
Twins Antoine and Antonio Duke (above) are building an artistic foundation at Pillsbury House Theatre. When Artistic Associate James Williams visited their classroom at Washburn High School, he showed them “that the things we were seeking to create were real,” recalls Antoine, that “people can make a living in the creative arts and be artists.” Since bringing them into Pillsbury House + Theatre’s new Power of Our Voices (POV) teen leadership and performance ensemble, Antonio wrote, acted in, and directed the short film, Escape, starring his fellow POV ensemble members. Antoine is headed to San Francisco as a member of Minnesota youth slam poetry team, and is leading a hip-hop dance class at the House on Monday nights. Together, the twins received a grant from the City of Minneapolis to work with Pillsbury House Theatre to develop a dance, spoken word, and video performance to address violence prevention issues. “POV teaches you how to take the initiative,” says Antoine. And Antonio adds, “Pillsbury House has opened doors for me, opened me up to people, which allows me to do what I love—theatre.”
$50 provides dance studio space for Antonio and Antoine’s Shaking Fences hip-hop dance class for one month.
Christiana Clark (pictured) did not plan to launch her artistic career in Minneapolis. While attending the American Academy of Arts in Los Angeles in 2001, Christiana needed to leave school to come home and help her family. Soon she had one of her first professional acting jobs at Pillsbury House Theatre with Breaking Ice. “The dedication of the artists, the creativity within the forms of theatre that were being used—I was stretched and opened up to a whole new way of doing what I do,” she recalls. Since then Christiana has been a part of everything on stage at Pillsbury House Theatre (4 Chicago Avenue Projects, 3 Breaking Ice shows, and 2 Mainstage productions, including starring in the recent In the Red and Brown Water). She has now performed on some of the largest stages around the country from the Goodman Theater in Chicago to the Dallas Theater Center, and she still sees Pillsbury House as her home, providing her with some of “my best experiences in the theatre and, consequently, in my life.”
$650 allows us to hire a high-caliber performer like Christiana for one week.
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Bella (pictured below) was certain she would “simply die of fear” if she ever had to act in front of an audience. But playwright Emily Sahakian knew just how to help her be comfortable and confident while challenging her to conquer her fear. In Strawberries for Two, Taylor Swift (played by professional actress Elise Langer) needs help conquering a bad case of stage fright. Enter Bella as the Strawberry Ninja: stealthy, expert in martial arts, and mostly silent—communicating through signs that Bella revealed to the audience. Still, when it came time for her to speak a few words out loud, no one knew whether Bella would be able to succeed. Elise was prepared for anything—including Bella running off stage in a panic. “Sometimes, if you do something that you don’t want to do, you might like it,” Bella says now. Her Mom adds, “The whole play, about being fearless, was so appropriate for her. I am so proud. What Pillsbury House did with her was amazing.” And a star was born that day; Bella spoke all her lines flawlessly.
$1000 covers the cost of nurturing kids like Bella through a full season of the Chicago Avenue Project.
