Live Action Set is committed to creating original, ensemble-driven performances that dissolve boundaries between artistic disciplines. The company's productions have been widely hailed as "courageous", "beautiful" and "daring."
Live Action Set's ensemble is diverse and multitudinous. We continually work with both established and new talented artists. To learn more about the artists we work with, click HERE.
The company was founded in 2003 by three dancers and a clown: Galen Treuer, Megan Odell, and Vanessa Voskuil and Noah Bremer.
Noah Bremer - Co-Producing Artistic Director
Noah arrived in MN as a west coast middle-school transplant growing up to be a Minneapolis based actor and director. As a theater-maker, he has collaboratively created numerous original theatrical works. He enjoys the challenges of directing large-scale productions such as the Haunted Basement, an immersive terror adventure in which the audience navigates a path through the basement of The Soap Factory art gallery; The Big Lowdown, the Bedlam Theatre/Live Action Set collaboration set creating a neighborhood-wide piece set in Lowertown, St. Paul; and Crime and Punishment, a unique experience where the each member of the audience assumes the role of main character. Other directing credits include Clown in Exile featured in the Algerian Theatre Festival in Algiers, Capital Crimes: St.Paul's Gangster Musical at the History Theatre and Treasure Island at Theatre in the Round. He received an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board in 2005. Also that year, the Star Tribune and City Pages recognized his co-creation of Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban, with the latter naming him Artist of the Year. He has performed locally on such stages as the Guthrie Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Illusion Theater, Pillsbury House Theatre, with Jon Ferguson, and also performed internationally as the lead character role in Cirque du Soleil's touring production of Varekai. Noah studied theater at the University of Minnesota and The Dell’Arte School of Physical Theater in California. He currently lives and works in Las Vegas performing as Father McKenzie in The Beatles’ LOVE by Cirque du Soleil.
Joanna Harmon - Co-Producing Artistic Director
Joanna grew up on Sanibel Island, Florida where from an early age she was permitted to explore without her hand being held, and which she did mostly on bicycle. It was there at 10-years old that she saw her first professional production: Twelfth Night in the round, with one set piece, and in modern dress. From that, she was hooked on theater, and the seed was planted to imagine the non-traditional. She has served Live Action Set since 2009, when she graduated from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program. There, her studies emphasized plays from the classical canon. Divergently, since graduating, she has been a part of primarily new and devised productions. Her alma mater's moto "words aren't in the way, they are the way," brings to Live Action Set an acute awareness of embodied text. She has performed with a multitude of theater companies in the Twin Cities, Florida, and Montana, including The Guthrie Theater, The Children's Theater Co., Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, The Florida Repertory Theater, JonFerguson Theater, Walking Shadow, Red Eye, The Minnesota Jewish Theater, and the Workhouse Collective. She simultaneously commits herself wholeheartedly to theater administration and everything else “behind the scenes.” She still rides a bicycle, even in winter.
Eve Schulte - Artistic Associate
Galen Treuer - Finance and Development Advisor
2017 NET Travel Grant to fund exploration of interactive techniques pairing dance and technology in Los Angeles
2016 NET Travel Grant to fund development of interactive techniques in New York City
2016 Tofte Lake Center - Emerging Artis Program recipients
2016 Metropolitan Regional Arts Council grant, for "The Big Lowdown"
2015 Ivey Award Winner - "Production Design" for Crime and Punishment
2011 Ivey Award Winner - "Best Overall Production" for The 7-Shot Symphony
2010 Metropolitan Regional Arts Council grant, for Live Action Set Physical Education (P.E.)
2009 Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, for "The Happy Show" in 2010
2009 Best of Twin Cities Theater City Pages, for "My Father's Bookshelf"
2009 Jerome Foundation grant, for "My Father's Bookshelf"
2007 Travel/Study Grant, Jerome Foundation, for travel to Brazil to study with LUME Teatro
2007 Panelist, Theater Communications Group National Conference, for Experimental Collectives: Case Study in the Creative Process
2007 Jerome Foundation grant, for "Desiderare: Desire the Undesirable"
2006 Best Stage Production City Pages, for "Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban"
2006 Access Dance/USA Scholarship Dance/USA National Roundtable, funded by McKnight Foundation, for Galen Treuer
2006 Emerging Artist Fellowship Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, funded by Jerome Foundation
2005 Artists of the Year City Pages, with collaborator Jon Ferguson
2005 Outstanding Experimental Theatre Work Star Tribune, for "Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban"
2005 Artist Initiative Grant Minnesota State Arts Board, for Noah Bremer
Live Action Set creates visually poetic, wildly imaginative, and accessible performance experiences that harness the indefinable power of the human spirit.
Live Action Set's ensemble-driven work dissolves artistic boundaries, pursues issues of essential value to its audiences, and engages people and communities in profound relationships. Artists, audiences, and venues in Minnesota and throughout the world invite Live Action Set to create experiences that inspire.
Artistic Excellence & Innovation
Curiosity & Collaboration
Honesty, Respect & Felicity
Art transforms artists and audiences alike.
Within artistic creation, process and product share equal importance.
Play is essential and humor provokes insight.
Cross-disciplinary collaboration builds community and provides opportunities for innovation.
Connecting with diverse audiences challenges assumptions and furthers understanding.
Education cultivates individual growth and artistic excellence.
Each process Artistic curiosity and collaboration is our guide. This way of working has led to diverse projects ranging from site-specific productions with elaborate sets to touring the country out of suitcases.
We love to work with new collaborators who are as passionate as we are! Please contact us if you are interested in working with us in any capacity.
Click here to learn more about all of the ways you can contact us.
Noah Bremer
board vice-chair
co-producing artistic director, Live Action Set
performer, Cirque du Soleil
co-founder, Live Action Set
member since 2010
Galen Treuer
board chair
performer, choreographer
co-founder, Live Action Set
member since 2009
Kate Hoff
board member
VP for Development, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
member since 2015
Eric Melzer
board member
independent photographer
founder, ericmelzerphotography
member since 2015
Vanessa Voskuil
ex-officio board member
performer, choreographer
co-founder, Live Action Set
member since 2009
Past board members include: Leah Cooper, Elena Giannetti, Margaret Griffith, John Hughes, Janna King, Scott Pakudaitis, Amy Radermacher, John Riske, Kelly Schaub, Mandy Toung, Dave Sha, Jennifer Tonko, and Trushar Patel