Stephanie Lein Walseth

Stephanie Lein Walseth is a Full Circle Theater Co-Artistic Director.. With Full Circle she was a co-writer for the company’s debut production of “Theater: A Sacred Passage,” one of the directors for “365 Days/365 Plays: A 2017 Remix,” dramaturg for “Atacama” and “Under This Roof,” and playwright/story weaver for “The Empathy Project.” As an actor, director, dramaturg, stage manager, theater administrator, and educator she has worked with Penumbra Theatre Company, Theater Mu, Mixed Blood Theatre, Sod House Theater, the Playwrights’ Center, Guthrie Theater, Theatre Unbound, Starting Gate Productions, Theater in the Round, Frank Theatre, CLIMB Theatre, Native Voices at the Autry (CA), and Portland Stage Company (ME). 

She received her Ph.D. in Theatre Historiography from the University of Minnesota, and her research interests include the cultural poetics and politics of Native American, African American, and Asian American theatre, as well as theatre historiography, cultural studies, performance ethnography, critical and feminist pedagogies, and theatre for social change.

She also serves as the Theater Education Specialist with the Professional Development and Resources team at the Perpich Center for Arts Education. In this capacity, she works with K-12 and college/university theater educators and directors across the state. In 2022 she received the Minnesota Theater Educator of the Year award from the Minnesota Educational Theater Association.