Meena Natarajan is a playwright and director and the Executive and Artistic Director of Pangea World Theater, a progressive, international ensemble space that creates at the intersection of art, equity and social justice. She has led the theater’s growth since its founding in 1995. Meena has co-curated and designed many of Pangea World Theater’s professional and community based programs. She has written at least ten full-length works for Pangea, ranging from adaptations of poetry and mythology to original works dealing with war, spirituality, personal and collective memory.  Meena leads ensemble-based processes in Pangea that lead to works produced for the stage. She has also directed and dramaturged several original theater and performance art pieces. She is currently on the board of the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists and is a National Theater Project Advisor at New England Foundation for the Arts.  She was on the Advisory Committee of the Community Arts Network, was on the founding board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters and was the president of Women’s Playwrights International between 2000-2003. She has been awarded grants from the Theatre Communications Group, Playwrights Center and the Minnesota State Arts Board. She was recently awarded the Visionary Award for mid-career leaders from the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.

Suzanne Victoria Cross was born and raised in North Minneapolis, graduated from St. Cloud State University with a BA in Theater and Community Psychology. Suzanne is a local actor, stage manager and teaching artist in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area. She has worked with many local theater companies including touring with CLIMB Theatre as an Actor-Educator, Penumbra Theatre Company’s Education and Outreach Program, Lyric Arts Academy, Teatro del Pueblo, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre and has been the lead instructor for multiple teaching artist residencies in the Twin Cities. She also identifies as the primary caregiver for her mother who is currently navigating the progression of Alzheimer's over the last 9 years. Her methodology is centered in honoring and actively engaging with our elders and that stage management is a social justice and community organizing artistic practice. Suzanne has a strong passion for the role theater can play in the development of an individual and a community as a whole and that we are never done creating magic. She is currently the Production Manager for Pangea World Theater.

Sarah Tan is elated to be back at Pangea World Theater as the Education Lead. Sarah is an artist educator and organizer that has worked in Arkansas, Arizona, Minnesota, and Singapore where she grew up. As an artist educator with a deep passion for building spaces of inclusivity, Sarah believes in engaging in work that builds on the strengths and stories of participants in the room, meeting each person in their full selves, and growing with them. Her past research and interests include digital creations with young people, the performance of identity, and the intersection between the performing arts and trauma. Sarah holds a BA in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Education Studies from Carleton College, and an MFA in Theatre for Youth and Community from Arizona State University.

Seamus Wakefield is a 2022 UMN graduate with a degree in Global Studies, with a regional focus on Europe and thematical focused on Human Rights and Justice. Was it his original choice? No. Did he have any idea what he was getting into? Also no, but so far it’s been one of the best choices he’s made so far. Besides getting a cat, of course. In his mind, Seamus grew up without giving much thought about his career; But he knew that, given the choice, he wanted to help people share their stories with the collective, because those stories are better than any fairytale. Realistically, he figured he’d end up working for some company that would overwork him to the point of resentment for minimum wage, as was the image painted by the 2008 recession. So working at Pangea World Theater, with all of these brilliant minds of this century, to help others share their stories? It’s practically a dream come true. Not only does he get to dedicate himself, every day, to making the world a better place for all to live in, but he still has time to make wonderful memories with his fellow ensemble members, family, and friends. That, to him, is more precious than any gem or metal. When he’s not living the dream with the ensemble, he’s most likely making truffles and chocolates at his other job, or trying to win the affections of his new foster dog (who prefers the company of his father). While he may not know what is ahead of him, for once in his life he can walk proudly into that future knowing that there are good people out there. And where there are good people, like those here at Pangea, there is always hope for a good future.

Dipankar Mukherjee is a professional director originally from Calcutta, India with a 25-year history of directing. He is the Artistic Director of Pangea World Theater. He co-founded Pangea World Theater, an international theater in Minneapolis that is a progressive space for arts and dialogue. His aesthetics have evolved through his commitment to social justice, equity and deep spirituality and these factors along with relevant politics form the basis of his work. As a director, he has worked in India, England, Canada and the United States.  
 
Dipankar has received the Humphrey Institute Fellowship to Salzburg and has been a Ford Foundation delegate to India and Lebanon. He is a recent recipient of the Bush Leadership Fellowship award to study non-violence and peace methodologies in India and South Africa. Dipankar was invited to visit the White House as part of the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Delegation. In his rehearsal and workshop practices, Dipankar’s facilitated processes that work to disrupt colonial, racist and patriarchal modalities that we have inherited and collaboratively searches for an alternate way of working.

Rebecca Bachman brings over 18 years cumulative success in development and philanthropy to Pangea which includes raising over $15M for nonprofits from foundations, the government, and individual donors. Over the years she has developed relationships with not only arts and culture entities, but also workforce development, healthcare, social service, youth, homelessness prevention, and education nonprofits. Rebecca began her career in fundraising by serving as Minneapolis’ Cedar Cultural Center’s first Development Director. Prior to that, she “worked on the other side” of the philanthropy/fundraising paradigm by serving as director of the McKnight Foundation’s Minnesota Independent Film Fund, a collaboration between the MN Film Board, Northwest Airlines, and FilmNorth.

A lifelong learner, her formal education includes a BA in Film Studies from the U of MN, an MLIS from Dominican University in Chicago, IL, and completion of her MA and PhD coursework and exams in Cinema Studies from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. More recently she completed the Fundraising Certificate program at the University of St. Thomas, where she says she “learned a ton” about development and fundraising.

Rebecca absolutely loves working as a development professional and is excited to see how she can help operationalize and turbo charge fundraising at Pangea in collaboration with it’s very enthusiastic staff, the board, and community partners.

Ellen began working with Pangea after many years of engaging with Pangea as an artist.  Her work is about ancestors, spirit, politics, contradictions, humor, confronting white supremacy and always about healing.  She lives in Minneapolis, two blocks from the Mississippi with her husband and their amazing daughter.  "Pangea is an important home for artists.  I felt both respected and engaged from the moment I first encounter Dipankar, Meena and Pangea. I have held several events in Pangea's studio including my solo show- Death's Daughter and the Twin Cities Premiere of my film  Thought Woman- The Life and Times of Paula Gunn Allen. As well as working directly with them as part of The Bridges Program.  Pangea puts artists at the center!"
 
Her artist website is www.fierceshimmer.art

Ismail Khalidi’s plays include Truth Serum Blues (Pangea World Theater ‘05), Tennis in Nablus (Alliance Theatre ‘10), Foot (Teatro Amal ‘16), Sabra Falling (Pangea ‘17), and Dead Are My People (Noor Theatre ‘18). He also co-adapted two novels for the stagel Ghassan Kanafani’s Returning to Haifa (Finborough Theatre ‘18) and Sinan Antoon’s The Corpse Washer (Actors Theatre of Louisville ‘19). Khalidi’s work has been included in numerous anthologies and he co-edited Inside/Outside: Six Plays from Palestine and the Diaspora (TCG ‘15). His writing has been featured in American Theatre Magazine, The Kenyon Review, The Nation, Mizna, Guernica, Al Jazeera, The Dramatist, and ReMezcla. Khalidi holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Adlyn Carreras was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She came to St. Paul, Minnesota on scholarship to study at Macalester College, where she majored in Latin American Studies with a core concentration in Latin American Literature and a Minor in Biology. After traveling and living in Hawaii, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, Adlyn returned to Minnesota and began acting in the Twin Cities. She has performed at The Jungle Theater, Park Square Theater, Pangea World Theater, Mixed Blood, Penumbra Theater, and Teatro del Pueblo. She has also been in various commercials and Industrial films. Adlyn is General Manager & Ensemble Member at Pangea World Theater and an Adjunct Professor at Augsburg University. She was a past Teaching Artist for the Neighborhood Bridges program at Children’s Theater Company and Monologue Artists for Penumbra Theater’s Race Workshop. Adlyn is currently working on her first one-woman performance, If My Bones Could Speak, commissioned by the Alternate Visions program at Pangea World Theater.

Sofia Winona Honey was born and raised on the traditional unceded land of the Council of Three Fires in Chicago, Illinois, and for the past several years has been happy to call Pangea World Theater home. Having lived in Minneapolis since 2018, Winona has worked with many theaters in different capacities including Ten Thousand Things, Lightning Rod, Mixed Blood, and the Guthrie, from box office work to stage management. In that time she has also been a proud volunteer and artist working with Pangea, and has always been delighted to share in and help with the ensemble building, community strengthening work that is being done on Lake Street. Winona is a stage manager, writer, director, and performer, and all around someone who always strives to help others. She believes in centering Black and Indigenous voices, in the healing and restorative power of collaborative and ensemble creation, and in the hope for building a better world. It is always possible.

Sarah N. Duncan is a mixed-media artist and graphic designer. Believing that representation matters, her mixed-media works use gesture, craft, mark-making, and objects to view herself and the world through different lenses to investigate why and how this world and imagine what is possible. She is queer, white, artist, dancer, writer, parent, friend, and old enough to know that her work is serious play and that the way she move in, with, and through this world is as important as what emerges from her efforts. She joined Pangea’s circle as an intern in the spring semester of 2020 as part of HECUA’s Art for Social Change program and is happy to continue to be part of the connected, grounded, and process-focused way of working that is Pangea.

Sir Curtis Kirby III, Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe and African American descent is enjoying his 7th year directing the Ikidowin Youth Theater Ensemble. He has been selected as Emerging Artist for a TPT Minnesota Originals. Kirby is mentored by Dipankar Mukherjee, Artistic Director of Pangea World Theater and has participated in the Next Generation Theater Director's Institute for the past three years. This year, he has been awarded a 2 year Fellowship with Pangea World Theater for Directing. Kirby is the Assistant Director for Five Weeks, Sabra Falling and Mother Courage and Her Children. He recently directed a one-act play in New York City, 2020 Reflections of Native Voices as an emerging director.