LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER TWIN CITIES ALUMNI HOLIDAY SHOW 2025
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDIT -- GRATEFULLY -- TO CELISIA STANTON PHOTOGRAPHY
LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER TWIN CITIES
2025 ALUMNI HOLIDAY SHOW CAST
Robyn Awend
2018 ALUMNI
2021 SUMMER PANDEMIC SHOW ALUMNI
2022 SUMMER BACK TO SCHOOL SHOW ALUMNI
2023 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW ALUMNI
Robyn Awend is an energetic champion of the arts. With a background in fine arts and art curation, she has built a career in the local non-profit arts community. Her personal artwork draws on words and word fragments that influence her prints and mixed-media installations that explore identity through cultural and societal influences. Robyn enjoys life in the suburbs with her witty husband and their three perfectly behaved children who inspire her on a daily basis.
Stacey
Dinner-Levin
2022 ALUMNI
2022 SUMMER BACK TO SCHOOL SHOW ALUMNI
2022 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW ALUMNI
2023 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW ALUMNI
2024 WINTER HOLIDAY 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.
Cathy Gasiorowicz
2025 ALUMNI
Cathy Gasiorowicz discovered storytelling after failing to interest eighth graders in the art of mime. Since then, she’s performed at The Moth, Patrick’s Cabaret, TedX Fridley, Minnesota Fringe Festival, History Theater, Island of Discarded Women podcast, LTYM, and Comedy Through the Chaos. After a 30-year career as a marketing writer/creative, Cathy now spends her time volunteering at Masonic Memory Care in honor of her mom and as a Community Recycling Ambassador in honor of the planet. She and her lovely spouse are thoroughly enjoying “rewirement.”
Mary Halvorson
2025 ALUMNI
Mary Halvorson is a mom of three and a grandma of four. After living in St. Paul, Switzerland, Moorhead, Eau Claire, Morris, Berkeley, Racine and Beldenville, she and her spouse moved to her childhood zip code. She is a retired Lutheran pastor. Mary loves to garden, hike, swim, read, quilt, listen to political podcasts, enjoy long meals with friends and family, and hatching ridiculous stories with grandkids. Besides her sewing machine, her favorite tools are a looper and handsaw. She and her spouse have planted around 4,000 trees. Mary feels most at home in a pine forest.
Katie Holman
2022 CAST ALUMNI
2022 SUMMER ALUMNI BACK TO SCHOOL SHOW ALUMNI
2022 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW ALUMNI
Katie Holman is loving the revolving door stage of life at her Northfield home she shares with her husband, three twenty-somethings, high school senior, and dog. She is a New Educator Mentor who gets to marvel at the magic of teachers everyday. The great outdoors are her happy place and she can't wait to visit everywhere as she has not yet been. In her free time she loves to write silly, little poems that bring her great, big joy. She and her favorite humans are co-authors of some of the greatest text threads in existence.
Rose Jagim
2019 ALUMNI
Rose Jagim is a mother of four, a wife of 21 years, and is in her 25th year of teaching at Apple Valley High School. Due to her family’s military service, she has lived in six different states, but is now a proud resident of Magical McKinley Street in St. Paul and never plans to leave. She loves her family and her neighbors, hiking, watching her children play soccer, traveling, jigsaw puzzles, reading, cooking from scratch, playing cards, going to Orangetheory, and is an avid professional women’s soccer fan.
Megan Kocher
2025 ALUMNI
Megan Kocher lives in South Minneapolis with her wife, their 12-year-old kid, 3 cats, and 2 snails. She works as a Science Librarian at the University of Minnesota where her responsibilities range from cookbook collection curator to expert in literature reviews for evidence-based practices in agriculture. Most of her published writing is in the methods sections of systematic literature reviews. She enjoys baking, Zumba, reading, and botanical tattoos.
Leslie Lagerstrom
2014 CAST ALUMNI
2018 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW CAST ALUMNI
2019 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW CAST ALUMNI
2021 SUMMER ALUMNI PANDEMIC SHOW ALUMNI
2022 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW CAST ALUMNI
Leslie Lagerstrom lives in Edina, with her favorite children, Olive and Maple, her human children, Sam and Josie, and husband, Dave, whose super power is patience (with her). She loves to hike on flat surfaces, adopt rescue animals, drink Coke Zero with a straw (wrinkles be damned), and shop at GoodWill on Wednesdays because that’s the only day she can use her hard earned senior discount. Discovering the power of the pen at an early age, she uses her craft to advocate for gender diverse children and their families.
Katie Pfaff
2022 CAST ALUMNI
Katie Pfaff is a daughter, sister, mother and midwife. Her writings are limited to the dusty journals that she has kept since the 4th grade. She dabbles in mindfulness, mandolin playing, and competitive puzzling. She is a sucker for sleeping in a rainstorm, unexpected poetry, and a good vocal harmony. She is known for her ability to produce tears in almost any situation, happy or sad. She lives in Saint Paul with her quirky but adorable husband, where they are getting used to their newly emptied nest. Her two young adult sons continually delight her, when she can track them down.
Amanda Rosas
2018 ALUMNI
2021 SUMMER PANDEMIC SHOW ALUMNI
2022 SUMMER BACK TO SCHOOL SHOW ALUMNI
2022 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW ALUMNI
2023 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW ALUMNI
Amanda Rosas is a mother, educator and Pushcart Prize Nominated poet. She draws spirit, beauty, strength, and creativity from the Latina women in her family and from her husband and three young daughters. Originally from San Antonio, TX, Amanda writes to preserve and honor the memories and stories of her Mexican ancestors. Her poems have been published by the Latino Book Review, CALYX, among others, and her personal narratives as an educator can be read online at Edsurge. Amanda lives in Golden Valley, MN, and loves running, reading, and watching "Gilmore Girls" with her three "Roris".
Lindsey Hammond Teigland
2023 ALUMNI
2023 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW ALUMNI
Lindsey Hammond Teigland and her husband, Jonathan, spend most of their time trying to keep up with their two highly energetic boys and their master negotiation skills. She is honored to spend her career listening to people’s stories and serving the caretakers of the world in her roles as Program Director and faculty member for the M. A. in Counseling and Psychological Services Program at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and as a Psychologist in private practice. A people loving introvert, she likes to live dangerously on the edge of FOMO and overwhelm.
Jen Wittes
2022 ALUMNI
2022 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW ALUMNI
2023 WINTER HOLIDAY SHOW ALUMNI
Jen Wittes is a marketer, writer, cat enthusiast, superfan of the band OK Go, and mom to two phenomenal, authentic young adults. She received several journalism awards as a longtime features writer and monthly columnist for Minnesota Parent and has published a book in France. She officially considers herself a Minnesotan now that she has lived here for 18 years, finally matching her home state – California. She also lives three blocks from the State Fair which clearly gives her extra MN cred. She’s happily (re)married to the first boy she kissed.