HOBT Staff
Image Description: A white man is wearing a red bathrobe, a fake white beard and a yellow cardboard wizard hat that has purple stars.
Steve Ackerman
Site Innovator
He/Him/His
Steve Ackerman is a playwright and puppet artist who focuses on quick, crude, high-energy art making. He has his BFA in Acting from East Carolina University and MFA in Playwriting from Southern Illinois University. Previous projects include Action Sequence, Kaboom, and Cartooon!.
Image Description: A white nonbinary person with shoulder length brown curly hair. They have on black glasses, a gray button up and a green sweater. Behind them in a tree and a lake.
Rubin Hardin
Accessibility Innovator
They/Them/Theirs
Image Description: A white woman with short gray hair, sunglasses, a bright orange shirt and bright yellow vest. She is in a canoe on a lake. Behind her is a forest of trees.
Elina Kotlyar
MayDay Experience Innovator
She/Her/Hers
Image Description: A white woman with short brown hair is smiling. She is wearing black glasses and a purple shirt. She is holding a small white dog who is licking her face.
Michelle Pett
Interim Executive Director
She/ Her/ Hers
Michelle is a seasoned arts administrator and leader. She has held interim executive leadership roles at Mixed Blood Theatre, Steppingstone Theatre, the Rose Ensemble, and History Theatre; as well as Managing Director roles at Theater Latte Da and Eye of the Storm Theatre. Pett served as Board President and Vice President during nine years on the board of Open Eye Figure Theatre. Her work as an independent producer includes a site-specific production of Full Gallop with Sally Wingert, Dustin Lance Black’s 8, and the debut of the Twin Cities Free Night of Theatre.
Image Description: A white woman with shoulder length brown curly hair is smiling. She is wearing a black tank top, blue, overalls, and a brown necklace.
Julia Pearlstein-Levy
Communications & Program Innovator
She/Her/Hers
Image Description: A white woman with short brown hair is smiling. She is wearing brown glasses and a pink shirt. Behind her are trees.
Kathy Kerekes
Bookkeeper
She/Her/Hers
I am happy to be working with HOBT as the new bookkeeper. I have worked in many areas including the merchant marines, the EPA, the National Park Service, several law offices, building management/coffee shop owner, geriatric healthcare, and for the past 8 years, arts administration in southern MN.
I live with my long-term partner Jim, our two daughters who are 17 and 19 years old, three cats, and a bearded dragon. We live in southern MN where I love to garden, forage, kayak, and sew. When I have more than a few hours to play, I am likely to be found up on Lake Superior where I work on restoring a Morgan 34 sailboat.
HOBT's anonymous report form for feedback, concerns, complaints. This form is reviewed by HOBT's Board Chair. For general questions, please email [email protected]