Mary Plaster, DMin, MA, is a multi-media artist and facilitator, residing with her
family since 2000 on Spirit Mountain near Duluth, Minnesota. Her published spiritual
icon of Sophia, Divine Wisdom is displayed in spiritual centers and homes around the
world. Her masks and large puppets have toured to several interfaith & sustainability
conferences across the Midwest and Pacific Coast.
Mary is the founder and artistic director of Duluth's annual All Souls Night celebrations
in the downtown Depot. The fourth community event will be held Wednesday, Nov. 2nd.
She is very active in her local theatre community working with the Duluth Playhouse,
Playground and Children's Theatre creating masks and puppets for The Neverending
Story, Equus, Into the Woods and Stage Play Outreach Program (a partnership with
the Scottish Rite Autism Clinic). She designed gods & creatures for the University of
Minnesota, Duluth's spring 2011 musical theatre adaptation of The Odyssey. In 2010 she
implemented original dancers' masks for Minnesota Ballet's Carnival of the Animals.
Mary has participated four years in the ARTmoves Parade as part of the Flint Hills
International Children's Festival with the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St.
Paul. In 2008 Mary was parade artistic staff for MayDay festivities with the Minneapolis
In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre. She received a McKnight/ARAC
Individual Career Development Grant to attend the July apprentice program with Peter
Schumann's 45-year-old Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover, Vermont. Immediately
upon her return from the Northeast Kingdom, she was a guest curator for the Duluth Art
Institute (DAI), organizing an exhibit with David Hodges, Effigies of Peace and Protest:
The Art of Social Activism, featuring four decades of selected historically significant
street theater art. The closing reception for this art show inspired All Souls Night.
Mary and her two Green Man puppets (Minnesota and California) were invited to play at
the 2007 Burning Man Project international celebration in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.
Mary extensively explored Earth-based wisdom, Creation Spirituality, with theologian
and author Matthew Fox, the Work That Reconnects (WTR) with Joanna Macy, Sacred
Activism with Andrew Harvey, and Magical Activism with Starhawk. She has traveled
to South America, India, France and Canada for her studies. She will become a certified
Spiritual Director from WomanWell Center for Spirituality's program in May of 2012.
In June 2010 she received a Doctorate in Ministry earned from Wisdom University in San
Francisco. Her dissertation subject explored the use of visuals in sacred art activism and
art as meditation. Her 2006 Masters degree in art was from the University of Wisconsin,
Superior, with her thesis show, Dancing with Divinity, featuring her giant puppets
ancestor series, masks, and traditional religious icons. Mary's knowledge of "cheap,
Earth-friendly art" was initially gleaned living three years south of the border, working
with creative recycling, papier-mâché experts of central Mexico and observing Dias de
los Muertos (Days of the Dead) rituals in the mid-1980s with artist, Lynn Davis. Her
undergraduate work was in the studio art and theater design departments of the U of MN
Twin Cities campus with internships at the Minneapolis Children's Theatre & School and
The Jungle Theatre.
Upcoming Events (Minnesota):
October 8th & 15th Boo at the Zoo, mask display at Lake Superior Zoo, Duluth
Oct. 13-29 Equus, at the Duluth Play Ground
Oct. 24th Art Break art & activism talk with Duluth Art Institute at Zinema 2 Theater
Nov. 2nd All Souls Night, Duluth's Dia de los Muertos celebration at downtown's Depot.
Nov. 4th & 5th Religion and a New Environmental Ethic, Wisdom Ways Spirituality
Center's Fall Soul Conference in St. Paul, featuring Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grimm
for the Minnesota premiere viewing of the film Journey of the Universe. www.emerging
earthcommunity.com
Nov. 17th & 19th Seussical the Musical, Proctor Senior High
January 13-22, 2012 The Neverending Story, Duluth Playhouse Children's Theatre
family since 2000 on Spirit Mountain near Duluth, Minnesota. Her published spiritual
icon of Sophia, Divine Wisdom is displayed in spiritual centers and homes around the
world. Her masks and large puppets have toured to several interfaith & sustainability
conferences across the Midwest and Pacific Coast.
Mary is the founder and artistic director of Duluth's annual All Souls Night celebrations
in the downtown Depot. The fourth community event will be held Wednesday, Nov. 2nd.
She is very active in her local theatre community working with the Duluth Playhouse,
Playground and Children's Theatre creating masks and puppets for The Neverending
Story, Equus, Into the Woods and Stage Play Outreach Program (a partnership with
the Scottish Rite Autism Clinic). She designed gods & creatures for the University of
Minnesota, Duluth's spring 2011 musical theatre adaptation of The Odyssey. In 2010 she
implemented original dancers' masks for Minnesota Ballet's Carnival of the Animals.
Mary has participated four years in the ARTmoves Parade as part of the Flint Hills
International Children's Festival with the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St.
Paul. In 2008 Mary was parade artistic staff for MayDay festivities with the Minneapolis
In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre. She received a McKnight/ARAC
Individual Career Development Grant to attend the July apprentice program with Peter
Schumann's 45-year-old Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover, Vermont. Immediately
upon her return from the Northeast Kingdom, she was a guest curator for the Duluth Art
Institute (DAI), organizing an exhibit with David Hodges, Effigies of Peace and Protest:
The Art of Social Activism, featuring four decades of selected historically significant
street theater art. The closing reception for this art show inspired All Souls Night.
Mary and her two Green Man puppets (Minnesota and California) were invited to play at
the 2007 Burning Man Project international celebration in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.
Mary extensively explored Earth-based wisdom, Creation Spirituality, with theologian
and author Matthew Fox, the Work That Reconnects (WTR) with Joanna Macy, Sacred
Activism with Andrew Harvey, and Magical Activism with Starhawk. She has traveled
to South America, India, France and Canada for her studies. She will become a certified
Spiritual Director from WomanWell Center for Spirituality's program in May of 2012.
In June 2010 she received a Doctorate in Ministry earned from Wisdom University in San
Francisco. Her dissertation subject explored the use of visuals in sacred art activism and
art as meditation. Her 2006 Masters degree in art was from the University of Wisconsin,
Superior, with her thesis show, Dancing with Divinity, featuring her giant puppets
ancestor series, masks, and traditional religious icons. Mary's knowledge of "cheap,
Earth-friendly art" was initially gleaned living three years south of the border, working
with creative recycling, papier-mâché experts of central Mexico and observing Dias de
los Muertos (Days of the Dead) rituals in the mid-1980s with artist, Lynn Davis. Her
undergraduate work was in the studio art and theater design departments of the U of MN
Twin Cities campus with internships at the Minneapolis Children's Theatre & School and
The Jungle Theatre.
Upcoming Events (Minnesota):
October 8th & 15th Boo at the Zoo, mask display at Lake Superior Zoo, Duluth
Oct. 13-29 Equus, at the Duluth Play Ground
Oct. 24th Art Break art & activism talk with Duluth Art Institute at Zinema 2 Theater
Nov. 2nd All Souls Night, Duluth's Dia de los Muertos celebration at downtown's Depot.
Nov. 4th & 5th Religion and a New Environmental Ethic, Wisdom Ways Spirituality
Center's Fall Soul Conference in St. Paul, featuring Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grimm
for the Minnesota premiere viewing of the film Journey of the Universe. www.emerging
earthcommunity.com
Nov. 17th & 19th Seussical the Musical, Proctor Senior High
January 13-22, 2012 The Neverending Story, Duluth Playhouse Children's Theatre