Public Theater Features AMERINDA's THIEVES, 8/3-14

The Public Theater will host the American Indian Artists Inc. (AMERINDA) production of THIEVES, written by William S. YellowRobe, Jr. (Assiniboine) and directed by AMERINDA Theater Artistic Director Steve Elm (Oneida). Making its world premiere, THIEVES will run at The Public Theater from Wednesday, August 3 through Sunday, August 14. All tickets for this AMERINDA production are $15.

THIEVES is a story about searching. Set in a powwow in a Brooklyn high school, deals are made, souls are compromised, love blossoms, and identity is sought after and redemption is found. At times laugh-out-loud funny and at times frighteningly brutal, this world premiere by William S. YellowRobe, Jr. highlights the absurdity of the urban Indian's dual existence.

The cast for THIEVES will feature Veracity Butcher as Marie St. Germaine-Baker; Dylan Carusona (Ojibway/Turtle Clan Oneida) as Slough Jared Montour; Neimah Djourabchi as Sanjay Sahar; James Fall (Mohican) as Quick Brant; Sheri Graubert as Naomi Celestine Andes; Andy Kirtland as Calvin Johnson; Nancy McDoniel (Chickasaw) as Princess Small Running Water; Gloria Miguel (Kuna/Rappahannock) as Teresa Baker; Elizabeth Rolston (Cherokee/Chippewa) as Janice Martin; Elizabeth Ruelas as Delores Powless; and Christopher Salazar as Henry Decamps.

WILLIAM S. YELLOWROBE, JR. (Playwright) is an Assiniboine playwright, director, poet, actor, writer, and educator from the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Northeastern Montana. He is a Libra Professor at the University of Maine and a Faculty Affiliate of the Creative Writing Department at the University of Montana in Missoula. He has completed an anthology of his plays entitled Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, and Other Untold Stories and is the author of Where the Pavement Ends, a collection of his one-act plays. He is in-residence at AMERINDA Theater, a member of the Penumbra Theater Company, Ensemble Studio Theater and on the Board of Advisors for Red Eagle Soaring Theater Company of Seattle, Washington. He is a recipient of the First Nations Book Award for Drama, the first playwright to receive a Princess Grace Foundation Theater Fellowship, a Jerome, and a New England Theater Foundation Award for Excellence.

Steve Elm (Director) is the Artistic Director of AMERINDA Theater and has worked in the arts on both sides of the Atlantic. Trained at London's Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, Elm, a member of the Oneida Nation, has appeared as an actor in film, television and on the stage. As a playwright and director, he has worked with London's Fourplay Theater, University of Manchester (England), Chuka Lokoli Native Theater Ensemble, American Indian Community House Youth Theater Project, and Amerinda Theater. With Gloria Miguel of Spiderwoman Theater, he co-wrote her solo piece Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, which he directed at New York Theater Workshop, La MaMa, ETC., and the Freed Center in Ada, Ohio. Elm's most recent work was as curator, facilitator and director of Ohio Northern University's Ninth Annual International Theater Festival where, in conjunction with AMERINDA Theater, he presented a program of contemporary Native theater featuring the work of playwrights Eric Gansworth and Vicki Ramirez.

AMERICAN INDIAN ARTISTS INC. (AMERINDA) (Steve Elm, Artistic Director) is the only independent multi-disciplinary arts organization serving emerging and established Native American artists in New York City. Since its inception in 1987, AMERINDA has been offering a community of encouragement and assistance to Native American artists pursuing professional careers. Uniquely positioned as the only American Indian arts organization of its kind in the United States, AMERINDA actively promotes the indigenous perspective in the arts to a broad audience through the creation of new work in contemporary art forms: performing, visual, media and literary. 

AMERINDA's production of THIEVES begins performances on Wednesday, August 3 and continues through Sunday, August 14 at The Public Theater. All tickets are only $15. Seating is general admission.

The performance schedule for THIEVES is Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m. (There will be no performance on Monday, August 8.) There will be a performance on Tuesday, August 9 at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by calling 212-967-7555 , by visiting www.publictheater.org, or in person at The Public Theater box office. The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street.

Photo Credit: Troy Paul (Maliseet)