Artistic Associates

Park Square Theatre’s cohort of Artistic Associates work collaboratively with the Interim Executive Director and other staff to develop and deliver the company’s artistic programs . In addition, they support and advise on certain performances, education programs and practices, make sure the theatre maintains an equitable and safe working environment for artists, staff and technicians, and advise on marketing and communication strategies and community inclusion.

Current Artistic Associates:

Photo of actor/director Ansa Akyea.Ansa Akyea is a Swiss born Ghanaian-American actor and graduate of the University of Iowa’s distinguished Masters of Fine Arts Acting program. Ansa has worked as an actor and director at some of the best local and regional theaters throughout the Twin Cities, such as the Guthrie Theater, Mixed Blood, and Ten Thousand Things. He can also be seen and heard on film, radio, and television. Ansa is the recipient of the 2011 Minnesota Playwright Center’s McKnight Award for Acting, City Pages Best Actor Award 2007, the 2013 Minnesota Playwright Center’s Many Voices Fellowship, and an Ivey Award for the Guthrie Theater’s production of Clybourne Park.

Ellen Fenstera professional theater director and arts educator in Minneapolis. Ellen has directed at Pillsbury House Theatre, The Illusion Theater, Yellow Tree Theater, Theatre Mu, Artistry, Gremlin Theatre, U of MN/Guthrie Theater Actor Training Program and Park Square Theater. She is an associate artist at Pillsbury House Theatre where she ran the Chicago Avenue Project from 2008 to 2016.  She is also an artistic associate at Illusion Theatre where she helps connect the theater with young and emerging artists. She is currently the Artistic and Executive Director of Twin Cities Theater Camp, a summer theater intensive for children.

Rick Shiomi, a founding member and the Co-Artistic Director of Full Circle Theater. He has been a playwright, director and artistic director in the Asian American theater movement since the 1980s and was a co-founder of Theater Mu and Artistic Director for twenty years. His twenty plays include Mask DanceRosie’s Café and Yellow Fever. His directing credits include: Flower Drum Song (David Hwang version), Into The WoodsThe New Mikado and Caught by Christopher Chen. He has received The McKnight Distinguished Artist Award, The Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Vision.

Kim Vasquez, a Saint Paul native specializing in the development of new plays and musicals. She is currently a producer on Be More Chill (Chicago, London, Broadway and Off-Broadway) and Austen’s Pride. Kim is a proud Founding Producer for the currently defunct New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), which survived for a glorious 16 years. Her most recent directing credit was for the New York Times bestselling Author and Poet, Rupi Kaur, in a live theatrical production of The Sun And Her Flowers at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center.

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