Indigenous Earth Voices

EARL ATCHAK

Earl Atchak (Cup’ik) was born in Chevak, Alaska a small village of a thousand Cup'ik Eskimos in 1965. Earl studied acting and performing in Chevak throughout his high school years and later was hired as an intern at Juneau's Perseverance Theatre when Molly Smith was the Artistic Director. Smith chose Atchak from a number of Eskimo performers who were taught traditional dancing and singing to act in a play titled Odyssey in 1985. Later in the early 1990's, Atchak authored a play called In Two Worlds, which told a story of how Eskimo villages in Alaska were forced to become big corporations. Additionally, Atchak performed in an Off-Broadway play titled Lilac and Flag. Earl is currently an award-winning mask maker and artist in his hometown.

LORNA BOWEN

Lorna Bowen (Muscogee Creek) is a freelance costumer, a figure finishing artist for Animal Makers and has had the great privilege to be wardrobe supervisor for Bingo Hall, Pure Native and Lying with Badgers at Native Voices at the Autry. Lorna was given the great honor of reading and singing Aunt Iris for Missing Peace in 2019 as her first on stage performance for Native Voices. Lorna is so grateful to Randy Reinholz, Jean Bruce Scott and Elisa Blandford for their faith and trust. MVTO!

JOE CROSS

Joe Cross (Caddo, Potawatomi) has numerous theater credits including Macbeth (Amerinda), Powwow Highway (Yellowrobe), The History of Asking the Wrong Question (North Fourth St. Theatre), White Woman Street (Daelaus), Inktomi (Public), Harvest Ceremony (director, Smithsonian), Earth, Sun & Moon (Lincoln Center) and Broadway Melody 1492 (Ohio Theater). His television credits include: One Life to Live, Saturday Night Live, CBS Sunday Morning, The Jury, David Letterman, Spin City, Chris Rock, The Whitest Kids I Know, LA Law, ESPN and The History Channel. Film credits include: Lucky Dog, Affluenza, Aimless, Creating Karma, The Storyteller, Natives (NYU), Smoke Break (NYU), BuzzKill, The War That Made America, The Story of the Pequot War, Royal Tanenbaum, Kinsey and A Thousand Roads (signature piece for NMAI, Smithsonian). Awards include: Silvercloud Outstanding Service, Metro Caddo Cultural Club, SAG Cultural Award, Fort Monmouth Heritage Award, Bergen County Community College Historic Award and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (Wiping Away the Tears-WTC). Thanks to Deborah and Muriel for their hard work and skills

ALLISON HICKS

Allison Hicks (Prairie Band Potawatomi, Choctaw) is an actor and an enrolled member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and is also of Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma descent. Her recent theater credits include Devilfish by Vera Starbard (Tlingit) at Perseverance Theater in Alaska, Mary Kathryn Nagle’s (Cherokee) Return to Niobrara at the Rose Theater, Omaha, NE and Bingo Hall by Dillon Chitto (Laguna Pueblo/Mississippi Choctaw) in Los Angeles, CA, The Native Voices at the Autry Play Festival, The Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program Play Festival, The National New Play Festival and The John F. Kennedy Center Play Festival. She can be seen in the upcoming television series Rutherford Falls (NBC/Peacock). Instagram: @allison_hudson_hicks.

KALANI QUEYPO

Kalani Queypo (Blackfeet, Hawaiian) trained in New York City, before moving to Los Angeles, and was featured on stages all over the country — the Goodspeed Opera House, Arena Stage, Trinity Repertory Company, Mark Taper Forum, The Wilma and The Ordway. He can be seen in the Oscar-nominated Terrence Malick film, The New World, Steven Spielberg’s Emmy winning Into the West and Slow West (Sundance Grand Jury Prize). Television credits include Jamestown (three seasons series regular), Saints & Strangers, Fear the Walking Dead, Mad Men, Nurse Jackie, Bones and Hawaii Five-0. Kalani is currently starring on the CW’s Trickster. A short film written and directed by Kalani, Ancestor Eyes, screened at nearly 40 festivals and won 14 awards including the Rhode Island International Film Festival’s Directorial Discovery Award.

DELANNA STUDI

DeLanna Studi (Cherokee) is an actor/playwright whose TV credits include Dreamkeeper, Edge of America, Shameless, General Hospital, Z Nation and Goliath. Her theater credits include the first national Broadway tour of August: Osage County, Off-Broadway’s Informed Consent and Gloria: A Life. She retraced her family’s footsteps along the Trail of Tears with her father and wrote her play And So We Walked. She has created plays for Theatre for One, The Theatre Center and Period Piece. She is the Chair of SAG-AFTRA’s National Native Americans Committee and the Artistic Director of Native Voices at the Autry. Instagram: @DeLannaStudi.

LEE CATALUNA

Playwright

Lee Cataluna was born and raised in Hawaii and is of Native Hawaiian descent. Recent projects for the stage include Ipu for Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Home of the Brave for La Jolla Playhouse, Flowers of Hawaii at Native Voices at the Autry and Mudpies and Magic at Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Her books include Folks You Meet at Longs and the children’s book Ordinary `Ohana. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from University of California, Riverside.

DILLON CHITTO

Playwright

Dillon Chitto is a Native American of Mississippi Choctaw, Laguna and Isleta Pueblo descent. He grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he learned the importance of art, culture and traditions from his family. In his playwriting, he connects these themes using storytelling techniques learned throughout his life. He is presently in Chicago, Illinois and is currently a company member of BoHo Theatre where he is an artistic administrator. His first play, Bingo Hall, was given a world premiere by Native Voices at the Autry in March 2018 in Los Angeles. He was selected as Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program’s 2017 winning playwright. He has also worked with Global Voices theatre project in London as well as Theater Above the Law in Chicago. He was recently selected as a resident for AlterTheater’s 2020 AlterLab cohort.

MARY KATHRYN NAGLE

Playwright

Mary Kathryn Nagle is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She is also a partner at Pipestem Law, P.C., where she works to protect tribal sovereignty and the inherent right of Indian Nations to protect their women and children from domestic violence and sexual assault. From 2015 to 2019, she served as the first Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program. Nagle is an alum of the 2013 Public Theater Emerging Writers Program. Productions include Miss Lead (Amerinda, 59E59), Fairly Traceable (Native Voices at the Autry), Sovereignty (Arena Stage), Manahatta (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Return to Niobrara (Rose Theater), Crossing Mnisose (Portland Center Stage), Sovereignty (Marin Theatre Company) and Manahatta (Yale Repertory Theatre).

FRANK HENRY KAASH KATASSE

Playwright

Frank Henry Kaash Katasse (Tlingit), is from the Tsaagweidí clan. Frank is an actor, director, producer, improviser, educator, author and playwright. Frank received his Bachelor’s in Theatre Arts from the University of Hawai’i: Mānoa. Frank served as Board President of Juneau/Douglas Little Theatre (2013-2019), a Perseverance Theatre company member (2008-present) and the Playwright in Residence for Theater Alaska (2020-present). In 2017, Perseverance Theatre produced (along with Native Voices at the Autry and La Jolla Playhouse) the rolling world premiere of Katasse’s play They Don’t Talk Back. Frank has also developed two full length plays (Where the Summit Meets the Stars and Spirit of the Valley) as the Playwright in Residence (2018). Frank currently lives in Douglas, AK with his wife and two kids.

MADELINE SAYET

Playwright

Madeline Sayet is a citizen of the Mohegan Tribe, the Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (YIPAP) and Co-Artistic Director of Red Eagle Soaring: Native Youth Theater. For her work as a theater maker, she has been honored as a Forbes 30 Under 30, TED Fellow, MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, National Directing Fellow, Native American 40 Under 40 and a recipient of The White House Champion of Change Award from President Obama. Her play, Where We Belong, first shown in London at Shakespeare's Globe, will have its U.S. premiere in DC as part of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's current season. www.madelinesayet.com.

 

OLIVIA ESPINOSA

Director

Olivia Espinosa (Azteca) is a bilingual actor, playwright and director. A proud member of Native Voices at The Autry Artist Ensemble, she helped launch the ensemble play Stories from the Indian Boarding School. Native Voices, directing credits include readings for their annual play festivals and most recently, co-directing The New Adventures of Super Indian by Arigon Starr which includes 3 audio episodes based on her popular graphic novel. In 2017, Olivia received Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s most prestigious award, The Phil Killian Directing Fellowship, where she was assistant director to Artist Director, Bill Rauch on Off the Rails by Randy Reinholz. Additional work includes directing for La Jolla Playhouse’s 2019 Without Walls Festival and assisting Tony Taccone on John Leguizamo’s Kiss My Aztec.

TAMMY HAILIʻŌPUA BAKER

Director

Tammy Hailiʻōpua Baker’s (Hawaiian) work focuses on revitalizing Kanaka Maoli moʻolelo (native Hawaiian history and narratives). She writes, directs and often produces her own hana keaka, Hawaiian-medium plays, that have been featured around the world. Most recently, ʻAuʻa ʻIa: Holding On toured to Theatre for the New City and New York Theatre Workshop and she directed the revoicing of Disney’s Moana in the Hawaiian language. Across the Hawaiian archipelago and Oceania, her plays My Boy He Play Ball, Lāʻieikawai, Kamapuaʻa and Māuiakamalo have invoked Indigenous consciousness and sovereign expression. Hailiʻōpua is a board member of the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists and an invited director at the National Institute for Directing & Ensemble Creation organized by Pangea World Theater and Art2Action.

RANDY REINHOLZ

Director

Randy Reinholz (Choctaw) is Founder and Producing Artistic Director Emeritus of Native Voices at the Autry. He is a producer, director, actor and playwright, with over 100 productions in the United States, Australia, Great Britain, Canada and Mexico. Reinholz received ATHE’s Ellen Stewart Career Achievement in Professional Theatre Award. He was also recognized with Playwrights’ Arena’s Lee Melville Award for outstanding contributions to Los Angeles theatre. Reinholz has also received: Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, MAP Grant, McKnight Fellowship and multiyear support from the NEA, Ford Foundation, Shubert Foundation, City of LA Cultural Affairs, Disney, Sony and LA County Arts Commission. A professor at San Diego State University since 1997, he has served as Head of Acting, Director of the School of Theatre, Television and Film and Director of Community Engagement and Innovation.

KATIE RICH

Stage Manager

Katie Rich is thrilled to be part of her first Arena Stage production with Indigenous Earth Voices! Some of her favorite credits include: Assistants (American Repertory Theater), Incurable: A Fool’s Tale (The Guthrie Theater), Sense and Sensibility (Bedlam) and The New Adventures of Super Indian (Native Voices at the Autry). Katie holds her MFA from Harvard University and the Moscow Art Theatre. She is a descendant of both the Chickasaw and Cherokee Nations.