STAFF
Charlie Leonard, Executive & Artistic DirectorCharlie Leonard founded Blue Water Theatre Company in August of 2007, following four years of teaching and directing in the Wayzata school district. He is a 1996 graduate of Wayzata High School and 2000 graduate of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
Leonard has directed over thirty productions for Blue Water Theatre Company, Wayzata West Middle School, Hopkins North Junior High School, and the Wayzata Summer Youth Theatre. Shows include, Into the Woods, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, The Music Man, Babes in Arms, Joseph the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Boy Friend, The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, Annie, Oklahoma!, A Midsummer Night's Dream, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Pirates of Penzance, A Grand Night for Singing, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Beauty and the Beast, Oliver!, Carousel, Annie Get Your Gun, Curtains, She Loves Me, Bye Bye Birdie, 42nd Street, Cinderella, Sweeney Todd, Funny Girl, Anything Goes, The Wizard of Oz, Les Miserables, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Guys and Dolls.
A former editorial assistant at MSP Communications, Leonard's writing has appeared in various local publications such as MplsStPaul Magazine and The Lakeshore Weekly News. Leonard also owns The Bookcase, the Twin Cities oldest independent bookstore, which is located in downtown Wayzata.
You can email Charlie Leonard at charlie.leonard@bluewatertheatre.com.
Kirsten Hoiseth Thayer, Music Director
Kirsten Hoiseth Thayer made her debut with Virginia Opera in 2008 as Inez and the Leonora cover in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, and was also the cover in the title role of Puccini’s Tosca. In April of 2007, she performed her first Tosca with Opera in the Heights, where she was lauded as Donna Leonora in La Forza del Destino in 2004 and Marguerite in Faust in 2003.
In 2007, she finished her residency with the Boston University Opera Institute. As a Resident Artist in that program, Mrs.Thayer performed her first Mimì as part of the Opera Institute’s Boston Masterworks Series of La Bohème as well as the roles of Lady with a Cake Box in A Postcard from Morocco, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Natalia in Hoiby's A Month in the Country. She was also highlighted in the Opera Institute’s Fall Fringe Festival where she performed the title role in Suor Angelica, Anita in La Navarraise, and False Angèle in Weill’s The Tsar Has His Photograph Taken. Mrs. Thayer was the recipient of the 2007 Opera Institute award for Distinguished Artists and a finalist at the 2003 Southwest Regional Met Opera Auditions, where she was honored with an Encouragement Award.
You can email Mrs. Thayer at kirstenhoiseth7@yahoo.com.
