LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER TWIN CITIES HOLIDAY ALUMNI SHOW DECEMBER 2022
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDIT -- GRATEFULLY -- TO CELISIA STANTON PHOTOGRAPHY
LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER TWIN CITIES
2022 DECEMBER ALUMNI HOLIDAY SHOW CAST
EMMA BENAVIDES
2019 CAST ALUMNI
Emma Benavides is a kindergarten teacher who uses her limited free time to read, write, and attempt crafty new hobbies. She loves her incredibly patient husband, family, friends, students, and annoyingly chatty cat, Junie B. Emma believes that love trumps hate, kindness is everywhere, and Black Lives Matter. She will continue teaching, learning, and (very!) soon, raising a family of her own, to make a better and fairer corner of the world.
STACEY DINNER-LEVIN
2022 CAST ALUMNI
2022 SUMMER ALUMNI BACK TO SCHOOL SHOW ALUMNI
Stacey Dinner-Levin is the mother of four boys — now adults — the eldest of whom has autism. For over 25 years she’s worked with children with disabilities including PACER Center’s “Count Me In” program where she wrote several scripts. Her play Autistic License was named one of 2007’s Ten Best Plays by St. Paul Pioneer Press and was featured in American Theater Magazine. Autistic License was remounted for film and won “Best Educational” at the IFFF in 2010. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband Michael, her son Geordy, and the world’s strangest dog, her Chinese Crested, Birdie.
KATIE HOLMAN
2022 CAST ALUMNI
2022 SUMMER ALUMNI BACK TO SCHOOL SHOW ALUMNI
Katie Holman is a peer coach and middle school English teacher. She lives in Northfield with her college sweetheart husband, college sons, high school daughters, and preschool dog. She loves to play "Grown-Up" and pretend she knows what she's doing in life. When she’s not filling out FAFSAs and emergency cards, she’s stalking people’s Facebook vacations for her family’s next adventure. Katie’s up for anything that involves a bike, a boat, a brewery, a binge-watch, a baked good, or a board game.
BETTY KISSELL
2018 CAST ALUMNI
Betty Kissell is a mom, wife, daughter, sister, and friend. Formerly an elementary school behavior specialist, Betty is now a wellness coach helping and empowering women and their families to live a happier and healthier lifestyle inside and out. Her passions include stalking her beloved grown children, spoiling her precious grandchildren, living on the lake in the middle of nowhere with her husband of 39 years and their very spoiled rescue dog, gardening, saving monarch butterflies, walking Ft. Myers Beach, hiking the mountains in Norway, good books, and long conversations with friends over wine. Her website is: bettykissell.arbonne.com.
LESLIE LAGERSTROM
2014 CAST ALUMNI
2018 HOLIDAY SHOW CAST ALUMNI
2019 HOLIDAY SHOW CAST ALUMNI
2021 SUMMER ALUMNI PANDEMIC SHOW ALUMNI
Leslie Lagerstrom is the creator of the blog Transparenthood™, which chronicles her family's experience raising a transgender child. Through writing and public speaking, she has built a national advocacy platform for gender diverse children and their families. Her family believes that she is not happy unless she is worried about something, and so she devotes much of her time to that activity. A 12,000 step-a-day walker, Diet Coke drinker, and proud thrift shop picker, Leslie's muse is her mom, who provides material that writes itself every time they are together.
MELISSA NIELSEN
2013 CAST ALUMNI
2021 SUMMER PANDEMIC SHOW CAST ALUMNI
2022 SUMMER BACK TO SCHOOL SHOW CAST ALUMNI
Melissa Nielsen is excited to share the stage for a 4th time with LTYM. She lives in Rosemount with her wonderful and busy family. Melissa teaches music and band, and is the color guard director with the marching bands in Lakeville. When not singing songs with kindergarteners, spinning flags with high schoolers, or playing French horn, Melissa enjoys quilting, musical theatre, and reading.
SARAH PELINKA
2015 CAST ALUMNI
2019 HOLIDAY SHOW CAST ALUMNI
2021 SUMMER PANDEMIC SHOW CAST ALUMNI
2022 SUMMER BACK TO SCHOOL SHOW CAST ALUMNI
Sarah Pelinka is a collector of stories + wayward junk and mother of two spirited kids, Poppy and Holiday - they are her heart. Married to her high school sweetheart, she and Travis remain as tight as the Girbaud jeans that first caught his attention. Each day is a gift and Sarah surely lives by this. So much so, it remains the only gift she hasn’t yet tried to return without a receipt. While Sarah finds great joy in teaching science to middle schoolers, her passion for the arts is immense. She seeks and appreciates the meaning, beauty, and laughter within every situation.
AMANDA ROSAS
2018 CAST ALUMNI
2021 SUMMER PANDEMIC SHOW CAST ALUMNI
2022 SUMMER BACK TO SCHOOL SHOW CAST ALUMNI
Amanda Rosas is a mother, teacher, and poet. She draws beauty, strength, and creativity from the Mexican American women in her family and from her husband and three daughters. Her poetry and essays have been published by Sweet Tree Review, The Latino Book Review, The Front Porch Review, Minnesota Women’s Press, Anti-Heroin Chic, and Brown Sugar. She teaches Spanish and Women’s Studies at Visitation School in Mendota Heights where she infuses social justice, youth empowerment, and centers BIPOC voices and experiences in her lessons. Though she is a passionate educator, her ultimate dream is to become a full time writer and storyteller, perhaps in retirement.
HEATHER STROMMEN
2016 CAST ALUMNI
2019 HOLIDAY SHOW CAST ALUMNI
2022 SUMMER BACK TO SCHOOL SHOW CAST ALUMNI
Heather Strommen is a passionate, straight-from-the-heart storyteller. Her debut novel, VELVET, is out now (insert her jumping up and down with excitement here)! In addition to writing a whole freaking novel, Heather is an interior designer who loves making a house a home, always designing and refining the world around her. Founder of the popular Instagram, @sweetshadylane, Heather is married to her high school sweetheart. They call their four adult children "their very best friends." Heather has a simple mantra that keeps her happy: Write. Decorate. Repeat. She's thrilled to share the LTYM stage once again.
SALLY VARDAMAN
2017 CAST ALUMNI
2018 HOLIDAY SHOW CAST ALUMNI
Sally Vardaman is an essayist who believes in the power of stories to make us think and connect with each other. Her current labor of love is a book of essays to her three teenagers, to be released in early 2023. You can find her occasional musings and projects at sallyvardaman.com.
JEN WITTES
2022 CAST ALUMNI
Jen Wittes is a writer turned postpartum doula who now works in marketing. She was a longtime contributor and monthly columnist for Minnesota Parent, where she earned four MMPA Awards and two Society of Professional Journalists Page One Awards. Her work has also been featured in skirt! and Pregnancy and Newborn. She is the proud mama of two interesting, curious, funny, resilient teenagers, who she absolutely adores. She’s happily married to the first boy she kissed, a space physicist she reclaimed two decades after said puppy love. Jen loves cats, waterslides, yoga, Oula, nature, and the show Impractical Jokers.
KRIS WOLL
2015 CAST ALUMNI
2018 HOLIDAY SHOW CAST ALUMNI
2022 SUMMER BACK TO SCHOOL SHOW CAST ALUMNI
Kris Woll began her writing career at age seven as founder, editor, and writer of a family newspaper, The Woll Street Journal. In the years since, she has written essays and stories on food, home, and personal histories for a variety of publications. She leads occasional workshops on building a creative writing and journaling practice and was a Loft Literary Center Excellence in Teaching Fellowship award winner in 2019. Kris works in higher education and lives with her family in Minneapolis.
SALLY ZIMNEY
2016 CAST ALUMNI
Sally “Z” Zimney is an award-winning speaker and coach whose mission is to create talks that move the world. With 20+ years of experience coaching speakers and creating impactful experiences that open minds and hearts, Sally is also the host of This Moved Me, a podcast about the art of public speaking. Her new book on leveraging the power of persuasive stories will be out sometime next year. She is married to her college sweetheart, is mom to three amazing teenagers, and is dog-mom to Bailey, a fluffy Labradoodle who is likely under her desk right now begging for attention.
