Michelle Hensley founded Ten Thousand Things Theater, where she directed and produced more than 60 tours of award-winning drama to audiences in prisons, shelters and housing projects, as well as to the general public. Many of her productions made the local critics’ Top Ten lists. A McKnight Theater Fellow, in 2005 she received the Francesca Primus Prize from the American Theater Critics Association for outstanding contribution to the American Theater.
TTT’s touring model has been adopted by at least a dozen theaters around the country including The Public Theater in New York City, California Shakespeare Theater, Baltimore’s Center Stage and The Old Globe Theater in San Diego.
In 2015 she published the groundbreaking book All the Lights On: Reimagining Theater with Ten Thousand Things. In 2017, Michelle won the Twin Cities’ Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2018 Theatre Communications Group gave her its Visionary Leadership Award.