Avery Cheeseman, arts and culture editor

What does the art scene look like outside of college in the Twin Cities? Many folks in the theater and music department might be looking to start their creative careers in the Twin Cities post graduation. The theater scene in particular is very diverse and a wonderful place to work with other creatives. I got the personal pleasure of sitting down with Suzie Juul, an Augsburg alum from the theater department who has been working in the Twin Cities theater scene since graduation. Juul loves working in the cities, saying, “I think we’ve got an extremely wonderful, talented, diverse group of actors and storytellers in the Twin Cities here, and it’s like a treat when we get to collaborate.”

Juul spent a long time working through Theater Mu post-graduation. Juul has found her niche with comedy and character acting, which she actually discovered while in one of the productions  she acted in while still an Augsburg student, when she ended up getting cast in a role that she never thought she would. Juul reminisced on how fun things like that can change your plans. 

Juul also gave some advice for current students looking to get into the local scene. She mentioned the importance of students not considering themselves failures if they do not have a booking in a season. According to Juul, “You have to keep chipping away at that block if you want to be able to make it, and to understand that [a season] without being cast is not a season of failure.” Theater is a creative field, and thus it is going to ebb and flow. People’s acting journeys are not linear, and it’s important to keep this in mind when starting your career.

Juul also talked a lot about the importance of her friends that she made through the Augsburg theater department. She still actively keeps in touch with some of them. She loved watching her fellow actors in shows that she was not cast in, showing the importance of supporting your fellow creatives. Watching them make different decisions based on direction was something she found very valuable through her time at Augsburg. Seeing other people’s wins was a really big piece of importance from Juul’s experience. Juul directly told me, “To be able to learn from your fellow actors and to be supportive of them when they get big wins is something that I took with me from Augsburg.”

Augsburg and its community have been a firm basis in building Juul to become the actor she is today. Augsburg’s wonderful staff and community-based learning have been really helpful for her. Juul found Theater Mu through her relationship with Martha Johnson while at Augsburg. She also ended up pursuing opera singing, which she was never interested in pursuing when she started college. Augsburg truly gives students the ability to try out many different things in a small community full of support.

Juul was very kind to take some time out of her day to interview with me. She is currently in the process of performances for Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” through the Children’s Theater Company. You can catch Juul as Grandma Who, with performances running from Nov. 4 to Jan. 4, 2026.