Between Two Knees

Eric Ting is an Obie Award-winning director whose recent credits include Lloyd Suh’s BINA’S SIX APPLES (world premier, Children’s Theater Co/ Alliance); Marcus Gardley’s LEAR and THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN (Cal Shakes); and OCTAVIA E. BUTLER’S PARABLE OF THE SOWER: THE OPERA (world premiere, International Tour). New York: Manhattan Theatre Club, Public Theater Under the Radar, BAM Next Wave, Soho Rep. Regional: Yale Rep, Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Philadelphia Theatre Co, Cincinnati Playhouse, Goodman, Denver Center, CTG, ACT, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival. International: Singapore, France, UAE, Holland, Canada, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bali. Upcoming: THE FAR COUNTRY (world premiere, Atlantic Theater Co); BETWEEN TWO KNEES (Seattle Rep). Awards: OBIE, TBA Awards, Connecticut Critics Circle Awards.

The 1491s are an intertribal Indigenous sketch comedy troupe. Dallas Goldtooth (Mdewakanton Dakota-Diné), Sterlin Harjo (Seminole-Muscogee), Migizi Pensoneau (Ponca-Ojibwe), Ryan RedCorn (Osage Nation), and Bobby Wilson (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) originally combined their talents to create comedic videos for YouTube. Their first video, a Twilight parody called “New Moon Wolf Pack Auditions,” went viral in 2009 as have many of their subsequent videos. The 1491s have since solidified their place in popular culture as individuals appearing on hit TV series’ Drunk History (Comedy Central), What We Do in The Shadows (FX), and Rutherford Falls (NBC Peacock) and collectively as writers/producers/performers on the hit series Reservation Dogs (FX) created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi. So please enjoy our play. Or don’t! We’ll be just fine either way.

The 1491s are an intertribal Indigenous sketch comedy troupe. Dallas Goldtooth (Mdewakanton Dakota-Diné), Sterlin Harjo (Seminole-Muscogee), Migizi Pensoneau (Ponca-Ojibwe), Ryan RedCorn (Osage Nation), and Bobby Wilson (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) originally combined their talents to create comedic videos for YouTube. Their first video, a Twilight parody called “New Moon Wolf Pack Auditions,” went viral in 2009 as have many of their subsequent videos. The 1491s have since solidified their place in popular culture as individuals appearing on hit TV series’ Drunk History (Comedy Central), What We Do in The Shadows (FX), and Rutherford Falls (NBC Peacock) and collectively as writers/producers/performers on the hit series Reservation Dogs (FX) created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi. So please enjoy our play. Or don’t! We’ll be just fine either way.

Jennifer Bobiwash grew up in Robinson Huron Treaty Territory and is a proud member of Mississauga First Nation.  She has appeared in world premiere productions of Fairly Traceable by Mary Kathryn Nagle, Bingo Hall by Dillon Chitto (Native Voices), They Don’t Talk Back by Frank Henry Kaash Katasse (Native Voices and La Jolla Playhouse), Devilfish by Vera Starbard and Whalesong by Cathy Tagnak Rexford (Perseverance Theatre) as well as Yale Rep and on Tour in Northern Alaska.  TV credits include; The Power, Magnum P.I. and Rutherford Falls. Jennifer is also a voice actor, who has had the opportunity to narrate children’s books as well as speak her traditional language as a 7-year-old.   

Regional: As You Like It (La Jolla Playhouse); Between Two Knees (Yale Repertory Theater); The Swindlers (Baltimore Center Stage); Between Two Knees, As You Like It, Henry V, Love's Labour's Lost (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Film: And Then There Was Eve, Smiley Face Killers. TV: New Amsterdam (NBC). Voiceover: Marvel's Wastelanders: Wolverine (Red Skull), A Simple Herstory (Susan B. Anthony). She moonlights as a photographer and makes music to keep sane.

DEREK GARZA (He/Him) is a Native American/Mexican DC-based actor with his M.F.A. in acting from Penn State University. Recent theatre credits include People, Places & Things at Studio Theatre, The Swindlers and Our Town at Baltimore Center Stage, Between Two Knees at Yale Rep, Mother Road at Arena Stage, Othello, Romeo & Juliet, As You Like It and the world premiere of Between Two Knees at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Other theaters include Native Earth, American Repertory Theater, TimeLine Theatre, Victory Gardens, Chicago Dramatist, Video Cabaret and Steppenwolf to name a few. Derek can also be seen in TV/Films like ABC's Betrayal; NBC's Chicago Fire, Jimortal (Pilot), PowerBook II: Ghost and Canal Street. You can find out more about Derek at www.derekgarza.com. 

[A proud citizen of the Menominee (Omāēqnomenēw) Nation of Wisconsin, writer/actor Justin “Jud” Eagle Gauthier studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he earned an MFA in screenwriting. Jud provides audiences across the nation a unique worldview as an indigenous actor with undeniable pop culture acuity. Jud would like to say wāēwāēnan to all his family, friends, cast mates, crew, and audiences for helping him to become a better storyteller.]  

Shyla Lefner is an actor, writer and comedian based out of Los Angeles and is of mixed heritage (Afro-Indigenous, European, of Pamunkey and Choctaw descent). She is thrilled to be making her MacCarter Theatre debut! Recent credits include Between Two Knees, Manahatta (Yale Rep); The Cymbeline Project, Alice in Wonderland, Henry V, Between Two Knees, and The Way the Mountain Moved (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The Door You Never Saw Before (Geffen Playhouse TYA); Fairly Traceable, Off the Rails, The Frybread Queen (Native Voices at the Autry). Readings and workshops: Sovereignty (Theatre for a New Audience); Wonderland (Dramatists Guild); (w)holeness (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Ackia: The Complete Epic (Idyllwild Native Arts Festival); Ungipamsuuka: My Story, Our Voices Will Be Heard (La Jolla Playhouse). Some film credits include Lies and Alibis, Whatever It Takes, Grace, Woo. Affiliations: Native Voices Artists Ensemble. @shylalefner

Stephen “Wotko” Long is known among the Muscogee people as a songkeeper of the hymns that have been passed down from times before the removal. He was taught by his father and mother to sing and lift people up with the strength and love of the ancestors with the songs in the Mvskoke language.
Wotko was featured in the documentary, “This May Be The Last Time” as well as the film, “Mekko” by Sterlin Harjo. He debuted on the stage in the 1491’s play “Between Two Knees” at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. Wotko has shared his knowledge of traditional culture in the Legacy camps for children and is devoted to getting
away from plastics and styrofoam. He is an avid cook with an eye and heart for preparing tribal foods that nourish the body and soul.
He plays “Wotko” in the acclaimed series Reservation Dogs.

The tallest Asian you’ve seen on this stage; James is thrilled to rejoin B2K and make his McCarter debut, having originated his roles in the world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he’s been a company member for 7 seasons. Other OSF: Cambodian Rock Band; Vietgone; Peter and the Starcatcher; The Tempest; Revenge Song; It’s Christmas, Carol!; The Cymbeline Project; As You Like It; Othello; Snow in Midsummer; Shakespeare in Love; Disney’s Beauty and the Beast; The Winter’s Tale. Other theatres: Cambodian Rock Band (La Jolla Playhouse); Vietgone (Seattle Rep); Fat Pig (SpeakEasy Theatre Company); Romeo and Juliet (American Repertory Theater); Hamlet (New Art Theatre); Love’s Labour’s Lost (Huntington Theatre Company); Arms and the Man (Lyric Stage Company); The Taming of the Shrew (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); Julius Caesar (Gamaliel Theatre Company). Film/TV: American Sniper, American Housewife, The Kill Corporation, Evidence, This Is Mortal Combat, Dark House, Shuttle, Mighty Med, The Young and The Restless, General Hospital, Anger Management, The Mentalist, Days of Our Lives, NCIS: Los Angeles, How I Met Your Mother, CSI:Miami, NCIS. Training: BFA in Acting, University of Oklahoma. @jamesryen Hoka Hey! 

Shaun Taylor-Corbett (William/Ensemble/Original Choreography) I’Pyooksisstsiiko’om is proud to be a mixed-race artist of AmskapiPikunni (Blackfeet), Scandinavian, and Black heritage as well as being a member of the Kaa NuxIm mii Taaks (Blackfeet Crazy Dog Society). He was in the original production of In the Heights on Broadway and closed the show in the role of Sonny. He played Frankie Valli in the 2nd National Tour of Jersey Boys, Juan in Altar Boyz Off-Broadway, and Usnavi/Sonny in In the Heights on the First National Tour. Bedlam Theatre Company member (Crucible, The Winter's Tale, Bedlam: the Series). His original Indigenous musical, "Distant Thunder," received its first production in 2022 with Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma at First Americans Museum, and will tour in 2023. For more information go to www.distantthunderthemusical.com. Oregon Shakespeare Festival, three seasons. Shaun is the voice of Coyote on the Netflix series Spirit Rangers. He co-narrated There There by Tommy Orange, nominated for an Audie Award in 2019, and recently narrated The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, also nominated for an Audie. TV/Film: Hi-5, Discovery Kids, Supremacy, Gamer’s Guide, All My Children. 

Irma-Estel Laguerre (Nahua/Tarascan/Arawak) is an actor, singer, story teller, writer. She has a number of lead roles on Broadway, such as Lady Thiang in The King and I and as the Mother and Ballad of Return soloist in Juan Darien. Ms. Laguerre has been cast in numerous Off Broadway productions like, Black Elk Speaks, Suenos, Everyday A Visitor, Night Over Taos. Regional theater work includes, Man of La Mancha, The Fantasticks and has been featured in touring productions in Europe, Middle East, South & Central America and Canda. Her more recent Television credits include “The Undoing” (HBO), “Manifest” (Netflix), “Ray Donovan” (HBO), “Rosa’s New Life Café” (PBS), “War That Made America” (PBS). She has appeared in many feature films, the latest as Namor’s Older Mother in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”. Ms. Laguerre is featured on the CD “ Indigenous Music Of The Americas” as well as other musical recordings and operated her own voice and performance studio for serious students of any age. She performs at Museums, Festivals, Pow Wows and Organizations like “Native American Playwrights Festival, First Nations Development Institute, Police Athletic League, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum and Drums Along The Hudson. Ms. Laguerre is the Director Children’s Cultural Center of Native America, an educational project that debunks stereotypes and provides students with a true account of the past, present and future of Native Peoples, combining performance art with puppetry, Indigenous Languages and interactive presentations. Always striving to combine activism with her art and her commitment to the community, Ms. Laguerre considers herself an ARTivist. 

Nikcoma Lee Mahkewa recently burst onto national media playing multiple roles in the hit Discovery+ series Book of Queer.  Previously, Nikcoma honed his craft on stage in Kansas City and Las Vegas in productions such as Godspell and Spring Awakening. Upon arriving in Los Angeles at beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, Nikcoma pivoted to voiceover work in promos and PSAs, and in the animated series Superhero Kindergarten starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Nikcoma has recently studied acting at The Ivana Chubbuck Studio, whose namesake wrote the best-seller The Power of the Actor, which inspired Nikcoma’s acting career. 

KholanStudi was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ever since he was a child, Kholan loved entertaining folks and making them laugh and feel. In 2012, Kholan moved to Los Angeles to attend The American Academy of Dramatic Arts where he completed his studies in 2015. Since then, Kholan has worked in many productions with Native Voices at The Autry including They Don’t Talk Back by Frank Henry KaashKatasse and Bingo Hall by Dillon Chitto. Kholan was also honored to play Elias Boudinot in a production of Sovereignty by Mary Katherine Nagle at Marine Theater Company in 2019. During the pandemic, Kholan took part in Perseverance Theatre’s production of Spirit of the Valley by Frank Henry KaashKatasse. Most recently, Kholan lent his voice to Native Voices at the Autry Presents: The Adventures of Super Indian by Arigon Starr. In 2022, Kholan was an understudy for Between 2 Knees by the 1491’s where he lived every actors nightmare by takin the stage for part of the run. Kholan would like to send his love and support to all those affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic. The only way out of this is together. 

(she/her) MARIBEL TORRES was born and raised in California’s Central Valley, where her love for the performing arts began. When she was a child, her and her siblings would make movies using their parents old-school 90’s camcorder. It wasn’t until Maribel’s older sister took her to see her first play, Dracula, that she became serious about pursuing acting. Maribel is now an actor, writer, dancer, and musician with a B.A. in Theater Performance. An Irene Ryan double-nominee and semi-finalist, some of her projects and trainings have taken place in the West Coast and as far as Ireland. In her free time, she enjoys going to Barnes and Noble, trying new foods, going on road trips, and playing with her two dogs. She would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who made this magical moment possible.