Stories to Tell

A self-proclaimed “quirky kid” from the jump, it seems fairly destined that Macie Lupica would find her way to the stage. And thanks to a tenacity for character-building and an energy for sharing stories worth telling, this local stage actor is making her mark no matter the genre.

Macie Lupica

“I think I personally like stepping into somebody’s else’s shoes — experiencing a mindset or situation I may not actually ever come across in my own life,” Lupica said. “I think it’s important to experience the full gamut of human emotion, and I think theatre is a really good place to do that. To explore all different states of being in a relatively safe way, where you can come out of it and not have it be too heavy.”

Her first foray into theatre was at Whittier Middle School, where her role in the ensemble of a school musical quickly cemented for her the desire to keep performing. She met local theatre educator and advocate Sara Crosby and was part of the beginnings of the Dakota Academy of Performing Arts program in its precursor to its current home at the Washington Pavilion, performing in the organization’s Plays for Living program.

But once she ended up at University of Minnesota for college, she started what ended up being a seven-year break from stage performing. A competitive and restrictive theatre program paired with her first job out of college demanding nights and weekends, and she had to hit pause on acting for a bit.

“When I got myself settled into a more nine-to-five, I was in a rut and didn’t feel good about what I was doing — there was a hole there,” Lupica said. “I finally looked, and saw these auditions for Peter and the Starcatcher (at the Sioux Empire Community Theatre), and just decided I would at least try, and even if I didn’t get in it would be an accomplishment. And as soon as I got back into it, I knew I was where I was supposed to be! It felt like the whole world opened up again.”

A multi-year run with the community theatre production of Steel Magnolias followed, and Lupica was hooked back in. “It was another super transformative experience for me, in the relationships I made and the opportunities it allowed. I just can’t imagine doing anything else.”

Most recently, the performer has found herself venturing beyond the confines of Sioux Falls, finding new and exciting theatrical challenges at the Mighty Corson Art Players (MCAP), in addition to its recently founded Storytellers Anonymous arm.

“I think, like a lot of people, I’d heard of Corson — that it was another community theatre — but I hadn’t ventured out that far yet.,” Lupica said “I’d done some stuff with the (Premiere) Playhouse and a couple of things with Monstrous (Little Theatre Company), and I was just getting to a point where I still wanted to do stuff, but nothing in the immediate area was intriguing me. 

“So I found an audition notice for Murder on the Orient Express — it’s a 10-person cast, the time period is really fun — so I decided to go for it. I don’t know what happened — I just kept coming back!”

She credits MCAP managing artistic director Brian Schipper with seeing something in her that got her even more invested in the Corson theatre community. She joined the Board of Directors last summer and has since performed a one-woman play with Storytellers Anonymous, both in Corson and this past winter in Sioux Falls, My Name is Rachel Corrie.

“It’s a pretty satisfying experience as an artist, the collaboration (in Corson),” she said. “I’ve learned so much about how much work it can really take to run a theater — I’m super grateful for the learning experience and the comprehensive knowledge. It gives me an extra investment, even beyond my own performance, in, wholistically, the artform.”

And Rachel Corrie has proven a defining role for the actor, whose initial fear of taking on a one-person performance quickly transitioned into a challenge she felt compelled to meet.

“It was huge for me developmentally,” Lupica said of the production, which recently toured to ICON Event Hall in downtown Sioux Falls. “As I continue to read Rachel’s words, something about this piece being about a real person who lived and died in a tragic way, I identified with her so much — that need to find your place in the world and understanding how she could even use some of her privileges to help others. Being acutely aware of her privileges as a white, American woman. And then to be such a brilliant, beautiful writer as well, so that the words naturally come off the page and can be performed in that way.”

The real-life Rachel Corrie was an American human-rights activist who was killed while offering aid to the International Solidarity Movement in the Gaza Strip 20 years ago this past March.

“To me, it feels important. Her story feels important,” Lupica said. “One-person shows can feel like a little bit of an ego-trip — there’s this feeling of, ‘ooh, she thinks she needs to command the stage for two hours on her own.’ And maybe the first time it was a little about, ‘yes, I want to prove to people that I can do this,’ but this time it was 110 percent that I wanted people to hear her. I wanted people to walk away from this really thinking and being moved.”

Lupica was also recently honored to be a part of the inaugural The Premiere Premieres, a new-play event put on by the Premiere Playhouse. Her role in Mo Hurley’s The Theater at Night brought her to the Belbas Theater stage this past winter.

“For one, I’ve never gotten to work with the playwright directly before, and (Hurley) is so talented and so sweet and so collaborative and open,” Lupica said “And she’s really good at creating this little bit of magic. So that was such a cool thing to do — to pick her brain about exactly the story she wanted to tell and why she wrote it the way she did. And also originating a character, which I’ve never done before — that was such a cool experience in that it was, at every level, local. To know that we have all of these creative folks here is so satisfying, and I’m really grateful to have met them.”

Whatever her next theatrical endeavor is, the local performer will always keep a quote from her middle-school theatre director in mind — “There’s no reason you can’t try.”

“If there’s a slim possibility that this will make you happy, what is the harm in trying? Even if you’re in the ensemble or you’re on stage for collectively two minutes, you can learn and interact with great people,” Lupica said. “There are always ways to get involved — sign up for tech, stage-manage — the environment, no matter what spot you’re in, is so warm and freeing and artistically satisfying, that it’s always worth it.”