It is one thing to have a plan, but for Northern Sky Theater’s Lachisa Grandberry, it has been the action that is allowing you to see more authentic stories told in Door County. While some of their inclusivity efforts started as far back as 2017, last year marked the first time the IDEAS Task Force at Northern Sky Theater met to discuss how inclusion, diversity, equity, and access solutions could be a part of the organization’s mission moving forward. Lachrisa Grandberry has been on the ground floor of it all since she first joined Northern Sky Theater over six years ago. She has sought to amplify other Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) artists to Door County and became the organization’s Director of NOVA (Nurturing Original Voices and Artists) Programming in 2022. Since the IDEAS in Action officially launched in 2023, Northern Sky Theater has hosted readings of plays by BIPOC authors, updated its Land Acknowledgement to the area’s Native American roots, and partnered with Door County Summer Horizons to introduce more diversity into its summer workforce. Grandberry is proud of what they have accomplished in such a short time.

After her musical Sunflowered broke ground as Northern Sky’s first reading of a script by black authors in 2019, Grandberry hopes IDEAS in Action can bring BIPOC pieces to the stage in the coming years. The second musical she co-wrote, Girls on Sand, makes its Northern Sky debut next month.