Chad Peterson is a Gustavus alum, the current Director of Marketing and Communications at Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, and the author of Five Man Fugue: A Mystery in Five Voices. Peterson oversees the company’s external communications, which range from PR and social media to the ticket office and front-of-house staff. He aims to “get as many people in to see shows as we can, and in particular, try to reach as many kids as we can, to expose them to theater.”

At Gustavus, Peterson double majored in English and Theatre. “The truth is that my English degree really gave me a lot of comfort in writing, and I do a lot of writing for my job now – writing copies about the show, writing letters, writing emails, program copies, things like that,” Peterson said. Peterson joined the Theatre department as an actor, and thanks to Gustavus’ program, he learned about directing, stage management, sound design, lighting design and more that aided in his profession.

Peterson’s current workplace, Children’s Theatre Company “… is the nation’s largest and most acclaimed theater for young people and serves a multigenerational audience. It creates theatre experiences that educate, challenge, and inspire 250,000 people annually. CTC is the only theater focused on young audiences to win the coveted Tony Award for regional theatre and is the only theater in Minnesota to receive three Tony nominations,” the company’s page says.

Peterson believes that it is important for people to have theatre as a part of their lives and that theatre provides once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and that shows never happen the same way twice. “I think that the arts, whether that’s theatre or literature or music or dance or just visual arts, I think it really gives a person much more; I think it makes for a happier person. Having the arts as a piece of your life makes you happier, more well-adjusted, more emotionally healthy, gives you release and gives you a chance to find empathy and connection with other people…and access to beauty,” Peterson said.

Peterson’s novel, Five Man Fugue: A Mystery in Five Voices,  is one story told from five perspectives. When writing, Peterson aims to create stories “that hold people in, draw people in, and activate their imagination and activate their passion and their soul. I find that very important.” Peterson loves novels and movies with a moment of realization that once you finish the book, every choice the author made suddenly makes sense. He used this as inspiration for his novel, wanting to write a story in a creative way that is less of a “whodunnit” and more of a “what’s going on” mystery, as Peterson put it.

“The hope is that you’re thinking [what’s going on] the whole time, but it’s fun to read anyway, but you don’t quite understand why everything is happening and the way it’s happening. My goal was you get to the last page, and you finish the book, and you close it, and you ‘OH!’ I wanted the ‘OH!’ moment,” Peterson said.

Five Man Fugue has “very real characters, seen and humanized by their own truths. [A] good story with a lot of interesting entanglement of character to sort out,”  one reviewer said.

Peterson’s advice to Gusties is to take whatever you want to do and do it all the time. “I don’t think you can be a good writer if you don’t write constantly,” Peterson said.

Peterson encourages people to read Five Man Fugue and see Children’s Theatre Company shows. “It’s not just for little kids,”  he said.