Contact Ana:
- Email: anarp@fargoparks.com
- Phone: 701-551-5898
Ana N. Rusness-Petersen – she/her – is an arts leader, creative placemaker, venue manager, and theatrical producer. She has worked for two decades as a collaborator, producer, director, stage manager, sound designer, dramaturg, box office manager, and all-around artist and production resource for theatres, performance venues, and festivals in Seattle (ACT, Theatre Schmeater, Seattle Rep, Seattle Theatre Group, MAP Theatre, Macha Theatre Works, and Second Story), Chicago (Goodman, Timeline, Pegasus Players, Remy Bumpo), Austin (ZACH Theatre), and Fargo (Tin Roof, Theatre B, FMCT, Trollwood, Frost Fire, WE Fest).
Rusness-Petersen is the Broadway Square Plaza Manager, coming to the position in 2020 after serving as the Event Production Administrator at ZACH Theatre and completing an MFA in Arts Leadership at Seattle University. Her official training is in theatre, arts leadership, and photography, and recent leadership roles include time as Theatre Schmeater's Producing Director and Interim Managing Director (Seattle), ACT Theatre's Events &Venue Manager (Seattle), and NDSU's Division of Performing Arts Production Facilities Manager (Fargo). Additionally, Rusness-Petersen has served as a Gregory Awards Nominator for Theatre Puget Sound and has been active on the Boards of Seattle Public Theatre and the Fargo-Moorhead Visual Artists. She is an active member of ILEA (a professional events organization), Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas, the Theatre Communication Group (TCG), and the 2020/2021 cohort of Creative Community Leadership Institute cohort.
Always an academic, Rusness-Petersen earned her B.A. in Theatre Arts from Concordia College (Moorhead, MN); obtained a Music Industry minor and took directing classes from MSUM; collected an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Theatre Management, Production, and Design from Lesley University (Cambridge, MA); and took publishing and directing courses at NDSU while serving as Administrative Assistance, Production Facilities Manager and Box Office Manager for the Division of Performing Arts for 15 years. Recently, a case study Rusness-Petersen wrote about the historic 100-year-old Neptune Theatre in Seattle was selected for publication through Seattle U’s Arts Ecosystem Research Project, and she is currently working on an article about her emerging concept of Internal Creative Placemaking.
