Trollwood executive director Kathy Anderson discusses “The Addams Family” with her staff.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Expect the unexpected.
That’s what the Trollwood Performing Arts School has been saying about its 2024 season at Moorhead’s Bluestem Amphitheater, where “The Addams Family” takes the main stage starting next Tuesday, July 16, and wraps up July 27. But the “creepy, spooky, altogether ooky” clan of cartoon, TV and movie fame – however unlikely to spot along the banks of the Red River – is only the latest chapter in the saga.
“Trollwood is part of my heart,” reflects executive director Kathy Anderson. “When I saw ‘The Sound of Music’ back in 1989, I was hooked. It’s been part of my life ever since.”
Thousands of others can say the same. The summer program has been drawing young people to the performing arts since 1981, when Fargo Public Schools’ theater department staged “Oklahoma!” at Trollwood Park – nearly as far north of the metro area as Bluestem is to its south, and on the other side of the river.
In an unexpected twist, Trollwood set out to cross the river two decades ago … maintaining its much-loved musicals, by then a staple of Fargo-Moorhead summers, but in a new site, new city, new state. Supported by a Minnesota bond issue and an equal amount of private donations, the academy for teen performers built an $11 million amphitheater on 50th Avenue South. The Bluestem Center for the Arts – with Fargo-based Trollwood as its tenant — has been a mecca for teen actors, singers, musicians and technical specialists ever since its first production, “The Wiz,” in 2009.
Over the past 15 years, Anderson – who was named interim director that same year after the resignation of Vicki Chepulis – has guided and shaped the program that has become a beacon of once-unexpected collaboration between very different entities. The city of Moorhead owns Bluestem. The Fargo school system manages and operates the facilities, as well as the arts education that takes place there. A private promoter, Jade Presents, rocks the venue with concerts by big-name entertainers – Willie Nelson! – during early and late summer months when it would be otherwise quiet. As for the rest of the year, a procession of private events take place in the picturesque setting, from weddings to corporate affairs.
Unexpected, yes. But it works, and works well.
“It’s a delicate balance,” Anderson points out. “Fargo Public Schools operates 12 youth art programs here in June and July, with 500 students of all ages and around 100 instructors and staff at various times. We had 40 classes in production and the performing arts here last month, and now 75 students are working on the main-stage musical. Balancing all that with concerts and events is always an interesting experience.”
Though its annual main-stage musicals grab the headlines, she says, Trollwood is far more than those glittering nights of youthful talent. From ArtSpark, five week-long workshops for kids from kindergarten through fourth grade, to the month-long Totally Trollwood Academy, younger students’ passions for performing are ignited by professional music, dance and acting instructors.
Forty classes in production and the performing arts were offered in June under the banner of the Trollwood Academy, open to students in grades eight through 12. Among them: musical theater, acting, dance, improv, film and technical theater. Other young people take part in a student leadership program through internships focused on both the artistic and administrative sides of the industry. Finally, older students who are serious about taking their skills to the next level get intensive mentoring in the Trollwood Conservatory.
Anderson stepped into this world in 1990, when the MSUM music industry major scored her first internship there. She was back again for two more seasons, then went full-time in 1993. She did “a little bit of everything,” she says, dovetailing nicely with her studies.
She stepped away in 1997 for four years as Bonanzaville’s executive director. Then, Trollwood needed extra help in 2001, and she returned for the summer. Meanwhile, her career path swerved in a different direction. For the next four years, she worked at Microsoft as the technology lead for its accounting support team.
In 2005, Trollwood called her back, now as director of administration. She was named interim director after her mentor, Vicki Chepulis, departed in 2009. That role was made permanent in 2012. She also directs the rest of the Fargo district’s theater programs.
While Trollwood is operated by the Fargo school system, Anderson emphasizes that it’s open to young people from all over. Moorheaders make up a substantial share of its enrollment. Her own daughter took part in all it offers as she was growing up, gravitating toward the marketing side of operations. Like so many Trollwood alumni, it opened the doors to her career. (Today the 2021 MSUM graduate is marketing director for the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes, Colorado.)
“We have a good number of kids from out of town, too,” she says. That includes a sizeable contingent for whom Trollwood runs in the family. “Our alums live all over the country now, but some send their children home to hang with Grandma and Grandpa for the summer.”
Anderson says she cannot imagine her life without Trollwood. “The rewards are so amazing. Getting to watch what Trollwood does for these kids for 35 years – seeing it change the lives of so many students, including my own baby – it has been just phenomenal.
“It makes every single day special.”