Arts for All

Deb Workman’s trajectory in the arts has been largely about trusting her instincts. Knowing when it’s time to let fate deliver an identified need to her lap.

“Things randomly land in my space. I have learned not to be afraid of that. When you embrace all of those moments, beautiful partnerships come out.”

And between her years-long statewide- and western-South-Dakota-based work with the storied Black Hills Playhouse and her work with all-abilities theatre right here in Sioux Falls, Workman has lived out that spirit in her offerings to the arts.

With a background in theatre she came by honestly, Workman grew up in Pierre among a family very involved in the local community theatre “It was totally normal to do the arts,” she said. “I really excelled in dance—that was my safe place where I could express myself without speaking. Without having the structure of academics. That’s where it all started.”

Workman struggled with school in those early days. She later discovered at age 36 that she was dyslexic, which was part of what drove her to artistic expression. “Oftentimes the arts are the saving grace of people with dyslexia—for me, anyway,” she said.

She started the college process, but studying theatre was initially a stressor. “The anxieties of memorizing were very stressful. Where everyone else auditioned for the lead, I loved being an ensemble member. That was my security place.”

College persistently proved challenging, and Workman ended up switching institutions a number of times before connecting with a friend at the Miami-Dade Conservatory for Dance. She’d developed a passion for choreography in particular.

“Realistically, I’m not a professional dancer,” she said, “but I started choreographing in high school. I realized quickly choreography is a really hard business to be in. I ended up moving back home and landed at the Black Hills Playhouse (BHP) as a choreographer.”

Since her arrival at BHP in the early 1990s, Workman served in a variety of capacities, including choreographer, business manager, company manager and even snack bar manager, as well as met her now-husband, Dan, whom she married in 1993.

Like many stories in the performing arts, Dan’s aspirations in the theatre world led the two of them to New York, where they started their own company and started their family.

“He wanted to do that theatre thing, and I wanted to be a really supportive partner,” she said. “It was great fun. I leaned toward the business side of it, we met up with some college friends of his—writers, actors, musicians—got together and said, ‘Let’s create!’”

But as the two of them became more involved in the corporate sphere, theatre began to take a back-burner role in Workman’s life.  “It was just a really surreal time,” she said, “but the company owned us. When our son was born, I looked at things differently—we both did. Our families were so far away. We decided, since we weren’t doing what we really wanted to do there, we’d hop a plane and fly to South Dakota.”

Their long-standing love of BHP led the Workmans to Rapid City, where a fateful request from state arts staple Janet Brown started Deb on the next leg of her journey—children’s theatre. A request from South Dakotans for the Arts led the Workmans to request BHP to co-sign a proposal for a touring children’s theatre company.

“We knew if we wanted to be in the arts, that we could create our own jobs,” she said. “We had really great guidance. We created an advisory board with really awesome, smart people from business, the arts, marketing—they got us off to a really great start.”

Dakota Players began as a sub-org of BHP, Children’s Theatre Company of South Dakota, in 1999 and has since rebranded. The undertaking would take Deb’s full attention, and she wanted to set the organization for a successful run.

“We started planning in 1999,” she said. “I quit my job and stayed home with our son. And we started planning and creating this company. We looked at a lot of different models and really studied them—we started turning it into something that we thought would work in South Dakota.”

The debut production was The Missing Mountain Mystery, an original play by Dan and Eric Johnson about a fictional theft of Mount Rushmore. “We got the show done and we started touring it. Dan and I knew that if we really wanted to keep this company going forward, we were going to need to be the ones touring it at first. We had to know what that side of it is like.

“With our three-year-old, we jumped in the vehicle, Dan and I played parts in the show, and we started touring. Dylan (their son) knew every line of the show—he’d repeat it in the vehicle.”

With an aim to keep arts money in South Dakota and create jobs for artists in the area, Dakota Players became a haven for program graduates to find entry-level employment in their fields. That coupled with a mission to reach children across the state has driven the more than 20 years the company has since logged.

“I will say, we learned quickly after moving from New York, we did some of the most creative and meaningful theatre here,” Workman said. “More than our entire time in New York. A lot of artists think it’s just the coasts. I get the idea of the coast dreams—I think adventures are great and important. But I never want people to discount the theatre in between the coasts. It’s some really amazing things happening.”

Since building out a touring element to BHP and its service to young theatre artists, Deb has made a particular effort in bringing all-abilities theatre opportunities to a wider audience. She and her family have since moved to Sioux Falls, where this began to really kick into high gear.

In 2013, Deb did a workshop with local organization LifeScape where she said she learned a great deal about the extremes of learners and the extremes of disabilities. After collaborating with LifeScape Center for the Arts’ Jamie Richardson, Workman began to work on programming geared toward the people the organization serves—the Expanding Stage.

“We meet every actor or technician where they’re at and mentor them,” she said. “We pledge to make them shine and successful. We meet them with dignity and respect. It’s just so beautiful.”

Through this programming, Workman has been able to provide stage partners for performers who need them, as well as other innovative ways of delivering the message of a particular piece of theatre.

“Many of our actors are nonverbal,” she said, “and so many people think that means they can’t communicate. Everyone communicates in some way, and we honor how they communicate. Theatre challenges you. It’s all part of that experience. They will do things they never thought they could.”

This partnership has led to work with DakotAbilities, as well, which has provided opportunity for people who perhaps have aged out of the youth programming provided through LifeScape.

“Part of the start of (the Expanding Stage) was working with underserved populations,” Workman said. “I knew what theatre did for me, and that was life-changing. I knew we needed to find a way to get people involved.

“That first show we did with DakotAbilities, there was a woman who was 64 years old and had never had the opportunity to do theatre. I could not believe that. That was a moment.”

These experiences have expanded into additional ventures, such as Camp Bravo at Joy Ranch near Watertown, where children and young adults of all abilities spend a week developing performing skills in a traditional camp setting.

In addition to performing and technical sides of theatre, Workman has also mentored and encouraged writing skills. One nonverbal program participant has since written three plays for Dakota Players through a combination of mentorship and an opportunity to audit script analysis courses at Augustana University, where Workman’s husband works.

“Our belief is that you figure it out for everyone. Not just for the chosen, the ‘talented’—you figure it out for everyone.”

Though the growth of the Dakota Players and Expanding Stage programming has perhaps quieted since the pandemic has made theatrical experiences more complicated, the group recently transitioned its planned production of Cinder… Really!? into a costumed, Zoom experience in partnership with BHP and DakotAbilities back in December.

“The work we do next to the actors with the families—you’re not ever just affecting the person in the show,” Workman said. “You’re affecting that person and the friends and family around them.

“Our company does a really god job of taking that seriously and being real with the families and the people involved—making sure that’s a secure and safe space for everyone.”