VANAHEIMR | Fox & Beggar Theater

Week 1: Thu, Nov 30 · Fri, Dec 1 · Sat, Dec 2

Week 2: Thu, Dec 7 · Fri, Dec 8 · Sat, Dec 9 *

* Sat, Dec 9th will feature an ASL interpreter.

All tickets are general admission based on a pay-what-you-can system.

In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre

1500 East Lake St

Minneapolis, MN 55407

Long ago, long before the Viking Age, before the Iron Age and the Bronze Age, other peoples inhabited the regions we know as Scandinavia. They worshiped gods that have been forgotten, as they, too, have been forgotten. But perhaps small remnants of these gods survived in the myths of the Early Norse.

Vanaheimr is said to dwell to the west of Asgard. It is an old place. It is a place of deep beauty, of forests and lakes and rivers. But long ago, the world was colonized by the Æsir... and now, the Vanir have been summoned to fight alongside their colonizers. The Fox & Beggar Theater presents "VANAHEIMR: Stories of the Lesser," a fusion of classical poetry, shadow puppetry, live Nordic folk music, and contemporary dance, set within a dark winter forest.

Watch the full theatrical video online.

Photography by Steve Bozeman

CAST & CREW

Nat Allister (Writer, Director)

Nat Allister is a theater artist, playwright, storyteller, musician, ethnomusicologist, and clown. He founded the Fox & Beggar in 2014 in North Carolina and has since written, directed, and produced six FBT productions seen by tens of thousands of audience members nationwide. When he's not somewhere else, he's often making something in Minneapolis.

Kat Parent (Composer, Vocals)

Kat Parent is a St Paul multimedia artist, songwriter and vocalist who spent years learning haunting folk tunes in Norway. Their most recent project, Swampling, is a queer ecohorror exploration of climate despair and resistance inspired by comic book monster stories. She loves folk tales, sewing experimental clothes, and receiving wise counsel from her cats Loops and Gimbal.

Mili Judge-Becker (Vocals, Violin)

Mili is a violinist and singer based out of Minneapolis. Her performance venues have spanned from the main-stage of First Avenue to the salon of Machiavelli's family home in Florence, a range which is reflected in her genre-bending musical style. Currently, Mili is a core member of the local Ukrainian rock band, UVB, and performs regularly in several other Twin-Cities international bands and choirs.

Josh Conroy (Vocals, Cello)

Josh Conroy is a musician, whose performing experience includes over a decade of professional work in the Twin Cities. Their specific discipline is voice, but they enjoy playing cello, and piano.They have performed with several local organizations including Gilbert and Sullivan Very Light Opera, VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, Bach Society of MN, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Opera Reading Project, and others. They are an accomplished and enthusiastic performer, with a zest for life, and a good sense of humor. Josh lives in South Minneapolis with their dog, Ollie, and their partner Scotty.

Willie Johnson (Bragi)

Born in Detroit. Raised in Chicago. Came to Minnesota to attend Hamline University and stayed. Background in human communication, theatre, and poetry. Loves arts that push "usual" boundaries.

Rhiannon Fiskradatz (Nerthus)

Rhiannon Fiskradatz is a renaissance woman! She writes and sings her own music as MaMa Faerie, is a vocalist with The Argyle Street Trio & 10 Items Or Fewer, performs with a variety of theatre/puppetry troupes, composes music for theatre, and manages a teen choir for VocalEssence. She writes and performs a sketch & song series called Songversations with Shanan Custer. She costumes entertainers & productions of all sorts, having most recently worked with Ten Thousand Things, SteppingStone, Phantom Chorus, Mixed Precipitation, MIXTAPE Collective, BRKFST Dance, the U of M - TC Dance Dept, & Wayward Theatre.

Becca Mellstrom (Art & Puppetry)

Becca Mellstrom is a full-time therapist, sometimes vegetable farmer, and part-time but whole-hearted multimedia artist with a focus on printmaking, puppetry, animation and illustration. Becca's defining characteristic is a powerful fondness for monsters.

Alex Young (Art & Puppetry)

Alex Young is a Minneapolis based puppeteer and speech-language pathologist. Selected original work includes Eurydice in Hell (Puppet Lab 2023) William Taylor (Minneapolis Crankie Fest 2022), Split (NYC International Shadow Puppet Slam 2021), On the Beach (Minneapolis Full Moon Puppet Show 2019), and Library of the Dreamless (Prague Quadrennial 2019 in collaboration with Dream Eaters Collective).

Sofia Padilla (Puppeteering)

Sofía Padilla is a Mexican Theater Artist, Director, Designer and Puppeteer who has participated in over forty national and international theater productions. For television, she was the First Assistant Director of Sesame Street in Mexico City for the 2016 season “Listos a Jugar”. Currently, she works as a touring member of Bread and Puppet Theater and as the Artistic Co-Director of Paradox Teatro, which she founded in 2017 with Davey T Steinman. Paradox Teatro has received three grants from "The Jim Henson Foundation".

Gabrielle Abram (Choreography)

Gabrielle Abram, better known as "Gabby TheBaddie" is a Gary, Indiana native, and a 2020 Momentum New Dance Works Fellow. She is a member of STRONGmovement, directed by Darrius Strong, and Atlantis13 Dance Collective, directed by Peace Madimutsa and Johnathan Van Arman. In 2018 Abram co-produced Listen., at The Lab Theater--a collective of 9 choreographers sharing Pan-African perspectives and personal stories of black identity. In November of 2021, Abram made her choreographic debut with “Release” set on The Threads Dance Project as A Tapestries 5.0 Choreographer. Gabrielle along with business partner Rayna Howard created BGC Productions; a Film and Media Production company dedicated to creating, collaborating, and producing art that elevates and inspires black and POC artists. Abram continues to produce, dance, and create work in the Twin Cities.

Odessa Rain (Freya, Ensemble)

Odessa Rain is a freelance interdisciplinary artist and teacher, and she's brand new to the Minneapolis performance scene! She recently moved here from Boston where she attended the Boston Conservatory on scholarship and was fortunate to dance with companies such as Dance Lab and Dance Currents. During her time in Boston she spent three years teaching a variety of styles to both recreational and competitive students. Prior to college, she attended The Lehigh Valley Charter High School For The Arts as a dance major and spent summers at the Joffrey Ballet School. Excited to be here, she sends warm wishes and gratitude to the cast, director and choreographer of VANAHEIMR.

Kae McMahon (Freyr, Ensemble)

Kae is a dancer, choreographer, organic farmer, popular education facilitator, and mediocre stick and poke tattooer. They recently graduated from St. Olaf College with a BA in Dance and Environmental Science and are thrilled to make their Twin Cities dancing debut in Vanaheimr. They look forward to performing in ARENA DANCES upcoming work MERGE and exploring the dance, movement, and ecologic ecosystems of the Twin Cities.