Meet our Artists
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Dylan Fresco | Theater & Music
Dylan Fresco | Theater & Music
Dylan believes strongly in the inherent value of each person’s interests, talents, stories and ideas. His goal as a teaching artist is to support and inspire students to express themselves creatively, both on their own and in collaboration with each other. In his work, he invites connections between people and communities through story, music, poetry and movement.
Dylan creates a welcoming, safe and fun atmosphere for students and educators alike to explore new ideas, and to take risks of expression and imagination together. He believes strongly in the power of the arts to create opportunities for us to share our voices, to grow, to connect with and inspire each other. His residencies and workshops include a lot of collaborative creation. There’s often improvised music...and there’s usually lots of laughter.
Dylan is a theater artist and musician who works as a writer, performer, producer, and educator with a diverse array of arts and community partners. Projects take him from performance stages to school classrooms, from community centers to neighborhood sidewalks. He is a graduate of Carleton College and the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre.
“Dylan was terrific in the school setting, highly engaged with the kids who clearly really liked him and enjoyed his style of teaching. He was also great in the performance setting — people found him very genuine and open-hearted.”
Dylan’s solo performances have been sold out hits at Fringe Festivals across the country. He’s written songs and helped create plays in the Twin Cities with Upstream Arts and Children’s Theatre Company in partnership with multiple organizations serving people with disabilities.He recently helped lead the creation of “Birds Sing DIfferently Here”, an original play that premiered at the Guthrie theater, in collaboration with a group of Iraqi-Americans and The Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project.
His work has been possible due to support from Rimon:The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council, Springboard For The Arts, the Arts On Chicago Initiative, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and the MN State Arts Board.
Sample Programs: Customizable To Site’s Needs
Residency
Melody, Rhythm And Words - Collaborative Poetry and Music Making
What do we care about? How do we feel about something? What are different ways of using our voices? This residency provides multiple opportunities for students to both make individual choices and also follow the lead of others in the group as we create multiple poems and songs together. The three goals of the residency are: team building (ensemble development), Skill-Building, and Content Generation (making stuff up). By the end of the residency, we will have music and words to perform, collaboratively created together.
Workshops
All Together Now! - Collaborative Songwriting Workshop
In this workshop, participants will collaboratively create a song together, exploring rhythm, melody, and words. Dylan will facilitate the process and accompany with guitar. No prior musical experience needed.
Color, Breath & Speed: Using Imagination & Movement to Inform Character
In this acting workshop, participants will try on different ways of moving, and see how imagination can inform character and acting choices. We’ll explore how various forms of breathing (yawning, sneezing, coughing) alter movement and spoken text. Participants will leave the workshop with concrete tools and methods to apply in developing a character. The workshop will also help develop students’ focus, discipline, and comfort exploring problems that don’t have a “right answer”.
Performances
Welcoming The Stranger
In this performance, Dylan weaves together true stories of refugees, family, and identity. Dylan shares about his own family’s history of diaspora and immigration to the United States, and links it with the stories of people he knows who have recently arrived in Minnesota. He also leads a critical reflection and question period after.
The Holocaust & Me
In this solo performance, Dylan shares the story of how he came to realize the impact of the Holocaust on his family and on his own life, even as he was born decades after the end of World War II. It includes a song accompanied by guitar and sung in Ladino, the language based on medieval Spanish and Hebrew spoken by many Sephardic Jews. Dylan will also facilitate a critical reflection afterwards.
Russian Songs of Love
In this performance, Dylan shares some standard tunes that’ll have folks who speak Russian singing along. Others in the audience will be smiling and tapping their feet to the rhythm of his guitar.
A set of ten classic songs including “Dark Eyes”, The Long Road”, and “Moscow Nights”. Songs are shared in Russian with some English. And perhaps he’ll sing a tune in Yiddish too.
