Leah Cooper

Leah Cooper (Project Director, Wonderlust Co-Artistic Director) has been directing, producing, and creating theater for over 35 years. Locally, she has directed for Park Square Theatre, History Theatre, Commonweal Theatre, Rough Magic, Gremlin Theater, 20% Theatre, Theatre in the Round, Shakespearean Youth Theatre, The Playwrights Center, and for the Breaking Ice (diversity and inclusion) program at Pillsbury House & Theatre. She was the first Executive Director of the MN Theater Alliance serving over 450 theaters across the state, co-founding partner at MinnesotaPlaylist.com, and Executive Director at the MN Fringe Festival. Leah is also a facilitator and consultant in community engagement and organizational development, and she serves on the board of directors for the Department of Public Transformation. Prior to working full time in the arts, she spent 10 years in the corporate sector as a software engineer and business consultant. She’s done a wide variety of things, but the unifying theme to her passion is inclusive creativity and creative inclusivity, and her favorite quote is, “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” – Mohandas Gandhi

Mahayana (Yana) Landowne (Guide, Co-Imaginer) is an Interactive Performance Artist and Theater Director based in NYC and delighted to be participating in her first Wonderlust Production.  Currently she is also very involved with staging art activism especially with Extinction Rebellion (xrnyc.org)  and in radical self-expression and empowering others to believe in their own creativity. Thank you for being part of this performance.  For other fun festive projects check out callingallparties.org & mahayanalandowne.com.

Alan M. Berks (Producer, Wonderlust Co-Artistic Director) (he/him), is a theater-maker whose work has been seen in Minneapolis, Chicago, San Francisco, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Indianapolis, and New York. Most recently, as a member of Minnesota’s playwright-driven Workhaus Collective, he wrote and workshopped a small cast, political duel between a Republican politician and a reporter called The Great Divide and, with Alan Berks & Company, an adaptation of Six Characters in Search of an Author. Other work includes his solo show Goats, set in the Middle East after Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, which has been produced in Phoenix, Indianapolis, Chicago, New York, and St. Paul, MN. Awards include: Minnesota State Arts Board (Ringtone), MacDowell Colony Fellow (They Want), and Jerome Fellow (Mourning Rituals). Other work includes: Music Lovers, How to Cheat, Almost Exactly Like Us, 3 Parts Dead, Everywhere Signs Fall, Home of the Brave (published by Playscripts), and They Want (based on The Oresteia by Aeschylus). Alan is also a teacher, communications consultant, and co-founder and former editor of MinnesotaPlaylist.com.

Laurel Armstrong (Storyteller) is a singer/actor who has also been known to produce, dance, compose, commune with spirits, write, and/or bake for various projects she has worked on. Formally trained in classic musical-theater performance, her true passion is for work that blends genres, tries new (and preferably weird) things, and involves communities directly. Some great folk she has worked with in this regard include Natalie Nowytski, Peter Vitale, Nautilus Music-Theater, The Flying Foot Forum, Skylark Opera, Theater Elision, Animist Arts, and Wonderlust.  www.LaurelArmstrong.com

Antonio Duke (Storyteller) is a Twin Cities based actor and playwright. He’s inspired by myths from the black spiritual canon that derive from the Yoruba, Santeria, and Voodoo deities. He has three solo performance pieces under his belt, Ashes of Moons (Pillsbury House Theatre’s Naked Stages Fellowship), Tears of Moons (Guthrie Theatre’s Solo emerging Artist Celebration), and Missing Mississippi Moons (Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant) He is an inaugural Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. He’s an alumnus of the Guthrie B.F.A Actor Training Program. He has been seen on stages with The Blue Barn Theatre, Penumbra Theatre, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Climb Theatre, Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, Pangea World Theatre and The Guthrie Theatre, Great River Shakespeare Festival. Make sure to check him out on The History Channel series “I WAS THERE” playing John Lewis in an episode titled “Good Trouble.”

Masanari Kawahara 川原正也 (Storyteller) is a Butoh doer, theatre artist, puppeteer, and arts educator. He recently performed in Lelis K. Brito’s A Binding Strangeness as part of Isolated Acts at red eye theater, Valerie Oliveiro’s SOFT FREEDOMS as part of MERGE at the Cowles Center (2022). His solo piece 8’46” (movement for healing), featuring a soundscape by Sho Nikaido, was performed as part of Offerings: BareBones 2020, and was recognized in StarTribune’s 2020 Artists of the Year edition. Previously Masanari was a member of the Butoh group Nenkin Butoh Dan, which received a 2015 Sage Award for outstanding dance ensemble for Fu.Ku.Shi.Ma. Other dance projects include: Anthea Hamilton’s Cabbage Four Ways (2021) as part of Paradox of Stillness at Walker Art Center; Throw Open The Heavy Curtain (2018) by Sharon Picasso Projects; Census (2016) and Every Other (2015) by Aniccha Arts. Masanari is currently the Director of Naked Stages program as well as a Resident Teaching artist at Pillsbury House + Theatre. Masanari is a Playwrights’ Center McKnight Theater Artist Fellow 2018-2019 and 2010-2011.　

Marcela Michelle (Storyteller) is a Minneapolis-based transdisciplinary artist, activist, producer, and educator working across genres and forms. She is the Artistic Co-Director of Lightning Rod – a QTPOC-led arts organism providing opportunities for QTGNC artists and activists, and before that was the Artistic Director of 20% Theatre Company. She is a Teaching Artist in Residence with the Hennepin Theatre Trust and a 2019 Mentee of Pangea World Theatre and Art2Action’s National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation. Her work has been featured by Walker Art Center, Red Eye Theater, Guthrie Theater’s Dowling Studio, Northern Spark, Rough Magic Performance Company, The Minneapolis Burlesque Festival, Dykes do Drag, and many other fine groups. Marcela loves spending time with her Wife and their Dogter, watching and reading non-fiction, and expanding her culinary repertoire. Upcoming work includes a new dance from Alexandra Bodnarchuck and a December Residency with Rosy Simas Dance 331 Studio. 

Sophie Javna (Guide, Music, and Herbs) is a transplant from Oregon, a theatermaker, mover, singer, scribbler, puppeteer, and gardener. She is currently touring Tucker’s Robot with Open Eye Theatre’s driveway tour this summer and just planted mushrooms in her garden. She is in her second year of the Masters of Social Work program at the University of Minnesota. 

Megan Kim (Guide, Wonderlust ensemble member) is a graduate of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy-Los Angeles. She spent 9 years acting and singing in LA performing at various venues such as the Ford Amphitheatre and Fullerton Civic Light Opera, before returning to the Twin Cities. She is a company member with Wonderlust Productions. She performed in In My Heart: The Adoption Play Project, Our House: The Capitol Play Project and the OverAchievers Web Series and was the assistant director for Look Again: The Normandale Play Project. Other theatre credits include: Artistry, Smartmouth Comedy, Freshwater Theatre, Theatre Unbound and Nautilus Music-Theater. She also performs with Pillsbury House + Theatre’s Breaking Ice program.

Adam Whisner (Guide, Wonderlust ensemble member) performed in Wonderlust’s Veterans Play Project, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Adoption Play Project, Capitol Play Project, Dear Future Self at St. Thomas University, and Overachievers Web Series. Adam has been a full-time actor in the Twin Cities since age twenty-five, doing theatre, corporate/educational video, and commercial TV, radio, and Web advertising. He’s been the voice of dozens of local, regional, and national brands including Callaway, Papa Murphy’s Pizza, and the Minnesota Wild. Theatre credits include shows with Hey City Theater, History Theatre, Hidden Theatre, Eye of the Storm Theatre, 15 Head: A Theatre Lab, The Commonweal, Walking Shadow Theatre Company, Gremlin Theatre, Workhaus Collective, Joking Envelope, Loudmouth Collective, Theatre Pro Rata, and Park Square Theatre. His stage acting has been recognized in Lavender Magazine and City Pages, where he was named Best Actor in City Pages’ 2016 “Best of the Twin Cities” annual review.

Becky Dale (Composer, Co-writer, and Wonderlust ensemble member) was the composer of original music for Wonderlust’s Our House: The Capitol Play Project and wrote and composed one of the Hopscotch Pandemic Pop-up Plays. She also worked with community members to co-compose original music for Wonderlust’s Look Again: The Normandale Play Project, and The Labyrinth and the Minotaur: The Incarceration Play Project . She participated as a community member in the Adoption Play Project and the Overachiever Web Series. Other community-engaged theater work she has done includes composing music for Cornerstone Theater Company’s touring production of California The Tempest, Cornerstone’s downtown LA production of Attraction, and founding, producing and composing for the West Side Theater Project, a community-engaged effort that staged three shows. Some of her other theater composing credits include Nautilus Music Theater’s Sister Stories, Ten Thousand Things Theater’s The Furies and Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Shante’ Sojourn Zenith (Ritual and script co-creator) is an animist somatic practitioner who approaches ritual through the nervous system, creative expression, and relating to wider ecological bodies of support. Her practice weaves together learnings from somatics, constellations, poetics, clowning, grief ritual, and systems intelligence as well as the oracular guidance of ecological beings and deep time ancestors. The descendant of English, Eastern European, Swedish, and German ancestors, Shante’ lives in Mni Sota Makoce on the ancestral homelands of the Dakota people, where she learns from the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, Turtles, Maitake Mushroom, and many other nature beings. This project marks Shante’s return to theatre after a several year hiatus: from 2007-2017, she assisted with directing and/or dramaturgy at Theatre de la Jeune Lune, The Playwrights Center, The Moving Company, The Guthrie Theatre, The Heart of the Beast, and Ten Thousand Things. Shante’ has studied clowning and physical theatre with Philippe Gaulier in France and Pierre Byland in Switzerland, and spent several years as an archives assistant at the University of Minnesota Libraries organizing the Theatre de la Jeune Lune collection. She was a 2016 Naked Stages Fellow, for which she created and directed Vulneraries, a project about cultural and ecological healing. In 2019, she was the director and creative consultant for Lauren Drasler’s solo performance Post-It, Baby! Shante’ has an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College, focusing on the intersection of grief rituals and creative practice for which she created a solo show called Earth Grief. She is currently completing her thesis for an MA in Health Arts and Sciences, also from Goddard College, with a concentration in Embodiment Studies, researching somatic practice related to animism, ritual, and the nervous system. She has studied grief rituals with Azul Valerie Thome, Francis Weller, and as part of the 2019 Earth Leadership Cohort training in the Work that Reconnects. As part of her MA, she participated in several year long training programs, including the Academy for Soul-Based Coaching, the Animist Arts Practitioner Cohort, Liz Koch’s Core Awareness Professional Application Course, and the first year of the MN Center for Constellations Facilitator Training. Shante’ has a podcast art project called Long Body Prayers and she offers classes, sessions, and project consulting through her website: www.earthpoetedgeweaver.com.

Ernest Briggs (Co-writer) is a proud Anishinaabe actor from the Twin Cities who has worked on stage and screen for over 10 years. He received his Acting M.F.A. from the University of Florida, attended AADA and studied at Brave New Workshop and Upright Citizens Brigade. When Ernest is not acting, writing, directing, producing or teaching he spends his time with his wife and kids. www.ernestbriggs.com.

Andrea M Gross (Costume consultant and Wonderlust ensemble member) is a St Paul based costume designer, mama, advocate and activist. Her costume designs have been seen in almost every production the company has made (In My Heart, The People’s House, and The Minotaur and the Labyrinth). Design work has been seen with Walking Shadow Theatre Company, Park Square Theater, The Ordway, and The Jungle. As Rubble&Ash, she collaborates with Barb Portinga to meld pieces from existing stocks of costumes; thrift, antique, and fabric stores; and purpose-build garments to combine elements in unexpected ways. She is a company member with nimbus theatre and a founding member of Technicians for Change, and The Costume Collective. Andrea believes that a rising tide raises all boats and that we all do better when we all do better.  (www.agrossdesigns.com)

Gabriel Peñaloza-Hernandez (Performance Logistics) is delighted to be stage managing for this second Wonderlust production! He has been stage managing locally for companies like Shakespearean Youth Theatre, Commonweal, and Rough Magic! 

Frances Matejcek (External Communications) was born and raised in Minneapolis, and has been doing communications work for nonprofits in the Twin Cities for the past five years. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2020 with a BA in American Studies. Frances enjoys running, going on long road trips, sitting and thinking by bodies of water, and especially thinking about reality television. She is interested in how popular art and culture can be an expression of innate human desires. 

Lacey Mamak (Board Member, Research Assistance) first became involved with Wonderlust Productions as a story circle participant and cast member in the Normandale Play Project. A librarian at Normandale Community College, Lacey teaches research strategies and information literacy to students in all disciplines. Lacey is also a long-form improv performer and has appeared on stage at HUGE Theater, Strike Theater, Bryant Lake Bowl, and other venues. They were a portrait subject and participant in Leslie Barlow’s show at Minneapolis Institute of Art, “Leslie Barlow: Within, Between, and Beyond,” which explored the experiences of multiracial folks and/or transracial adoptees through paintings and videos. The thread running through Lacey’s work in the arts, including their work at Wonderlust, is the belief that art that comes from lived experience has the power to create transformative change.

Rosie Tabachnick (Audience Services) joined Wonderlust in the summer of 2021 as the production manager for Hopscotch. Rosie is a performer, director, and all-around problem solver. She is interested in experimental performance, new works, mending & repair, and listening to the radio. In addition to her work with Wonderlust, you can catch Rosie making theater in the Twin Cities with Commutator Collective and The Virginia Twins.

Huge thanks to people who met with us, shared advice, came to workshops in our studio and on the island, and lent their wisdom and energy to this journey!
Allison Bares, William Beeman, JoJo Bell, Craig Bloomstrand, Dr. Pauline Boss, Leslie Brown, Nicole Duxbury, Nina Guertin, Julie Guidry, Marilyn Habermas-Scher, Nor Hall, Amy Hubbard, Ellen Hufschmidt, Karen Hutt, Jim Bear Jacobs, Brandon Jones, Brittany Kellerman, Kevin Lindsey, David McCurdy, Melissa Miller, Dr. Amy Muse, Anna Pasno, Dawn Tomlinson, Alla Traun, Samuel Verdeja, Xiaolu Wang, and Stanton Wood.

Special thanks to Kate Frye and St. Paul Parks and Recreation for supporting our use of Raspberry Island.

BOOKS

Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief by Dr. Pauline Boss

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Emerging Ritual in Secular Societies, A Transdisciplinary Conversation edited by Jeltje Gordon-Lennox

From Ritual to Theatre by Victor Turner

Symbolic Loss: The Ambiguity of Mourning and Memory at Century’s End edited by Peter Homans

How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong

The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief by Francis Weller

Love and Rage: The Path of LIberation through Anger by Lama Rod Owens

Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone

Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown

PODCASTS

Finding our Way hosted by Prentis Hemphill

For the Wild, An Anthology of the Anthropocene

The Emerald by Joshua Schrei

Terrible, Thanks for Asking by Nora McInerny

FamilyMeans Center for Grief and Loss

The Center for Grief & Loss provides services specific to loss and trauma:

• Individual, couple, and family therapy for all ages.
• Support groups
• Consultation and critical incident response to businesses, schools and organizations in the aftermath of a sudden death or traumatic experience.
• Clinical supervision, professional workshops and training.

Housed in two homes on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, MN the Center for Grief & Loss has provided hope & healing since 1996. In 2012, the Center merged with FamilyMeans. 

The Cultural Wellness Center  

The Cultural Wellness Center is a transformative space that incubates culturally-based solutions to real world problems. Our work at the Cultural Wellness Center is to move from race to culture. By engaging the generative practice of moving from race to culture, one engages the transformative path to becoming oneself through the lens of culture. The knowledge produced from this process creates the space for one to heal themselves and build community.

As a recognized authority on the process of cultural wellness, we offer experiential learning opportunities that actively boost well-being, improve relationships, build communities, and train organizations.

The Cultural Wellness Center offers research-based classes, coaching, consulting, and certifications that support people, families, communities, and organizations in developing culturally-based solutions to real-world problems.

United Way 2-1-1

United Way 2-1-1  is a statewide information and referral system that has regional offices located around the state. United Way 2-1-1 works closely with many state and local agencies to provide the most up-to-date and comprehensive information about human services available to the people of the State of Minnesota. Dial 2-1-1 to connect, or call toll free: 800-543-7709, local: 651-291-0211, or text your zip code to 898-211*

The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships by Bonnie Badenoch

Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory by Deb Dana 

Stalking Wild Psoas: Embodying Your Core Intelligence by Liz Koch

Basic Animist Arts Practices, a YouTube video series from Animist Arts

The Emerald podcast by Joshua Schrei, especially the episode “I wish it could have been another way” on collective grief 

Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard

Small Arcs of Larger Circles by Nora Bateson

Connecting to Our Ancestral Past by Francesca Mason Boring

Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta

Ethnoautobiography: Stories and Practices for Unlearning Whiteness by Jurgen Kremer

Ecological Essays and upcoming books written by Sophie Strand

Dark Matter, Women Witnessing, a feminist journal for witnessing collective grief, including the essay “Standing on First Stone” by Shante’ Zenith

Local events at the Minnesota Center for Systemic Constellations 

From Laurel Armstrong (whose performance was mostly sung)

About Kulning (the first part of the story)
I’ve also learned a lot about kulning and Swedish culture from Jonna Jinton’s YouTube channel

About keening (the second part)
My Irish singing teacher who taught me keening

Words to my song (subject to change. I’m still working this thing out):

Joy said to praise the path no matter where it led
Well I praise the blade, I praise the wound, and oh I praise the dead

Mothers gather round the table 
I’ll make my offerings as I’m able
Mothers gather round the table
Hear your daughter now

Hail to the trembling child who cannot question why
Hail to the life-pulse snaking down the thigh
Hail to the frightened virgin caged from asking more
Hail the rich and bitter knowing of the sacred whore

Mothers gather round the table
I’ll make my offerings as I’m able
Mothers gather round the table
Hear your daughter now

Hail to the jagged edge that rips me from my dreams
Hail to the monsters that taught me how to scream
Hail to the wild shore that drowns me in its tide
Hail to the innocence that showed me how to die

The secret that they tried to cover
Is death will come to you as lover
And in her fold become the Mother
To give you new life now

Joy said to praise the path no matter where it led
Well I praise the blade, I praise the wound, and oh I prase the dead

The poem “Praise the Rain” by Joy Harjo was an inspiration for my song, and creates a double-meaning on the line “Joy said to praise the path.”

Also an indirect influence on my work is this essay by Sophie Strand, “The Body is a Doorway”