Spotlight on THE HUMMINGBIRDS
Remember the 2010 hit play
?
?
So do we! Well three of the ladies are back in town and this time they're not just acting, but also Co-playwrights of their new play The Hummingbirds. This innovative new play is an interactive,
multimedia experience in storytelling, which involves the audience through
layers of social media. (Yes, that means the audience will get to take out their cell phones. In a theatre. During a show. In fact, the ladies will insist on it.) The story follows Kat, Willow, and Adosha (performed by our Frybread Queens), three Indigenous sisters from Santa Fe who work various jobs during the day and play the local music circuit at night. After they enter a competition for a major recording deal, the girls are launched into an all-out race for fame and fortune that forces them to walk the precarious tightrope between art and commerce, social networking and exhibitionism, family and band. During the performance the audience will get to submit questions, comments, and photos via Twitter and Facebook, turning the Internet into a stage as well, where the actresses will respond and improv as the play progresses.
You don't want to miss this during the Festival of New Plays! Friday, June 3rd @ 7:30 p.m. and stay after for a lively talkback with our team below! Make your reservations soon!
CO-PLAYWRIGHT ~ ACTOR: ADOSHA
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 will also be workshopping a new piece with playwright Melida Lopez (Sonia Flew) in June. Recent film credits include: Devil in the Woods, Feeding Mr. Baldwin, Hunting (Cannes short film corner) and upcoming film Unconfined. She holds a BFA from CalArts.
CO-PLAYWRIGHT ~ ACTOR: KAT
KIMBERLY NORRIS GUERRERO (Colville/Salish-Kootenai/Cherokee) A native Oklahoman and graduate of UCLA, Kimberly has appeared on stage in "Steel Magnolias" (Circle Players/Nashville), "Canticle of the Plains" (Tapestry/Wichita), and in Steppenwolf's "August: Osage County" which she performed in Chicago, on Broadway, at the National Theatre in London, the Sydney Theatre Company in Australia and The Old Globe in San Diego. In 2011, she joined Native Voices in the World Premiere of "The Frybread Queen" at the Autry in Los Angeles. Her film/TV credits include "Grey’s Anatomy," "The Sopranos," "Hidalgo," and "Seinfeld" to name a few. In her most recent project, Kimberly played Wilma Mankiller in the biopic, "The Cherokee Word for Water." As a writer, Kimberly was selected as a fellow of the Sundance Insitute's Native Writer's Lab and a finalist for the Rockefeller New Media and ABC/Disney Writing Fellowships.
CO-PLAYWRIGHT ~ ACTOR: WILLOW
SHYLA MARLIN (Choctaw) is thrilled to be able to workshop her new collaborative project with the Native Voices Playwrights Retreat! Theatre: The Frybread Queen, Native Voices at the Autry; Ungipamsuuka: My Story, La Jolla Playhouse, Native Voices; 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; Birdbath, Annex Theatre. Film/TV: Whatever It Takes (Sony); Lies and Alibis (Warner Bros.); Woo (New Line); Fashion House (MY TV); Saint and Sinners (MY TV); Minding the Store (TBS); Grace (32/12 Films); Spiritual Warriors (Gilgamesh Prods.); A Starbuck’s Story (Anatomy Entertainment). Writing/Producing: Still Standing (Theatre Asylum); A Starbuck’s Story (“Best Short” FAIF Film Festival). A graduate of the University of Southern California, she studied Theatre and French.
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DIRECTOR
JERE LEE HODGIN (Consultant; Producer; Freelance Director) A MFA graduate in Acting and Directing from the University of Georgia with over 30 years experience in academic and professional theatre. He has produced over 200 productions, many of which were new and premiere works, and his directing career includes more than 190 plays, operas, and musical. He directed , Mrs. Kemble’s Tempest in Edinburgh, Scotland, St. Croix, VI, and at various theatres in this country including Walnut Street Theatre’s production. Currently he serves as a member of the School of Theatre and Dance faculty at the University of Montana and is Head of the Acting/Directing Program. For 20 years he was the Producing Artistic Director of Mill Mountain Theatre where he founded the nationally recognized Norfolk Southern New Play Festival. Jere served as Artistic Director and Co-Producer of Highlands Playhouse in NC and has directed at numerous theatres including Walnut Street Theatre, The Fulton Theatre, The Barter Theatre, The Phoenix Theatre, and Wayside Theatre. He has directed new works at Native Voices at the Autry/La Jolla Playhouse, Shenandoah Playwright’s Retreat, Missoula Writer’s Colony, Northwest Playwright’s Alliance/Seattle Rep and The Phoenix Theatre New Play Festival. He has served as a National Endowment for the Arts site visitor and has been a member of the NEA Creativity Panels multiple years. He has also been a regional panelist for the Virginia Commission for the Arts, as well as theatre panelist for the ID, SC, and NC Arts Commissions. Jere is a past president of the Southeastern Theatre Conference where he also chaired the Playwriting Committee. He served as Vice-President of the board of The National Alliance for Musical Theatre for which he has been co-chair of New Works and a member of the Festival of New Works committee. He has been a reader and judge for numerous national new play contests and competitions. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Actor’s Equity Association, Theatre Communications Group, and The National Theatre Conference. He received the Perry F. Kendig Award in recognition of his efforts to champion the arts in Southwestern Virginia and was named the 1999 Citizen of the Year in Roanoke, Virginia.
DRAMATURG
KIMBERLY COLBURN is currently the Assistant Literary Manager and Pacific Playwrights Festival Coordinator at South Coast Repertory. She has worked as a dramaturg, performer, director and producer and she co-founded the Full Frontal Artists Collective in San Diego. She has worked in various capacities with companies including Los Angeles Opera, Sledgehammer Theatre, Lord Leebrick Theatre, Critical Mass Ensemble, the Chance Theatre, NEA/Arena Stage, Playwright’s Center, and Native Voices at the Autry. She received her bachelor’s in Theatre from University of California, Riverside and her master’s in Performing Arts Management from University of Oregon.
STAGE MANAGER
SUSAN K. COULTER recently stage managed The Frybread Queen with Native Voices at the Autry and Gwendoline Yeo’s Laughing With My Mouth Wide Open with 11:11 Productions. Other L.A. credits include The Ohio 4th (Inkwell Theater Company); Titus Redux (Not Man Apart/Circus Theatricals); Much Ado About Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, and Hamlet (A Noise Within); God Save Gertrude (the Theatre @ Boston Court); Extinction and Grand Delusion (Red Dog Squadron); The Wasps (Stinger Productions); and Finally and Secrets of the Trade (Black Dahlia Theatre). She has also worked with the Music Academy of the West, Starlight Theatre, and the Kansas City Symphony. When not stage managing, she also dabbles in prop design. She has a BA in theatre from the University of Missouri–Kansas City and an MFA in stage management from the University of California, Irvine.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
GENETRA TULL is a recent graduate from the University of Colorado Denver's Film Theater and Television program with honors. She has been apart of the entertainment world on stage and off since she was very young. She is new to California and loving it, she wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her super supportive family whom she loves very much. She is excited for the opportunity to work with the Native Voices at the Autry.
DRAMATURG
KIMBERLY COLBURN is currently the Assistant Literary Manager and Pacific Playwrights Festival Coordinator at South Coast Repertory. She has worked as a dramaturg, performer, director and producer and she co-founded the Full Frontal Artists Collective in San Diego. She has worked in various capacities with companies including Los Angeles Opera, Sledgehammer Theatre, Lord Leebrick Theatre, Critical Mass Ensemble, the Chance Theatre, NEA/Arena Stage, Playwright’s Center, and Native Voices at the Autry. She received her bachelor’s in Theatre from University of California, Riverside and her master’s in Performing Arts Management from University of Oregon.
SUSAN K. COULTER recently stage managed The Frybread Queen with Native Voices at the Autry and Gwendoline Yeo’s Laughing With My Mouth Wide Open with 11:11 Productions. Other L.A. credits include The Ohio 4th (Inkwell Theater Company); Titus Redux (Not Man Apart/Circus Theatricals); Much Ado About Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, and Hamlet (A Noise Within); God Save Gertrude (the Theatre @ Boston Court); Extinction and Grand Delusion (Red Dog Squadron); The Wasps (Stinger Productions); and Finally and Secrets of the Trade (Black Dahlia Theatre). She has also worked with the Music Academy of the West, Starlight Theatre, and the Kansas City Symphony. When not stage managing, she also dabbles in prop design. She has a BA in theatre from the University of Missouri–Kansas City and an MFA in stage management from the University of California, Irvine.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
GENETRA TULL is a recent graduate from the University of Colorado Denver's Film Theater and Television program with honors. She has been apart of the entertainment world on stage and off since she was very young. She is new to California and loving it, she wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her super supportive family whom she loves very much. She is excited for the opportunity to work with the Native Voices at the Autry.