Board of Directors

Eve Bassinger grew up in St. Paul and currently lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Todd, and their three children, Brett, Berit and Ingrid. Eve received her degree in elementary education from Augsburg College and her master's degree in education from the University of Minnesota. She taught in the Minneapolis Public Schools for seventeen years before retiring.

Eve enjoys traveling with her family, volunteering at school, cooking and running around the lake while listening to The White Stripes.

Lisa Dejoras was a member of YPC's founding board of directors, serving two terms from 1990-1996.  At that time, she was a busy Minneapolis lawyer. Currently, she is an even busier mother of two.

She lives in rural Minnetrista with her husband, daughter, son and their assortment of pets.  She adores YPC and is honored to be back "on board."

Jill Jensen attended her first production with YPC and was truly impressed by the enthusiasm and professionalism of the production. She believes that exposing children to arts and culture creates a lifelong love and appreciation. Jill is a District Manager with AstraZeneca and leads a team of sales people in Minnesota and Wisconsin. She is also a sustaining member of the Junior League of Minneapolis.

Jill lives in South Minneapolis with her husband, Peter, and two daughters.  In her spare time she is improving her new “old” home, exploring the neighborhood lakes, enjoying football and tennis, and reading mystery and detective novels.

Miriam Johnson-Dunkirk grew up in Hopkins and, after pursuing acting in Los Angeles for ten years, recently moved back to the Twin Cities. She now lives in Chanhassen with her husband, Paul, and their two-year-old daughter, Sula. Miriam received her degree in communication and theater from the University of St. Thomas, and is now co-host of the national PBS series Hometime.

When she’s not spending time with her family, Miriam enjoys camping, hiking and making furniture.

Joan Kinsley has had the rare pleasure of turning her passion and college degree into an actual career in Video Production. Originally from the Chicago area, Joan grew up with a love for film and theater, and had the opportunity to study Broadcast and Film Communications at the University of Iowa. Much to her parent’s chagrin, Joan packed up and moved to New York to pursue her dream as an Editor. There, she learned three important lessons: 1) It is more fun to be the Director who tells the Editor what to do, 2) Corporate America pays the bills and 3) New York is magical, but exhausting and expensive. Joan moved to the Twin Cities in 1994 with her husband Jason, where they started a family in South Minneapolis.

She is currently an Executive Producer/Director with Best Buy where she has been producing and directing videos and live events for 10 years. Joan is honored to be part of the Youth Performance Company Board, and hopes to contribute to YPC’s long term success…or at least poach great young talent for her projects.

Rich Knowlton has been on the board of YPC since 1994, and is still looking for the chance to make a guest appearance in any YPC production.  Because he has no acting skills, a role may never be offered.  He does, however, have experience in the financial world as a senior vice president of investments at Smith Barney in Minneapolis.

Rich lives in south Minneapolis with his wife, Katie Piehl, and sons Austin and Ian.  They love living in the city and run, bike and play around Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun.  Hopefully Austin and Ian will represent the family in a YPC production someday.

Josh Lanzet grew up right outside of New York City where he first became interested in theater.  After spending several years performing improv and theater, and touring and recording with a band performing on the east coast and Midwest, Josh relocated to Minneapolis to join General Mills in their Customer Promotion Marketing function.

In his free time Josh performs Improv comedy with several different groups in the twin cities and enjoys performing music and spending time with friends and family.

Jodi Lebow grew up in Golden Valley. After working at BBDO advertising in Los Angeles, she moved back to Minneapolis. Jodi received her BS in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. She currently leads the web strategy team for Concur Technologies.

Jodi enjoys traveling, spending time with family and friends and volunteering with her sorority and local marketing associations.

Shauna McKenzie grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and recently moved to Minneapolis with her partner, Denise, and their two dogs after spending three years living in Portland, Oregon.  Shauna received her B.S. from Miami University of Ohio and her MBA from Xavier University Cincinnati, Ohio.  Shauna works for Target Corporation and currently has the role of District Team Leader with Target Corporation, where she has the southern Minnesota district.

Shauna enjoys traveling, running the lakes in her neighborhood, home improvement projects, and shopping for distressed antiques.  Shauna has always had a love for the performing arts and fell in love with YPC after first seeing a performance at a regional Target meeting.  She has a commitment to creative performing arts outlets for young people.

Kris Nugent was born and raised in Park Ridge, IL where she often performed in the dance ensemble of her high school’s musicals and variety shows (kilts, dancing horses, and painful lifts were the highlights).  After graduating from the University of Iowa with a B.A. in Business Administration, she moved to Minneapolis which she now calls home after 20 years (with a little 4 year break to San Diego for some warm winters).  For over a decade, Kris has Executive Produced a variety of corporate events ranging from pipe-and-drape meetings to tours on five continents and has been on staff at BI Worldwide, and TBA Global Events.  Since 2002, she has been a freelancer and has worked for several production companies throughout the country.  In her free time, she is still dancing, traveling, following U2, and volunteering with the Junior League of Minneapolis.  YPC made a huge impression on Kris and reminded her how high school theatre experiences impacted her life.  She sees it in the faces, voices and talents at YPC and is so thankful for what they do.

She lives in St. Louis Park with her husband Tim and 2 cats, Libby and Sasha.

Anshuman Sharma's bio is coming soon.

Cathy Sweet's bio is coming soon.

Brian Teeter grew up in Keokuk, IA and attended Iowa State University.  While at ISU Brian majored in Construction Engineering and moved to Mpls upon graduation.  He was hired by Ryan Companies out of college and his current position is a Division Manager in Ryan’s Construction Department.

Brian enjoys spending time with his wife Wendy and their three kids Charlie, Max & Addie.  Most of their free time is spent at their cabin in Crosslake.

Carey Thornton is the senior designer and owner of Art-Tech Productions, Inc., a scenic and theatrical design company.  Carey worked for many years at Children’s Theatre in Minneapolis as resident Propmaster before beginning his own company.  He provided the sets for the first two productions for YPC.  Several years later Carey is glad to be supporting YPC again and have his kids involved in this very unique theatre company.

Carey lives in the SW Metro with his wife and four children.

Marge Thornton worked for many years in various costume shops in the metro area.  She worked with YPC on the first two shows of the newly formed company.  Marge is glad to be back helping the organization she supported so many years ago.  In that time two of her four children became involved and performed in several productions at YPC. 

Marge lives in the SW metro with her husband and four children.  She has retired from theatre to pursue a degree in nursing and psychology at St. Catherine University and is happy for the opportunity to stay connected to the arts community.

Kari Xiong was born and raised in St. Paul. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education with a Pre-Primary Specialty at Southwest Minnesota State University in 2003. After some time working with elementary and pre-primary students, Kari has found her place in multicultural education and is currently a Student Learning Advocate (SLA) for the Anoka-Hennepin School District at Anoka High School. She works directly with students who may come from a disadvantaged background: low income, English Language Learners, first-generation college-bound students, and students with disabilities. Kari also continues to present diversity issues to administration, staff and teachers throughout the district and at various multicultural education conferences.

Kari enjoys spending time with her family (six brothers and a sister), and is an aunt to two nieces and two nephews. She is also a devoted Twins fan.