Our Professional Team

Darcey Engen (Co-Founder)

Darcey Engen co-artistic director of Sod House Theater and professor and chair of the Augsburg University Theater Arts Department. Darcey teaches such courses in performance voice and movement and has directed over 20 plays in the department, the stylistic breadth of the works ranging from Ovid and Shakespeare to contemporary playwrights Caryl Churchill and Timberlake Wertenbaker, musicals to modern dramas.

The recipient of an Augsburg “Excellence in Scholarship” award in 2013, Darcey served as co-chair of Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial celebration in 2019. She is also the co-founder and executive director of Sod House Theater.

Darcey has directed or performed in such Sod House productions as Friedrich Durrenmatt’s “The Visit”; Henrik Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt” and “An Enemy of the People”; and “Swede Hollow Ghost Sonata,” an adaptation of an August Strindberg drama created in collaboration with the dance company, Black Label Movement.

Luverne Seifert (Co-Founder)

Luverne Seifert is Co-artistic director of Sod House Theater and has been acting and directing professionally for over 30 years.  He received a National Fox Fellowship for distinguished achievement in 2017, a Mcknight Fellowship for Theater Artists in 2003 and an Ivey Award in 2009 for his Performance as Phillip K Dick in 800 Words. He is currently a Senior Teaching Specialist in the Department of Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota where he has been teaching for 15 years.  He has acted nationally at South Coast Rep, Berkeley Rep, Arizona Rep, Trinity Rep, The La Jolla Playhouse, Arts Emerson, The Wilma Theater, The New Victory Theater in addition to performing locally with The Guthrie Theater, The Children’s Theater and Ten Thousand Things.  He is certified in European clowning at The Burlesque Center for clown in Lacarno, Switzerland and at The Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Etampe, France.

Carolyn Van Nelson (Managing Director)

Carolyn Van Nelson is the Managing Director of SHT (since Feb 2019). She brings over 15 years of nonprofit finance experience. She has managed the finances for a community foundation, domestic abuse program, dual immersion preschool, law office, yoga studio, professional actor, real estate, restaurant, and a small theater. She also brings over 10 years of theater experience including grant research, project management, financial reporting, board engagement, budgeting, donor management, IT management and data analysis.

Charles Adams

Charles Adams is a dramaturg, director, playwright, teaching artist, facilitator, and Theatre of the Oppressed Joker. As an adjunct instructor he has taught at Augsburg University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include theatre and social change—especially in the fields of Theatre in Education, theatre and young people, community-based theatre, and Theatre of the Oppressed. As an applied theatre artist, Charles has worked in numerous unusual-seeming partnerships, including with the Minnesota Vikings! Since 2007 Charles has been the treasurer of the board of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed and helped to organize annual conferences and gatherings to connect community organizers, teachers, artists, Jokers, and activists working to engage the arts and education as forces for social justice and transformation around the world. He’s very much a fan of Sod House’s work in engaging community through storytelling! Sometimes, when he’s very lucky, Charles gets to farm-sit for alpaca, pigs, and other small farm animals!

Claudine Arndt

Claudine Arndt is the manager of Minnesota Cooks™, the local food pro-gram of Minnesota Farmers Union that works to foster a strong, resilient local food system in MN. She is passionate about enhancing the quality of life for farmers and rural communities. Drawing from her dedication to food and farming communities and healthy living, Claudine is the primary author of the stories about farmers' lives included in the cookbook The Farmer and the Chef: Farm Fresh Minnesota Recipes and Stories. Also a nutrition counselor and owner of Wellness with Claudine, she encourages others to choose quality, local foods when possible. She lives with her husband Mike in Savage and loves spending time on Lake Kabetogama in Northern MN, her favorite place on the planet.

Ashley Benbow

Ashley began her professional on-camera career at the age of 12 and has continued her work in both on-camera and voiceover roles into her forties. She studied theater at Columbia College Chicago and completed her degree at the University of Minnesota, with a focus on puppetry, improvisation, and neutral mask techniques. In addition to her on-camera and voiceover work, Ashley is dedicated to community engagement and presence through her career as a residential real estate agent. She values the opportunity her job provides to empower individuals to take pride in their communities and to showcase the many wonderful aspects of this great state. Through her experience in storytelling, she has learned that the key is not to be interesting, but to be interested.”

AndY HaLper

Andy Halper has a textured career that ranges from a couple of decades in applied research at the University of Minnesota, to a creative position with Apple; from instructional design work with Hallmark, add in the Director of Life Long Learning at a local Synagogue, to most importantly, a summer camp director. Throughout these career paths, the foundation of my work has always been what Maya Angelou expressed so well, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Having chutzpa and humility at the same time makes life a whole lot more meaningful and considerably more fun. I’m currently enrolled in classes at the University, and taking improv classes at HUGE Theater. Devoted to stretching the ideals learned the late 60’s, I’m testing my chops doing stand-up at open mic nights at Comedy Clubs.  I’m 72 years old, and very big on the yin and yang of things, and in my case, the yang to my Zen master yin is that I’m a camp director. I have two grown daughters, a grown up and snazzy wife, 4 grandkids –– all campers at heart.

Kim Koeppen

Kim Koeppen is a life-long, enthusiastic patron and supporter of live theater. While not a thespian herself, Kim did do a lot of acting in the classroom as a Professor of Education for over 25 years. An artist-in-training, Kim embraces writing blackout poetry, drawing, painting, and playing with clay. She also spends her time gardening, biking and traveling. As a recent retiree, Kim is very excited about contributing to Sod House Theater’s unique, community-building model during this “re-energize-ment” phase of her life.

Sonja Kuftinec

Sonja Kuftinec is Professor of Theatre at the University of Minnesota and Interim Vice Principal of Home Schooling a Second Grader in her Minneapolis residence. Her research and teaching interests include conflict transformation in the Balkans and Middle East and community-based theater. She has made theater with young people in Mostar, Bosnia with tanks in the streets, in Kabul, Afghanistan with broken tanks in the fields, and in Jerusalem with tanks in the imagination. She loves witnessing the joyful communion of Sodhouse's site-specific events: Cherry Orchard in a wounded economy, Enemy of the People by the Mississippi shores, and the traveling variety show The Hoopla Train in a rural ballroom. She has also worked as a strawberry picker.

Bethany Lacktorin

Bethany Lacktorin is a performance artist, community organizer, producer and musician based in rural SW Minnesota. With 6.5 years as Executive+Artistic Director of Little Theatre Auditorium in New London, she is part of a thriving artist community that believes in making art an everyday experience as a vehicle toward belonging. Bethany’s artistic practice explores cultural identity, displacement and human connection to land, place and shared experience.
Bethany is a professional sound designer/composer with 20+ years in the field. Bethany studied violin at Lawrence University, received her AAS in Music Production at McNally Smith College of Music and BFA in Experimental Media at Prague College School of Art & Design. https://bethanylacktorin.wixsite.com/bethanylacktorin and littletheatreauditorium.org

James Lekatz

James Lekatz is the Upper and Middle School Theater teacher at Mounds Park Academy (MPA), a college preparatory school in St. Paul. He firmly believes in the educational power of theater, and that every story deserves to be heard. Previously, he served as an Education Associate and Arts Access Specialist at Stages Theatre Company, where he helped develop sensory-friendly programming and The C.A.S.T. Program, an acting initiative for students on the autism spectrum. He was also the Artistic Associate at the Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, an organization focused on creating art that challenges perceptions of disability. James has written and spoken for The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and shares his expertise on accessibility and disability in theater on national podcasts and webinars. He holds a degree in Theatre Arts from Augsburg University and trained at The London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA).

Mary McReynolds-Pellinen

Mary McReynolds-Pellinen’s career in the public sector – at both the state and local level – spanned five decades. She has coupled that work with long involvement and leadership in the arts in both professional and volunteer roles including over 20 years of affiliation with the Lyric Center for the Arts in Virginia, Minnesota. Mary has been on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota State Arts Board and recently retired as Executive Director of the Lyric Center for the Arts and coordinator of The First Stage Gallery. She has served on numerous civic and nonprofit boards and currently chairs the Virginia Planning and Zoning Commission. She served on the Virginia City Council and chaired the City’s Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee. In 2017, she received the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council’s Maddie Simons Arts Advocate Award, which is presented to an individual whose involvement in a project or program has substantially contributed to the arts in the Arrowhead region.

Kaija Pellinen

Kaija Pellinen is a theater maker currently living in St Paul, with deep roots on Minnesota’s Iron Range. She has worked in almost every aspect of stage work, from design to management, teaching and producing, though would primarily describe herself as an actor. Kaija grew up in the world of non-profit arts and started her formal theatrical study at the Perpich Center for Arts Education, then went on to gain a BS in Theatre from Minnesota State University, Mankato and a MA in Acting from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, she approaches theater and performance from many schools of thought. She has performed in large scale professional musicals and small community productions, but always comes back to the heart of making theater: telling the story. Kaija currently works with the Minnesota Historical Society, ushering the next generation into an understanding of the world: past, present, and future.

Barbara Shaterian

Barbara Shaterian is an artist living in Minneapolis. Her first career was in baking, and she was part of the original team at Rustica Bakery. As a baker, she (mostly) liked the early hours, and loved making croissants and kouign amann, but also appreciates the incredible community of people she met over the years. And yet, her original love was art, so in 2019 she went back to school to earn her BFA from the University of Minnesota. She now splits her time between the darkroom and the ceramics studio, making art that exploits her love of the materials. Barbara has two delightful daughters, and it was with them that she began to explore the wide world of small theater in the Twin Cities. Together they experienced the unexpected and transformative power of small theater, and Barbara especially loves that visceral spark when the audience and the actors connect.

Lisa Turner

Lisa Turner brings a global perspective to her work, with a career in higher education that took her to the Czech Republic, Japan, and across the U.S. She has now shifted her focus to the nonprofit sector, drawn by a desire to contribute more directly to mission-driven work. She serves as Executive Assistant to the President and Board Liaison at West Central Initiative (WCI), a dynamic nonprofit based in Fergus Falls. WCI serves nine counties in west central Minnesota, including parts of White Earth Nation, working to build a vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable region.

Lisa has a deep appreciation for the power of the arts to educate, connect, and spark meaningful change. She is inspired by the opportunity to collaborate with creative individuals dedicated to making a difference.