SPOTLIGHT ON THE ARTIST: Agatha Rae Pokrzywinski

When did you start performing, and what inspired you to pursue it?

My first production was a rendition of Rapunzel mounted in my living room. It featured 3-year-old me in the title role and my father as the rest. A giant sheet of paper with a window cut into it was our tower and a yellow scarf served as my flowing tresses. It was thrilling. Joy begets joy. I know this to be true. I never want to stop sharing the joy that creating art brings me.

What do you love about the arts community in Duluth?

I began doing theater in Duluth at Nettleton Elementary School in 2007. Then came The Playhouse Children's Theater, East HS Theater, Renegade, Wise Fool, Zeitgeist Theater, and back to the Playhouse. I, like lots of folks, have gotten to grow up in this community. I get to work with artists I admired as a kid and those who were once my teachers. There is something very comforting and exciting about this, I am able to learn and evolve in spaces that will always feel like home.

What has been one of your most memorable experiences as a performer?

In 2019, I played Hermione in a production of The Winter’s Tale, in which we staged Hermione’s birth of Perdita. Our director approached this choreography with such love, grace, and precision. This performance required me to use my brain, body, and soul in a new and all encompassing way. The company that produced this show is now known as The Birth Play Project, and they continue to do gorgeous work in the Minneapolis area.

The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong is one long actor nightmare. What is your actor nightmare?

When performing live we rely heavily on our muscle memory to carry us through a show's text and movement. Through hours and hours of repetition, we absorb motivations, relationships, actions, words, etc. Our brains are magic, they hold so much! But, sometimes, for reasons unknown, the brain departs leaving you stranded. This is my great fear; that I will be left alone, a body with no brain and no idea what comes next.

People often call this one of the funniest plays they've ever seen. What do you think makes the humor in this play so universally appealing?

This play tells a story of humans failing over and over and over again. Yet after every failure, they brush themselves off and make another earnest attempt at success. We love a scrappy underdog who just can’t get it right. The honesty of their struggle is what makes the script so relatable and humorous.

How does the physical comedy in this play push you as a performer?

Physical comedy frightens me. It’s impossible to know if an idea will work without trying it, and trying something new can be embarrassing! Like many of us, I don’t like to feel embarrassed. I shy away from it and in doing so I limit myself. This play has pushed me to become more comfortable with exploration and the embarrassment that comes with it.