TPR Board of Directors

TJ Hara — Vice Chair
Member Since 2019

TJ joins the Pro Rata board as a long­time fol­low­er of the company’s work. In addi­tion to a fif­teen-year career in the local print­ing indus­try, he has served on the fundrais­ing com­mit­tee for the Japan­ese Gar­den at Nor­man­dale Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege (of which his grand­moth­er Kimi was a found­ing mem­ber) and is a stu­dent of the Seiryukan Dojo of Toya­ma Ryu bat­to­jut­su Japan­ese swordsmanship.

Lauren Larson
Member Since 2019

Lau­ren has been involved with the­ater since she was a lit­tle girl too scared to say her name at a Peter Pan audi­tion. (…she got bet­ter) After high school, she hasn’t had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get involved or even attend as many plays as she would like. Since being intro­duced to The­atre Pro Rata, she has redis­cov­ered her love and has been hav­ing a blast attend­ing plays, script read­ings, and board meet­ings. Lau­ren works at Thom­son Reuters as a Tri­al Strate­gist for West­law and Prac­ti­cal Law.

Ryan McGuire Grimes – Treasurer
Member Since 2019

Ryan is a Senior Rela­tion­ship Direc­tor at Prin­ci­pal Finan­cial Group with 20 years of expe­ri­ence in cor­po­rate lead­er­ship and part­ner­ing with clients on their employ­ee retire­ment plans. In addi­tion to Ryan’s cor­po­rate expe­ri­ence, he is a life­long patron and par­tic­i­pant of the arts.  With a B.A. in The­atre Arts from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Min­neso­ta-Twin Cities, Ryan is cred­it­ed with more than 50 projects in the Twin Cities, Greater Min­neso­ta, and Wis­con­sin as a per­former, design­er, direc­tor, and pro­duc­er of the­atre, musi­cal the­atre, dance, and film over the past 25 years.  As for­mer man­ag­ing direc­tor of Urban Samu­rai Pro­duc­tions, Ryan inte­grat­ed pro­fes­sion­al prac­tices for finan­cial book­keep­ing, artist con­tracts, and human resources. A for­mer board pres­i­dent of Eclec­tic Edge Ensem­ble, Ryan is excit­ed to join The­atre Pro Rata in sup­port of its mis­sion and his­to­ry in our vibrant and diverse arts community.

Jeremy Motz – Secretary
Member Since 2019

J. Mer­rill Motz (rhymes with boats) is a play­wright and per­former who has been cre­at­ing his own spin on solo shows as Paper Soul since 2013. He received a Master’s degree from Ohio University’s Pro­fes­sion­al Play­writ­ing Pro­gram and a BFA in Act­ing from Cen­tral Michi­gan Uni­ver­si­ty. He hosts Work­place Dra­ma (a month­ly sto­ry­telling show at Strike The­ater), serves on the artist com­mit­tee for the MN Fringe, and has toured his solo shows to New York, Cincin­nati, Tuc­son, and New Orleans.

Kirsten Erickson — Chair
Member since 2021

Kirsten has lived in Min­neso­ta all her life and she is pas­sion­ate about con­tribut­ing to the enrich­ment of her local Twin Cities com­mu­ni­ty. As an LGBTQ per­son, and a Bi-Polar per­son, Kirsten is proud to con­tribute to the diver­si­ty of back­grounds which com­prise the TPR Board of Direc­tors. Kirsten deeply val­ues The­atre Pro Rata’s dri­ve to pro­duce mean­ing­ful the­ater which embod­ies the diverse back­grounds and view­points of the local com­mu­ni­ty through thought­ful­ly select­ed plays and diverse cast­ing. Kirsten has always had a pas­sion for the arts, includ­ing music, visu­al art, and the­ater. She enjoys col­lect­ing art from local artists, attend­ing and vol­un­teer­ing at local the­atri­cal per­for­mances, play­ing vio­lin, singing, and danc­ing. Kirsten’s edu­ca­tion­al back­ground includes a Bach­e­lor of Arts in Stu­dio Art from St. Cather­ine Uni­ver­si­ty, and a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Account­ing from St. Cloud State Uni­ver­si­ty, which she earned in 2003 and 2013 respectively.

Ariel López
Member Since 2021

Ariel López has been part of the the­ater world since he was young, par­tic­i­pat­ing active­ly in com­mu­ni­ty the­ater. Although he can very occa­sion­al­ly be seen in local improv, he has gen­er­al­ly left the stage for the more com­fort­able audi­ence seats, and has sup­port­ed the Twin Cities the­ater com­mu­ni­ty as a vol­un­teer for many years. Ariel served on The­atre Pro Rata’s Board from 2016–2020, and joined for a sec­ond term in 2021. Ariel is an attor­ney at Dorsey & Whit­ney, and when he is not watch­ing the­ater, spends his spare time pho­tograph­ing flow­ers and insects, read­ing, bik­ing, and play­ing soccer.

Scott Strand
Member Since 2024

Daniel Roers
Member Since 2024

Daniel Roers has been in the the­atre world since his com­mu­ni­ty the­atre days in Alexan­dria, Min­neso­ta. Daniel has been involved in the arts from cre­at­ing old time radio the­atre with Lakes Area The­atre to work­ing on film sets and work­ing as a Mar­ket­ing Man­ag­er at a local pri­vate school. Daniel is excit­ed to join the incred­i­ble board to The­atre Pro Rata.