Meet Our team

Associate Artists

WHAT ARE ASSOCIATE ARTISTS?

These artists began their relationship with The Birth Play Project through one full production process. They now participate in monthly meetings, take advantage of training opportunities, and serve as ambassadors for the BPP in the larger community. Associate artists are not paid for their association alone, but they are paid for productions and eligible for paid leadership roles on a rotating basis as per their preferred commitment and interest level. 

WANT TO GET INVOLVED?

If you are interested in becoming an associate artist, send Seth (our Company Manager) an email at birthplayproject@gmail.com.

Meet the Artists

  • she/her

    Sarah is a local actor, director, and acting coach. She last appeared as Escalus in Measure for Measure and originated the role of Ann in Mary’s Wondrous Body. Sarah also created, produced, and hosted Pants On Fire at the 2024 MN Fringe Festival. She is currently producing the web series, The Wildlife Society. Sarah has performed all around and outside of the Twin Cities, and you can also see her in many locally produced films. Sarah has been a Teaching Artist at Stages Children's Theater and for the Chicago Avenue Project for over a decade, focusing on devised work she helps create with the students. Sarah will be playing Professor Lee in Walking Shadow’s new puzzle play Zerolands throughout 2025.

  • he/him

    Seth is a Birth Play Project veteran, having worked in some capacity on I With Things New Born, Aquelarres, Mary's Wondrous Body, and most recently Measure for Measure. By day, he manages, writes, directs, and occasionally stars in educational performances for children of all ages at The National Theatre for Children. Seth believes that every story is actually a birth story, every play is actually a birth play, and that understanding these stories is an essential part of making our world a better place.

  • she/her

    Gillian is a dual citizen of Australia and the US who made the Twin Cities her home in 2017 after graduating from Luther College. She’s a local actor and dialect coach who has worked with Park Square, Lyric Arts, BARd Shakes, Hypnic Jerk, Encompass Theatre, Fearless Comedy, and more. Her day job is in Development and Accessibility at Theater Latté Da. Gillian played Mags in the BPP’s 2023 production of Mary’s Wondrous Body and Juliet in 2024’s Measure for Measure. Gillian feels grateful and fulfilled to be collaborating with such wildly talented artists and focus those talents on telling stories that society has either avoided or stereotyped. Birth stories are universal yet profoundly personal and deserve attention and place in public memory.

  • she/her

    Isabella is an actor, writer, and improviser in the Twin Cities who strives to make work that gets audiences out of their comfort zone. She originated the title role in Mary’s Wondrous Body and most recently played Isabella in Measure for Measure. Isabella is a company member with the Brave New Workshop and can be seen in The World is Burning So I Made S’mores through May 17th. This summer she will make her Park Square debut in Between Riverside and Crazy. Isabella is committed to engaging with birth stories because famously, everyone had to be born. It is the most universal of experiences, we all have a birth story. 

  • he/him

    William is a California-born actor and director who takes great joy in beautiful words. He was a producer on 2023’s Mary’s Wondrous Body, then associate directed and played Claudio in 2024’s Measure for Measure. He is co-captain of BARd Shakes, a local Shakespeare company that does the Bard’s works in bars with one rehearsal. Upcoming: The Winter’s Tale at A-Mill Artist Lofts (through June 14th).

  • she/her

    Eva is an actor and cellist born and raised in Saint Paul. You may recognize her from Measure for Measure (Duke) and Mary’s Wondrous Body (Cellist/Liza). Favorite non-BPP work includes Antigonick (Full Circle Theatre), Eurydice (Theatre in the Round Players), The Language Archive (Theatre Pro Rata), Romeo & Juliet (Zephyr Theatre), Ada and the Engine (DalekoArts), Once (Theatre l’Homme Dieu), The Effect (Jungle Theatre), The Diary of Anne Frank (Park Square Theater), Equivocation (Walking Shadow Theatre Company), and six years of BARd Shakes performances.

  • she/her

    Arcadia is a California-born actor who relocated to Minneapolis for the tropical weather.  She made her BPP debut with Measure for Measure (2024). Recently seen in various BARd Shakes productions as well as Gray Mallard’s Romeo and Juliet. Theatre that is exciting, challenging, and thought-provoking is at the heart of her artist mission. BPP captures these qualities time and again and Arcadia is grateful to be a part of the ongoing thought partnership with hopes of bringing reproductive justice into common vernacular. When not onstage she enjoys dancing around the kitchen and taking care of animals. 

  • she/her

    Joni is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, and movement artist. She is thrilled to continue making dynamic art with the BPP! She is also a central member of Mixed Precipitation, bringing joyful outdoor opera everywhere from farms to city centers across Minnesota, and a frequent performer with Twin Cities physical theater group Combustible Company, helping devise numerous shows blending the boundaries between dance, text, and music. When not working on music you can find her gleefully riding her bike through the city or across the country! Upcoming: Alice Tierney with Opera Reading Project. www.jonigriffith.com

  • he/him

    Robert is an artist from Minneapolis, Minnesota, primarily working in drawing, printmaking, and theatre. His work explores queer perspectives on masculinity. In 2020 he received two B.A’s from the University of Minnesota in Theatre and Visual Art. He was the puppet designer for the BPP’s Aquelarres, for an alleged Theatre Company, and most recently for Alex Church’s Dutch: Made in America. His work can be seen at www.robertmcgrady.com

  • she/her

    Gillian (Gigi if you’re nasty) is a Minnesota born and raised actor, singer, and writer. BPP credits include Measure for Measure (Lucio/Mariana) and both iterations of Mary’s Wondrous Body (u/s Mags & Mary, Asst. Director in 2023). She used to be veryvery scared to give birth someday, and now she is not. She credits that entirely to her time with this beautiful company. She is braver for it, and hopes to watch that empowerment ripple out into the community at large.

  • she/they

    Tia is a theatre artist and writer who has worked with the BPP on both sides of production, for Aquelarres and both iterations of Mary’s Wondrous Body. This year Tia is writing two plays while raising two small humans. The plays will probably be done first.

  • she/her

    Madeline is a Minneapolis-based writer and theatre creature. Her writing has appeared onstage with the BPP and in the Minnesota Women’s Press. She has directed, choreographed, taught, and/or acted with Theatre Elision, Combustible Company, BARd Shakes, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, and Geva Theatre Center, among others. Madeline holds a B.A. from the University of Minnesota. She was raised in Rochester, NY by an educator and a women’s health nurse, as well as a robust local theatre community, and is grateful to carry their leadership forward through the BPP. www.MadelineWallTheatre.com