Passion to Perform
Why become a formidable force in just one artistic medium when you can master more than you can count on one hand? It just might take the drive, passion and humility of a singular performing arts pro like Molly Wilson.
Since arriving on the Sioux Falls arts scene post-college, Wilson has been making her mark, collaborating with countless local organizations, whether it’s through theatre performance or elementary visual arts instruction.
“I’m blessed to work in two avenues of the arts that I really love,” said Wilson, who teaches art at Laura Wilder Elementary School in Sioux Falls. “Visual artist by day, theatre artist by night.”
But by taking a look at the day-to-day life of Wilson, you’d probably assume her days are somehow longer than others’. From her frequent gigs directing Sioux Falls youth theatre with the Dakota Academy of Performing Arts (DAPA) to her own on-stage moments through the years with companies like Olde Town Dinner Theatre (OTDT), Sioux Empire Community Theatre (SECT) and the Good Night Theatre Collective (GNTC) to her downtime spent with husband Scott and daughter Violet, every moment with Wilson is “quality time” through her unending dedication to her craft and relationship- and community-building.
Molly Wilson as Audrey in Aberdeen Central High School’s production of Little Shop of Horrors
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years,” she said. “I’ve been doing this almost nonstop in some capacity since I was 15 years old. I’ve done as many aspects of theatre as possible, because I think it makes you a well-rounded performer. It makes you a more empathetic person.”
How it all got started, though, was a little unconventional—Wilson points out that growing up in Aberdeen, no one in her immediate family had a background in theatre, and she herself was a self-proclaimed “shy, creative, weird and quirky kid.”
In fact, from Wilson’s first performances in elementary school, to her first leading role in her middle school’s production of Once Upon a Mattress, she made theatre fans of her parents and relatives.
“My mom kind of became a superfan—as did my grandmother,” Wilson said. “My dad can’t sing a lick, but he worked at a movie theater—loved musicals and comedy—so he was quite proud of the fact that I could sing and could perform. He would tell me, ‘Molly, your voice is a gift and you need to give it back to the world. You have to sing. That’s what you were given.’”
The time spent since then has been jam-packed with experiences on- and off-stage. Wilson tried her hand at lights, sound, props, directing, stage-managing—even as a production’s milliner.
“Theatre was my thing,” she said. “It allowed me to open up—find my people.”
Once she found her way to the Sioux Falls area, she found several theatrical homes, the first of which were OTDT in Worthing and the Washington Pavilion.
From a production of Godspell at OTDT that got her local performing roots firmly planted, to her first few gigs teaching visual art at the Pavilion and directing children’s theatre for what’s now known as DAPA, Wilson fell hard for the Sioux Falls performing arts scene.
Molly Wilson as the queen in Once Upon a Mattress
“Now that’s love,” she said of a schedule of teaching by day, immediately followed by DAPA rehearsals after school and then OTDT rehearsals in the evening. “I was in my mid-20s pulling myself up by my bootstraps. You have to have that love, that passion, that drive—it’s all worth it.”
Luckily, she was able to connect with a former stage partner during her early years at the Pavilion, Rose Ann Hofland, who’d performed with Wilson in their teens and early 20s at Aberdeen’s Storybookland Theatre.
Wilson cited an early DAPA production of Annie as a sign that Hofland was truly an inspiration to her. “She put together the show in two weeks in the summer, and I thought to myself, ‘How did she do that?’ She was a spectacular mentor.”
Those inspirations were plenty, by Wilson’s own estimation—she additionally cited Aberdeen Community Theatre artistic director Jim Walker, the faculty at her alma mater Northern State University and OTDT’s Jim Wood as helping mold the theatre artist she is today.
It wasn’t long before Wilson branched out to black-box productions at the Orpheum Theater, performing in children’s productions of How I Became a Pirate, Sleepy Hollow and Freckleface Strawberry for SECT.
“It’s therapeutic,” Wilson said of being involved in theatre. “I think theatre is one of life’s greatest teachers. It teaches you how to deal with loss. It teaches you how to communicate with others.
“You know there’s only going to be this one magical moment where all of these people are going to get together in one place and make magic happen on stage. There’s nothing like it. To share energy with others is such a phenomenal experience.”
And it’s no coincidence that this undying love has moved Wilson to immerse herself in so much educational and children’s theatre.
“I put on six shows a day at school,” she said. “Being a teacher is being a performer, in many respects. It’s essentially performing to an audience that you have to grade and manage and allow to go to the bathroom.
“And I think theatre makes me a better teacher—I think I incorporate gestures and timing and facial expressions and kinesthetic movement. What I do is teach kids how to create and be problem-solvers.”
But Wilson is quick to credit her ability to give this level of commitment to craft to her family.
Molly Wilson as Gertrude DuBois in GNTC’s Daytime: A Soap Opera Musical (Credit: Rachel Winters)
“Scott is an amazing man, and I would not be able to be as theatrically involved at this point in my life without him,” she said of her husband. “He loves it, and he knows it’s what my calling is to do in the world.”
And this support is more than verbal—Wilson credits her husband with night after night of running lines and even rehearsing choreography around the kitchen.
“He’s a part of every show that I do,” she said. “He helped create some of those emotional experiences that I draw from when I play characters on stage.”
This family bond appears to be generational, too. Her daughter Violet loves attending shows at the Pavilion and has already developed an appreciation for performing arts.
“She’s a really good little theatre-goer,” Wilson said. “She’s probably seen at least 12 shows, and she’s not even three—including her first Shakespearean tragedy and comedy. That’s a proud mom moment.”
These moments are what makes it worth it for Wilson—to see Violet’s developing love and appreciation for it. “Even at her young age—she gets it,” Wilson said. “She can see the fruits of the labor and understands what Mom is doing when she’s gone. She still gets to be a part of that experience when she comes to rehearsals or sees the performances.”
With a role in the Good Night Theatre Collective’s original production Alvin Fletcher’s Surprise 34th Birthday Party coming up in March, a directing gig with DAPA in the spring and a two-week summer camp on the horizon, Wilson shows no sign of slowing down. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Each show is like a beautiful brick in your foundation. It just adds to that collective experience.”