Next Generation: Toby Knutson

If there’s such a thing as a natural-born entertainer, that notion’s personification might just have begun his time as a University of Sioux Falls freshman this past fall. Because when it comes to bringing joy through performance, it’s smack-dab in the middle of local collegiate theatre student Toby Knutson’s wheelhouse.

Toby Knutson

“It’s just this feeling of a weight off my shoulders,” he said of the thrill of stage performance. “It’s just a way of bringing joy and bringing entertainment to others while also giving me a sense of what I can do and what I’m capable of. It’s something I’ve always loved to do and want to continue in my life for years to come. I love to bring joy and laughter and to help people feel something.”

That commitment has brought Knutson through many a middle-school production to, most recently, the Meredith Auditorium’s mainstage at USF, taking on the comical role of Costard in a production of William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost just this past fall.

“From a very young age, there are home videos of me performing Hannah Montana songs for my parents and in my pajamas with a microphone and everything,” he said. “Performing was always a part of my life, from singing and acting in front of my parents to middle school to now.

“In sixth grade — when I was cast in Shrek Jr. as Baby Shrek — that was my first mainstage production. That’s what got me into it.”

It was a formative — and decidedly less comedic — role during his time at Roosevelt High School, though, that truly cemented theatre performance as his go-to artistic outlet.

“We did a play called Leaving Iowa, and I played the main character, Don Browning,” he said of the production his junior year of high school here in Sioux Falls. “It was this story of acceptance — my character was going on a road trip to find a place to spread his dad’s ashes, including flashbacks going to all these places with his dad.

“It was fun to play an older and younger character at the same time. It also hit hard, because there have been a lot of deaths in my family within the last couple years, so it hit close to home. It was just a nice story of acceptance and knowing they’ll always be there with you. It was a journey of giving the character closure and also giving myself some closure.”

Knutson doesn’t consider himself predisposed to this journey as a live entertainer. “My grandma and grandpa on my dad’s side we’re in the choir at church, but honestly, my dad was a quarterback in college and high school, and my mom went to college for business — and then they had a theatre kid, and I honestly don’t know how it happened!”

But this outlet proved pivotal for him throughout his adolescence and into adulthood, a now-freshman diving headfirst into the world of collegiate theatre.

“Growing up, I was always an extroverted, outgoing person,” he said. “And then in middle and high school, I was trying to find a place to fit in and belong. My attention got focused on choir and theatre and show choir. Getting into that and meeting all those people who have the same interests and hobbies as me was just a very relieving moment for me. 

“I’m not the only one crazy enough to do all this — there are more people like me! There’s a sense of getting to do something I love alongside people I care about.”

His drive has been fueled along the way by arts educators he cites as critical to his growth as a performer, including Randy Hanzen, his high school theatre director, and Alecia Juelfs, his college theatre professor.

“In high school I always told people I was going to go into theatre, and the response was, ‘What? Are you sure about that?’ Getting to college, I feel like the first-semester Intro to Theatre course with (Juelfs) really made me realize this was real and being able to tie it into my schoolwork made it feel different. It gave me reassurance that there are more people studying theatre than I thought there would be.”

He recalled Hanzen being a big proponent of his striving to channel every bit of nervous energy he had around stage-performing into every role.

“It’s a special feeling — I don’t know how to describe it,” Knutson said. “I feel like I belong. You know you’re meant for it — it’s an indescribable thing. I can be who I want to be and have the freedom to not be Toby Knutson for a while — the freedom to play around in an imaginary world and deliver a message.”

Next up for Knutson? He hopes to foray his time at USF into a graduate school degree in musical theatre and perhaps dabbling in directing or teaching someday if the opportunity arises.

“No matter what I do, I want to inspire others to pursue theatre — whether it’s a hobby or for a career.”