Charlie Leonard, Executive & Artistic Director
Charlie 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,Guys and Dolls, The Secret Garden and Once Upon a Mattress.
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.
ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTORS:
Chris Larson, Music Director
Chris Larson is in his tenth year as vocal music director at Wayzata Central Middle School. He received his Bachelors Degree in Vocal Music Education from Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, MI and his Masters Degree in Music Education at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. Chris has performed as a member of the Grand Rapids Opera, Cornerstone University Chorale and Chamber Choirs, The Singers – Minnesota Choral Artists, and the VocalEssence chorus, as well as in musical theatre. Recently he was the featured tenor soloist in the Mozart Requiem, performed by the St. Thomas Festival Choir. He currently serves as co-chair of the ACDA-MN All-State Boys Honors Choir. In Wayzata, he has served as director of the CMS spring musical, and music director for the summer youth theatre program, the Blue Water Theatre Company. In his spare time, he enjoys biking, running, playing guitar and keyboard with Bethany Larson and the Bees Knees, and hanging out with his wife Vanessa, son Simon, and his dog Penny.
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.