Spotlighting our Actors for CIKIUTEKLLUKU and UNGIPAMSUUKA

Cikiuteklluku (Giving Something Away)

By Holly Christine Stanton

 

Thirza Defoe (Giizhiigoquay) is a Grammy Award winning artist widely known for hoop dancing, storytelling and cultural education. Her interest is laid in bridging an integral approach to artistic projects pulling in messages rooted through music, literature, video, and theatre. Her dedication and passion have been awarded in both the Native American and artists’ circles throughout the world. Her most recent award includes the National Endowments for the Arts for writing, compositions, and reconstructed choreography in Drum is Thunder, Flute is Wind. Her writing can be viewed in the Pitkin Review, Woody Guthrie Anthology, and the Thorny Locust Magazine. Acting roles: Dome of Heaven, Road Reps, and The Only Good Indian which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She received a BFA at California Institute of the Arts and MFA from Goddard College in writing. Recently she received a Masters Fellowship to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Fall 2011.

 

Maxton Scott (Mohawk) is from Northern NY, all over the St. Lawrence River Valley. He is a veteran of OEF and OIF, serving 5 years with the 82nd Airborne Division as a Mechanic. A Sundancer and a member of Native American Church, he's also currently pursuing a degree in Acting at the New York Film Academy.

 

Rose- Yvonne Colletta (Lipan-Mescalero Apache) is delighted to return to the Playwrights Retreat. Raised in the U.S. and Brazil, she embraces the cultures she’s been honored to weave through. Acting credits include: Onion Skins & Angels, and The Origin of Corn (USA and Mexico bilingual TYA tours), American Rhythm at Lamb’s Players Theatre, Collected Shadows Edgefest Los Angeles, Luis Valdez's Bandido! at San Diego Repertory, and Jane Eyre at La Jolla Playhouse. With Native Voices at the Autry: Urban Tattoo, SUPER INDIAN, and Kino & Teresa. Behind the scenes, she has been a director, producer, stage manager, production manager, and writer. Her radio play, Melba's Medicine, was selected for production at the National Audio Theatre Festivals and imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Canada. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre from San Diego State University and is a proud member of Actors' Equity.

 

Jennifer Bobiwash (Ojibway) is an actor and writer from Canada. She has worked in film, television, and theatre and is currently in pre-production for a documentary and is working on a webseries, as well as writing and starring in another. Her one- person show There is No I in Indian will be premiering in the summer of 2011. You can find her on her Youtube Channel learning her native language. Represented by Redrock Entertainment Development. SAG 

 

Jacob Bruce graduated from the conservatory program at the University of Illinois with a BFA in acting. He appeared in plays around the city of Chicago including Orlando in As You Like It, Jed Rowan in The Kentucky Cycle, and The Creature in Playing With Fire. He then moved to Los Angeles and landed recurring roles on the shows Crossing Jordan and Roswell, as well as episodes of shows including ER, Las Vegas, Standoff, and American Dreams. He was also in the award-winning films Donut Run and Night of the Dog, the Hallmark movie Prairie Fever, and the horror feature The Rig. As a member of the Knightsbridge Theatre in Los Angeles, he played Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a "Critics Pick" in Backstage West and co-created The $5 Only Improv Show. He was most recently seen in Yellow Face with Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego.

 

Maggie Carney's credits include: Yellow Face (Mo'olelo), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter and the Starcatchers, Salsalandia! (La Jolla Playhouse), The Tempest and Bill Irwin’s Largely/NY (Seattle Repertory), Bad Dates- Thespie Award, Wilde Award Nomination for Haley Walker (BoarsHead), Bedroom Farce- Jeff Citation for Kate, Into the Woods- Jeff Citation Nomination for The Baker’s Wife (Touchstone), Smash- Jeff Citation for Hetty (Bailiwick), Almighty Bob (Theater at the Center), The Book of Liz (Roadworks), What the Butler Saw (Noble Fool), Ghetto (Famous Door), The Gamester (Northlight), Spite for Spite, A Phoenix Too Frequent (Writers’ Theatre). Other companies: WBEZ’s Stories on Stage, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, the Poetry Foundation, The Second City, Creede Repertory Theatre,  Peninsula Players and the Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival.

Ungipamsuuka: My Story

By Susie Silook

 

Dawn Stern was born in Japan on a military base outside of Tokyo. Her father, a Vietnam veteran, was Creole (French, African, and Native American; tribal affiliation unknown), and her mother is Norwegian/ Scottish. She holds a BS in theatre performance from SIU-E and is honored to work with Native Voices at the Autry. Her Los Angeles credits include series regular roles on Viper, 413 Hope Street, Starhunter, and Nobody; a recurring role on The Young and the Restless; and more than twenty-five guest star appearances. She was last seen as a lawyer on NCIS–Los Angeles. Her favorite stage roles are by Shakespeare; she has played Kate, Lady Macbeth, Olivia, Paulina, and Goneril.

 

Jason Grasl (Blackfeet) is a veteran of stage, film, and commercial. His Native Voices acting credits include Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders and The Further Adventures of Super Indian, as well as an assistant director credit for Salvage. In 2010, he helped found the Fuller Theatre Company at Fuller Theological Seminary (where he attended grad school). Other stage credits include The Blame of Love (which he also co-wrote), From Little Seeds, Be the Hunter, Boomtown 1925, Tony n Tina’s Wedding, and Smell of the Kill. Film credits include Fantasy Football: The Movie, The Seminarian, April’s Fools, and Banking. Most recently, he had a recurring role in the webseries End Result. Represented theatrically by Kathleen Schultz and Associates. SAG/ AFTRA

 

Rob Guzzo's credits can be accessed through this link.

 

Elizabeth Frances (Cherokee) is truly excited and honored to be working with Native Voices again. Recent projects include The Frybread Queen (Native Voices World Premiere), The Lunacy Commission (Kirk Douglas Theater), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), Julius Caesar (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), Detained in the Desert (Casa 0101), Tombs of the Vanishing Indian (reading with Native Voices at the Autry), Hamlet (Dir. Lenka Udovicki), Songs and Dances of Imaginary Lands (Dir. O-Lan Jones), and the Soltanoff/ Findlay Project (Center Theater Group). She holds a BFA from CalArts.

 

Shyla Marlin (Choctaw) Theatre credits include: The Frybread Queen, Native Voices at the Autry; Last Days of Judas Iscariot, UTM/Company of Angels; I Stand Before You Naked, Complex; On The Brink, 68 Cent Theatre; The Elephant and The Mayfly, Berkshire Theatre Festival; The Frontier, USC/DRC; Alphabet Play, USC/DRC; and Birdbath, Annex Theatre. Film and TV credits include Whatever It Takes (Sony); Lies and Alibis (Warner Bros.); Woo (New Line); Fashion House (MY TV); Saints & Sinners (MY TV); Minding the Store (TBS); Grace (32/12 Films); Spiritual Warriors (Gilgamesh Prods.); and A Starbuck’s Story (Anatomy Entertainment). Writing and producing credits include Still Standing (Theatre Asylum) and A Starbuck’s Story (“Best Short” FAIF Film Festival). A graduate of the University of Southern California, she studied Theatre and French.

Check back next week to meet the casts of The Bird House and The Woman Who Was Captured by Ghosts!