PANELIST BIOS
(Parentheses denote tribal affiliation.)
DARRELL DENNIS (Shuswap) is the writer and star of the two-time Dora Award-nominated Tales of an Urban Indian. He is best-known for his roles in such television series as "Northwood" and "The Rez." His feature film credits include Leaving Normal, Shania: A Life in Eight Albums, and Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis.
STEVE ELM (Oneida) is an actor, writer, director and educator who has worked in the New York Native community for many years. He is Artistic Director of New York City based Amerinda Theatre, whose mission is to develop and present Native American theatre artists.
SUZAN SHOWN HARJO (Cheyenne & Muscogee) is a poet, writer, curator and policy advocate, who has helped Native Peoples recover more than one million acres of land and has developed key laws to protect Native nations, arts, cultures, languages, religious freedom, sovereignty and sacred places. A Founding Trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian, she began work in 1967 that led to the NMAI, to repatriation laws and to museum reform.
JOHN HAWORTH (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) is Director of the National Museum of the American Indian's George Gustav Heye Center in New York City. Mr. Haworth has an MBA from Columbia University, where he also was designated as a Revson Fellow on the Future of New York City in 1979.. He has written extensively on cultural and museum issues over the years, including articles for NMAI exhibition catalogues and magazines.
MURIEL MIGUEL (Kuna/Rappahannock) is a founding member and Artistic Director of Spiderwoman Theater, the longest running Native American women's theater company in North America. Her stage credits include: Philomena Moosetail in The Rez Sister, Aunt Shadie in The Unnatural and Accidental Women, Martha in Buz'Gem Blues, Spirit Woman in BONES: An Aboriginal Dance Opera. She has created the one-woman shows Hot' N' Soft, Trail of the Otter and most recently Red Mother.
SONI MORENO (Maya, Apache, and Yaqui Nations) hails from California, studied at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, where she played the role of Crissy in the original San Francisco Cast of Hair. Aside from her theatre credits, she is the co-founder of the aboriginal women's vocal group "Ulali," Associate Producer for Native Roots in Rhythms Music Festival in Albuquerque and is on the Board of Directors for the American Indian Community House.
YVETTE NOLAN (Algonquin from Kitiganzibi Nation). Her plays include BLADE, Job's Wife, Video, Annie Mae's Movement, the libretto Hilda Blake and the radio play Owen. She is the editor of Beyond the Pale: Dramatic Writing from First Nations Writers and Writers of Colour. Directing credits include Death of a Chief, Tales of An Urban Indian, The Unnatural and Accidental Women, Annie Mae's Movement (Native Earth), The Only Good Indian..., The Triple Truth (Turtle Gals). She is currently the Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts, and the President of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance.
RANDY REINHOLZ (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) has directed close to 50 plays across the U.S. and Canada. He was the director and executive producer of Urban Tattoo and the critically acclaimed productions of Jump Kiss, The Buz'Gem Blues and Please Do Not Touch the Indians and was the executive producer of the 2005 world premiere of Kino & Teresa. Reinholz has co-sponsored showcases and Native American diversity workshops for ABC and NBC and is an annual guest artist for the FOX American Indian Summer Institute.
BETSY THEOBALD RICHARDS (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) joined the Ford Foundation's Knowledge, Creativity and Freedom Program in 2003 as a Program Officer in arts and culture. She also serves as a chairperson of Ford's worldwide Committee on Indigenous Peoples, is member of the Foundation's Philanthropy Learning Group and serves as an advisor to Ford's global Intellectual Property Initiative. Betsy, who has worked as a theater director and dramaturg, developing scripts by Native American writers, is proud to serve as the first Native American Program Officer at the Ford Foundation.
DANIELLE SOAMES (Mohawk). An actor, director, producer and now co-founder and artistic co-director of Mixed Phoenix Theatre Group, she has lived in NYC for the past 12 years. She is a contract cultural interpreter at the National Museum of American Indian. She writes a column in Eastern Door Newspaper and writes for Talking Stick, part of AMERINDA, regularly.
SHEILA TOUSEY (Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee Nation) has acted in movies, television and in theater in NYC and regional theaters across the U.S. Some of the directors she has worked with include JoAnne Akalaitis, Joe Chaiken, Linda Chapman, Kennetch Charlette, Liviu Ciulei, David Esbjornson, Ron Van Lieu, Hanay Geiogamah (American Indian Dance Theater), Lisa Peterson, Betsy Richards, Sam Shepard, Tony Taccone, Paul Walker and RoBert Woodruff. In 2006 Sheila was Artist-in-Residence at the Public Theater; she currently serves as The Public's Native Theater Initiative Consultant.
The Native Theater Initiative Partners are Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts, American Indian Community House, Amerinda, The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, The National Museum of the American Indian.
TALES OF AN URBAN INDIAN will begin performances on Friday, February 20 and run through Sunday, March 15 with an official press opening on Sunday, March 1. The performance schedule is Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 PM; Saturdays at 2 PM and 8 PM; and Sundays at 2 PM and 7 PM.
The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street. All tickets are $10 and can be purchased at (212) 967-7555 or by visiting www.publictheater.org.
