After 25 years as an indie producer, and 10 years producing non-equity theatre for nonprofit theatres in North Dakota, founding Managing Director, Kathleen Coudle-King, began Theatre without Walls. It premiered its first production, The Shelter Plays, in August 2020 as a response -- or reaction to the pandemic which made traditional theaters go dark. Kathleen put out a call for 10-minute plays and directors, and six plays were performed in picnic shelters in University Park, in Grand Forks, ND.  Audiences felt safe watching from the comfort of their own folding chair and moved from shelter to shelter to take in the comic plays. 

 

Our Work

In 2021, Theatre without Walls premiered, In Search of Persephone, another site-specific play set in a park. Using the Greek myth, Coudle-King wrote a play highlighting homelessness and particularly transphobia and impact on teen runaways. The audience walked from scene to scene in search of Persephone. 

 

Researching shelter insecurity led to researching mental illness, as so many of the people Coudle-King interviewed struggled with mental health issues complicated further by addiction. This led to Retail Therapy which ran in May 2023 at Empire Arts Center, "Studio E." (Made possible by a Special Projects grant from the ND Council on the Arts and an American Recovery grant from the NEA.)

 

In 2025, Coudle-King and a troupe of actors (Mary Aalgard, Jace Erickson, Ashley Fredricksen, Josh Widmer, and Juliet Wolfe -- Dean Whitlock understuded for Widmer in Indy) took There's Something I Must Tell You, on a Fringe Fest tour: Omaha, St. Louis, Indianapolis, preceded by performances in Brainerd, MN and Grand Forks, ND.  This play is based on archival docs from the Jamestown State Hospital, the first hospital for the mentally ill in North Dakota. (Made possible by a Artist Fellowship from the ND Council on the Arts.)

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In Nov. 2025, we premiered The Home Show, an multi-media work, including short plays, shadow puppetry, "home" videos, audio interviews with new Americans, and monologues. It was performed on the Empire Art Center stage. (Made possible by grants from the City of GF, and the ND Council on the Arts.)