Signe V. Harriday, Senior Artistic Producing Director
Michael Hoyt, Creative Community Director
Masanari Kawahara, Naked Stages Director
Kurt Kwan, Breaking Ice Manager
Mankwe Ndosi, Resident Community Engaged Artist
Julia Snider Nickerson, Chicago Avenue Project Director
Noël Raymond, Senior Director of Arts & Culture
Rachael C. Rhoades, Production Manager
Teaching Artists:
Aimee K. Bryant, Bart Buch, Masanari Kawahara
Associate Company Members
Jamila Anderson
Clare Brauch
Sharon Bridgforth
Laurie Smith Carlos (1949 – 2016)
John Catron
Christiana Clark
Paul de Cordova
Stephen DiMenna
Ellen Fenster
Brian Goranson
Signe V. Harriday
Daniel Alexander Jones
Jodi Kellogg
Blayn Lemke
Elizabeth MacNally
Marion McClinton (1954 – 2019)
Kimberly Joy Morgan
Sonja Parks
Heidi Batz Rogers
Michael Wangen (1954 – 2020)
James A. Williams
Payton J. Woodson
Pramila Vasudevan
Founder, Ralph Remington
Preceding Co-Artistic Director & Visionary, Faye M. Price
Late Night Founder, Laurie Smith Carlos (Ancestor)
Pillsbury House + Theatre’s mission is to co-create enduring change towards a just society through art. Pillsbury House + Theatre creates theatre productions, arts programs and projects aimed at increasing Access, Attachment and Agency among audiences, artists and community members.
NOVEMBER 13 - 23, 2025
Naked Stages Director .................................................... Masanari Kawahara
National Mentor ................................................................ Pramila Vasudevan
Dottie Rose and Akiko: November 14, 15 and 20, 22 @7pm (Theatre)
Paige Reynolds’ Activations: November 19 and 23. @7pm (Lobby)
Paige Reynolds’ Visitations: Saturday, Nov 15 from 10 AM–1 PM and 3–6 PM (Mask Making), Monday, Nov 17 from 3–6 PM, Wednesday, Nov 19 from 10 AM–1 PM and 6–9 PM, and Friday, Nov 21 from 3–7 PM. (Lobby)
Naked Stages will return in 2026 with new artists. Applications for next year’s fellowship will be available at pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org in January 2026.
Naked Stages is made possible with major support from the Jerome Foundation.
@PHouseTheatre #NakedStages
About Naked Stages
A creative opportunity unlike any other in, Naked Stages is a fellowship that provides three early-career performance artists with the time, resources, and mentorship they need to bring their distinctive visions to life on stage. Through regular feedback sessions, the artists participate in workshops with local creators, as well as more intensive workshops with nationally-renowned artist Pramila Vasudevan. Naked Stages performances are the final step of a multi-layered program designed for artists to be their most bold and creative selves.
NAKED STAGES PROGRAM STAFF
MASANARI KAWAHARA 川原正也 - NAKED STAGES DIRECTOR
Masanari has been creating works for stage in the Twin Cities since 1993 as a Butoh mover, theater artist, puppet and mask artist, and educator. He has been Naked Stages Program Director since January 2022. Masanari is a resident teaching artist at Pillsbury House + Theatre, where he works with toddlers, preschoolers, elders, and individuals from MSS. He is the founder of Compassionate Artist of the Heart Butoh, co-leading with Lelis Brito and Malia Burkhart to cultivate practices in a community of Butoh movers. Other current projects include working with Sam Aros Michell as 2025-26 Resident Artists Working in Cross Cultural Collaboration for Center for Performing Arts; working for Skewed Visions in the creation of Inhuman (2026); and working with Pramila Vasudevan on an upcoming movement piece inspired by plants and grains. Masanari is a Playwrights’ Center McKnight Theater Artist Fellow 2018-19 and 2010-11. He is a (part-time) Zen Buddhist inspired by Thich Nhat Hahn. Masanari was born in Hiroshima, Japan.
PRAMILA VASUDEVAN- NATIONAL MENTOR
Pramila Vasudevan is a Tamil movement-centered artist, cultural worker, and maker of community-rooted/routed transdisciplinary work. She is associate director of Red Eye Theater, a place that cultivates experimental performance and contemporary art-making. She was the founder and artistic director of Aniccha Arts (2004–2024), an arts collaborative producing site-specific performances that examine agency, voice, and group dynamics within community histories, institutions, and systems. She is an artist associate of Pillsbury House Theatre (since 2021). She has been honored with McKnight Choreography Fellowship (2024, 2016), Joyce Award (2022), United States Artists (2022), and Guggenheim (2017). Vasudevan has been invested in cultivating art spaces and artist growth as the director of Naked Stages (2016–21) and national mentor (2024, 2025) at Pillsbury House Theatre. Her current practice involves gardening, hosting conversations and community gatherings, and developing improvisational movement sessions inspired by growing practices in gardens and greenhouses and by plant cycles.
Naked Stages Fellows
AKIKO
Akiko is a Twin Cities–based interdisciplinary storyteller, teaching artist, curator, and activist whose work spans poetry, music, dance, collage, and puppetry. Her art explores themes of anti-oppression and social change, often highlighting the narratives of immigrant women of color that are underrepresented in white, Eurocentric spaces. Originally from Osaka, Japan, Akiko has spent the past seven years creating visual and performance works that address social issues and promote community dialogue. In addition to her creative practice, she engages deeply with the Minneapolis community through teaching in schools and museums, contributing to large-scale public art projects, and curating exhibitions that amplify diverse voices.
REVERSAL
Directed by Suzy Messerole
This interdisciplinary, immersive storytelling piece examines the history of the Chicago River’s reversal—an event long celebrated as one of America’s greatest engineering feats, yet one that inflicted lasting harm on our water and soil. The work invites audiences to consider how the river’s reversal—and other monumental events driven by a similarly short-sighted and extractive mindset—continue to shape the ways we live, work, and think in the United States today.
Endless gratitude to: Suzy Messerole for her wisdom, generosity and patience. Masa for his open heart and trust he had in us. My cohort Paige and Dottie for their kindness and softness. Rachael and Claudia at Pillsbury House for always being so incredibly sensitive about what I want for my show and giving me technical and logistical support to actualize my dream. Peter Morrow for the technical support for the projection and q-lab and being such a wonderful friend. Matthew for working tirelessly to make my sound and projection the way I wanted. Mike, my trainer for training me weekly for this show. Masa and Sachan for giving me a reason to wake up every morning. My two obaachans who lived through Japan’s militarist imperialism. Thank you for watching over me, and wish me luck! Lastly, everyone who is fighting against oligarchy and fascism in this country. I made this piece to tell you that I see you and I am with you.
Naked Stages Fellows
DOTTIE ROSE
Dottie Rose (she/her) puts the ‘trans’ in transdisciplinary artist with her passion for weaving activism, awareness, and connection into her work as a wig maker, burlesque performer, hairdresser, makeup artist, and actress. She has had many career evolutions since she came to the Twin Cities in 2013, and is reveling in her current artistic mission of normalizing the transgender experience through all she does. She hopes to connect to her trans siblings and ally audiences alike through relatable and enlightening storytelling, music, comedy, and burlesque.
CLOCKY DOLL
Directed by Jay Owen Eisenberg
Clocky Doll is a snapshot into the life of a trans woman as she does what we all do every day: get dressed. Listen to stories of going through puberty in your thirties and healing through T4T love. Think about representation in art and society. Learn a little and laugh a lot through this quirky and touching ‘get ready with me’.
I would like to praise the whole team and community at Pillsbury H&T including Mike, Sara, Rachael and Claudia - truly heros of wrangling, feedback, management, and all things technical. Thank you to Masa’s calm steadiness, Pramila’s tender discernment, and my cohort’s feedback and solidarity. To my voice teacher, Klo, thank you for helping me through vocal dysphoria. Cat, thank you for making a rad musical track and for being an extra set of eyes. To Jay, thank you for giving my vision focus and coherence you smart, generous, patient clown. Marian, thanks for being my biggest fan and chosen family. Sharifa and Dakota, thank you for always listening and loving me through my t-gal meltdowns. To my beloved Ty, thank you for believing in me, being my mirror and gentle protector. Dad, thank you for proving family can evolve, learn, and love unconditionally through transition. Mom, thank you for letting your weird little kid imagine. To the transcestors, eternal gratitude for your heart, tenacity, and audacity.
Naked Stages Fellows
PAIGE REYNOLDS
Paige Oyaleke (they/them), also known as Mabolé Inawale, is a transdisciplinary artist, cultural organizer, and birthworker based in Minneapolis. Their work centers ritual and cultural masquerade through queer and Afro-diasporic ancestral healing. Blending performance, textiles, and spiritual practice, Paige reimagines how we connect with land, ancestors, and self. Recent projects include “Playing in the Street: A Community Study on Black Masquerades” (Resource, 2025) and “Other Side House,” a collaborative sanctuary installation for Black women, femmes, and gender nonconforming individuals. They hold a certificate in Masquerade Design from Caribbean Yard Campus and a BFA in Theatre Arts Administration from Howard University.
HOUSE OF MASKS
Directed by Keegan Xavi and Mankwe Ndosi
Fabricator and Co-Conspirator - BakiBakiBaki
Co-Conspirator - aegor ray
Three Black queer ancestors come out to play through the Afro-diasporic cultural tradition of masquerade. Meet us on “The Porch” where tricksters, sirens, and aunties share stories they need us to remember for here and now. The space is an installation, a collage, and an altar. Your presence is participation, witnessing, and completion of a circle.
Thank you to my ancestors, my family, my community. You make me possible. Endless gratitude to Mankwe, Keegan, and BakiBakiBaki, a sacred squad of portal workers bringing this to life. This show needed you all specifically. Thank you aegor ray for being so present with love and affirmation every step of the way. Thank you to the whole “red thread” artistic family. Thank you Lauren Evans and Barebones for your generous mask-building support. Thank you Jax for my rabbit ears. Thank you Junauda for all the hugs, wisdom, and holding of my big feelings. Thank you Sweet Water Collective for every bit of aśe you’ve sent me. Thank you to my teachers from Trinidad and Tabago. Thank you to every Black person across the diaspora who has maintained our sacred tradition, from New Orleans to Benin to right here in Minneapolis. Lets take it to the future!
Land Acknowledgment
Pillsbury House + Theatre would like to acknowledge that we are on unceded Dakota territory. The Dakota and Ojibwe people continue to live on this land, including the sovereign nations of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Grand Portage Chippewa, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Red Lake Nation, White Earth Nation, Lower Sioux Indian Community, Prairie Island Indian Community, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, and Upper Sioux Community. These Indigenous people and more continue to live on this land despite the genocidal efforts and forced removal by the State of Minnesota and the United States Government. The approximately $3 million promised in the 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, ceding Dakota land in southern and western Minnesota to the United States Government, has yet to be paid. The land we are on was, is, and will always be Indigenous land.
The settlement house movement which gave rise to Pillsbury House + Theatre has a history of erasure with respect to Native communities. In alignment with our mission to create challenging theatre that inspires enduring change towards a just society, Pillsbury House + Theatre commits to continue including Indigenous voices, whether they be Dakota, Ojibwe, or any of the 30+ Indigenous Nations represented in the Twin Cities area and across the globe. We commit to working in partnership with, and providing resources and stage time for, Indigenous theatre makers and artists. We strive to support Indigenous voices at every opportunity and we ask you to commit to supporting the Indigenous people wherever you are.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Pillsbury House + Theatre is supported in part by:
A list of individual donors and expanded information about our funders can be found at pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org
