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loosely quoting Frederick Buechner, Carrie Wintersteen quickly directs credit where it’s due. But, as her story unfolds, you can tell the executive director and co-founder of Theatre B believes and lives every word of it. “Theater for me is more than just fun, it’s a calling.” Wintersteen’s first experience on a theater stage began at the age of 12, when she took a summer class called, “Acting, Music, and Junk” in Saint Paul, Minnesota. But even before that, Wintersteen made the world her stage. She describes herself as a ham of a little kid, “I was a classic youngest child,” she laughs. Her parents gave her the perfect opportunity to capitalize on this at their weekly bridge club. “My parents would say, ‘Carrie! Come over here and sing!’” That’s when George Schnell, the church organist would pull up the piano bench and begin awakening the keys to a melody that Wintersteen would bring a joyous life to. Not surprisingly, while no one made theater their career, performing arts were apparent throughout Wintersteen’s family. Various musicians were scattered throughout, but more specifically she remembers, “My mother had been a figure skater and my great grandmother had sung in the opera.” She even remembers listening to her grandmother’s album.

And so, her path in life was known to her from the start. Wintersteen went on to get her bachelor’s from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, then her master’s in acting at the University of Pittsburgh. While Wintersteen was living in the cities, she met her husband David Wintersteen. David shared a love for theater, bringing them together to meet at Theatre in the Round in Minneapolis. We might all thank David, because in 1998 an offer for him to teach theater at Concordia College in Moorhead brought the couple to the FM area.

Wintersteen then became, as Linda Boyd called her, “the FM utility infielder.” She worked in a variety of settings including US Bank, Prairie Public and teaching at MSUM and NDSU. It allowed her to meet a lot of people, many of whom would end up becoming involved in Theatre B. During this time, Wintersteen maintained her connection to drama through acting with the community theater. While she enjoyed the experience, she felt a tension building up inside her.

The kind that many of us have felt when it is time to take a new turn in the road that reveals our path. “Theatre B was somewhat born out of frustration,” she acknowledges.

“That restlessness that exists when something is missing.” She enjoyed the theater she was involved with, yet she felt as if something was missing in the Fargo Moorhead area. “I wanted to do what I was good at,” she admits, “but I wanted to do it with purpose.” And that meant digging into a different kind of theater, one that she felt the community needed. She sought to perform new, intensely issue-driven work. And so, Theatre B was born and founded in 2003 by Wintersteen, her husband David, their friends Lori and Scott Horvik, and a recent NDSU theater graduate, Amber Rae Bernhardt.

This also came at a time when revitalization efforts were just starting in downtown Fargo.

“We got this notion that we could do something to help,” says Wintersteen. The founders strategically opened their first season in the old Moose Lodge, now the Toasted Frog, in downtown Fargo. Pitching in $600 each of their own money, they produced three shows. At the end of that first season, they made not only enough to pay themselves back, but were inspired. “Lori said we have to incorporate and do this again!” says Wintersteen. That next year brought new challenges as they increased their season to four shows, but performed them at three different places. It was at one of these shows that they met a couple who would help take them to the next chapter of Theatre B’s journey: David and Pia Scheer. Inspired by the mission and style of shows that Theatre B was producing, the Scheers provided what would be the theater’s home for the next 10 years: 716 Main Avenue, Fargo.