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 traveled the country and the world sharing their satirical, stereotype-busting humor through live performances, panels, discussions, and appearances on major media outlets including The Daily Show on Comedy Central, Al Jazeera, and National Public Radio. They have also used their talents to address social and legislative issues, such as the full inclusion of Indigenous women in the Violence Against Women Act.

Eric Ting directed the world premiere of Lloyd Suh’s The Far Country at Atlantic Theatre Company in 2022, the same year he staged Between Two Knees by the 1491s at Yale Rep. His Off-Broadway credits include work at Manhattan Theatre Club, Soho Rep, Public Theater, Signature Theatre, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Regional: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Long Wharf Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Alliance Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Round House Theatre. International: Singapore Repertory Theatre, Singapore International Festival of Arts, NYU Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Center, Holland Festival. Awards: OBIE Award, TBA Awards, Connecticut Critics Circle Awards.

Ty Defoe (Giizhig), indigiqueer/2S+ citizen of the Oneida/Ojibwe Nations. A director, writer, interdisciplinary artist, and Grammy Award winner. Ty aspires to an interweaving and glitterizing approach to artistic projects with social justice, indiqueering, and environmental-ism. Ty’s global cultural arts highlights: the Millennium celebration in Cairo, Egypt; International Music Festival, Ankara, Turkey; and Festival of World Cultures in Dubai. Awards: Global Indigenous Heritage Festival Award, Jonathan Larson Award, First Peoples Cultural Capital Fellow, Helen Merrill Playwriting Award 2021, and finalist at the Cordillera International Film Festival for We Will Always Be Here. Works created and authored: Trail and Tears (w/ Dawn Avery), River of Stone, Red Pine, The Way They Lived, Ajijaak on Turtle Island, Hear Me Say My Name, The Lesson (w/ Avi Amon and Nolan Doran), and Firebird Tattoo, among others. Current release of VR and digital media projects ANAKWAD (w/ Dov Heichemer and _alpha), CIRCLE, and Strong Like Flower (w/ Katherine Freer). An artEquity facilitator, co-founder of Indigenous Direction (w/ Larissa FastHorse). Member of All My Relations Collective, whose GIZHIBAA GIIZHIG | Revolving Sky was presented at The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival. Publications: Casting a Movement, Pitkin Review, Thorny Locust Magazine, HowlRound, and Routledge Press, The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays for the Stage. Degrees from CalArts, Goddard College, and NYU Tisch. Director: The Winer Bear (Perseverance Theater), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Arizona Shakespeare Company). Movement Direction: Mother Road, directed by Bill Rauch (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Manahatta, directed by Laurie Woolery (OSF and Yale Rep); and choreographer for Tracy Letts’s The Minutes (Broadway). Ty appeared on the Netflix show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and in Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men, directed by Anna Shapiro (Broadway debut). Lives in NYC + loves the color clear. He|We, allmyrelations.earth, tydefoe.com

Regina García is a Chicago-based scenic designer from Puerto Rico. She has long standing relationships with the renowned Latinx teatros including Repertorio Español, Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Teatro Vista, and Pregones Theater. She has also completed projects for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Players Theatre, Goodman Theatre, and most recently Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, among others; upcoming shows at American Players Theater and the Guthrie. Regina is a Fellow of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers and the Princess Grace Awards, USA; a regional associate member of the League of Professional Theatre Women; and company member with both Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Chicago, and Boundless Theatre Company, San Juan/New York. She is the Head of the Scenic Design program at The Theatre School, DePaul University, and a founding organizational member of La Gente: The Latinx/é Theatre Production Network. garciaportfolio.com

is a New York-based costume designer for theater, film, opera, and dance. Credits include Between Two Knees (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Native Gardens (Syracuse Stage, Geva Theatre, Portland Center Stage); Ajijaack on Turtle Island (New Victory Theater); Well Intentioned White People (Barrington Stage Company); The Lover, The Collection (University of Rochester); The Review or How to Eat Your Opposition (WP Theater); ¡Figaro! (90210) (The Duke on 42nd Street/Ragman Ventures); Destiny of Desire (Garden Theatre); Nibbler (The Amoralists/Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Crossing the Line (Amphibian Stage Productions); The Fairy Queen (Hofstra University); Fall River, Syncopation, Trayf (Penguin Rep Theatre); Hair, Echoes and Nibbles of the Sun, The Seagull (NYU); A Lesson from Aloes (The Juilliard School); The Road to Damascus (59E59); Leave Me Green (The Gym at Judson); The Winter’s Tale (The New School); The Erlkings (Theatre Row); Rock & Roll Refugee, Love/Sick (Royal Family); Powwow Highway (Amerinda/HERE); others. Film: #TEXIT; Look Closer (Can’t You See the Signs), Violation, Across the Sea, A Teacher’s Reward, Deluge. Education: M.F.A., design for stage and film, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.

Credits include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Blues for an Alabama Sky (Mark Taper Forum); Indecent, Rattlesnake Kate (Denver Center for the Performing Arts); Office Hour starring Sandra Oh (South Coast Repertory Theatre); The Cake (La Jolla Playhouse); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Sell/Buy/Date, Play Dead directed by Teller (The Geffen Playhouse); Rock of Ages (5th Avenue Theatre). World premieres include works by Academy Award winner Lucy Alibar, Kemp Powers, Julia Cho, and Michael Mitnick. Elizabeth is the assistant professor of lighting design at the University of Southern California.

is a sound designer and composer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Work at theaters: Woman Laughing Alone with Salad, The Events (Shotgun Players); Sweat, Vietgone (American Conservatory Theater); A Thousand Splendid Suns (American Conservatory Theater, Theatre Calgary, Grand Theater, The Old Globe); Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (American Conservatory Theater, Guthrie Theater); Everybody (California Shakespeare Theatre); Angels in America, An Octoroon (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); we, the invisibles (Actors Theatre of Louisville); The Christians (Playwrights Horizons, Mark Taper Forum); Girlfriend (Kirk Douglas Theatre), others. Awards: recipient of the 2004 Princess Grace Award for Sound Design. Other: Creator of Cricket, a mobile theatre sound design and playback software program; acoustic adviser. Education: sound design internship, American Conservatory Theater; San Francisco State University School of Theatre and Dance.

Original Songs in Between Two Knees

In five seasons at OSF: Between Two Knees, The Book of Will, The Way the Mountain Moved, Shakespeare in Love, Twelfth Night, Vietgone, The Comedy of Errors. Broadway: Chinglish (Longacre Theatre). Off-Broadway/New York: Knickerbocker, Before Your Very Eyes (The Public Theater); The Who’s Tommy (Abrons Art Center). Regional: Snow Child (premiere, Arena Stage); The Great Leap (premiere, Denver Center for the Performing Arts/Seattle Repertory Theatre); Refugia (Guthrie Theater); Gem of the Ocean, Chinglish (South Coast Repertory); The Mountaintop (Trinity Repertory Company); Buyer and Cellar (Pittsburgh Public Theater); Chasing Rainbows (premiere), Miss Saigon, FLY (Flat Rock Playhouse); Chinglish (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Tarzan (North Shore Music Theatre); The Other Place, Great Gatsby, Sing the Rising Sea (premiere) (Virginia Stage Company). Opera: Prima Donna (New York City Opera) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Symphony Space). Tours: An Evening with Pacino (U.S., international); P.J Masks, Alvin and the Chipmunks Live!, Super Why! Live!, Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! (U.S.); Chinglish (Hong Kong Arts Festival); Las Vegas: Frankie Moreno: Under the Influence; Paul Zerdin: Mouthing Off; Puppet Up: Uncensored.

Younghawk’s unique approach to hair and beauty is a hybrid of classic shapes combined with modern styling techniques to produce work that evokes a timeless, chic appeal—an approach fueled by iconic images from film and fashion and the arts. His impressive resume of experience is rooted in specific training with Goldwell Color, L’Oréal, Wella, Bumble and Bumble, and Vidal Sassoon. His level of education has formed his well-rounded approach to hairdressing, pleasing many clients and creative collaborators alike throughout his career. His most recent work has included a role as an Educator of Barbering and Cosmetology at the renowned Arrojo Cosmetology School in NYC. He was also a hair team member for Motown: The Musical on tour and Wicked on Broadway.

Julie Felise Dubiner is the Artistic Initiatives Consultant at McCarter Theatre and is a dramaturg, producer, and mentor. She has freelanced around the country and was on staff at American Revolutions/Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and the Prince Music Theater. Among her dramaturgy credits are The Copper Children by Karen Zacarías, Between Two Knees by the 1491s, Sweat by Lynn Nottage, Indecent by Paula Vogel, and The Liquid Plain by Naomi Wallace. She is the co-creator of Rock & Roll: The Reunion Tour, co-author of The Process of Dramaturgy, and a contributor to Diversity, Inclusion, and Representation in Contemporary Dramaturgy, The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy, Innovation in Five Acts, and other publications and podcasts.

Cameron Camden is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate in the Technical Design and Production Program at David Geffen School of Drama. He is excited to bring a show to the stage for Yale Rep after previously serving as the technical director for Testmatch which was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. Credits at the Geffen School include Bodas de Sangre and Manning (Production Manager), Seven Spots on the Sun (Assistant Technical Direction), and the 2019 Carlotta Festival of New Plays (Assistant Technical Direction). He has previously worked at several theatres including The Juilliard School, Ohio Light Opera, and Potsdam Music Theatre. Cam is originally from Michigan and holds a B.A. in theater arts-technical direction from the University of Miami.

Grace Zandarski is Associate Chair of the Acting program and Head of Voice and Text at David Geffen School of Drama, where she has taught Voice since 2002. She has coached numerous productions at Yale Rep and the Geffen School including The Brightest Thing in the World, An Enemy of the People, Hamlet, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Between Two Knees. New York coaching credits include Mike Nichols’s productions of Death of a Salesman and Betrayal (Broadway), The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide… (The Public Theater), and Homebody/Kabul (BAM). She was named Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework in 1998. Grace is Co-Artistic Director of The Actors Center Workshop Company, a company member of Pantheatre (Paris), SAG-AFTRA, AEA, and VASTA. Acting credits include McCarter Theatre, OSF Ashland, Wilma Theatre, and ACT. Directing credits include the Peer Gynt Project and Chekhov Shorts. M.F.A., American Conservatory Theater; B.A., Princeton University.

Rod Kinter is honored to be continuing this journey with these incredible artists. A NYC-based fight director, Rod’s credits include the Broadway and first national tour of The Lightning Thief: the Percy Jackson Musical; Live from Lincoln Center: Porgy and Bess (New York City Opera); nine seasons as the Resident Fight Director at the Pearl Theatre; and shows at The Lucille Lortell, Lynn Redgrave, The Mint, The Minetta Lane, Signature, and the East 13th Street Playhouse. Rod was the Resident Fight Director for New York City Opera from 1995 to 2010. Regional credits: ART, The Cleveland Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, The McCarter, The Barter Theatre, Glimmerglass Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and Shakespeare on the Sound. Rod is on faculty at AMDA teaching Stage Combat. rodkinter.com

Kelsey Rainwater is an intimacy coach, fight director, and actress based out of the ancestral lands of the Quinnipiac people. Kelsey’s work was recently seen in the premiere of Sally & Tom at the Guthrie. Some of her other credits include In the Southern Breeze at Rattlestick, The Public Theater’s Measure for Measure and White Noise by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Oskar Eustis; Blues for an Alabama Sky with the Keen Company; Bess Wohl’s film, Baby Ruby; Wish You Were Here, A Raisin in the Sun (canceled due to COVID-19), Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, and the ripple, the wave that carried me home at Yale Rep. She is a Lecturer in acting at David Geffen School of Drama, co-teaches stage combat and intimacy, and is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep.

Tara Rubin, C.S.A. has been casting at Yale Rep since 2004. Selected Broadway/National Tours: KPOP, Mr. Saturday Night, Six, Ain’t Too Proud, King Kong, The Band’s Visit, Prince of Broadway, Indecent, Bandstand, Sunset Boulevard, Miss Saigon, Dear Evan Hansen, A Bronx Tale, Cats, Falsettos, School of Rock, Les Misérables, The Heiress, The Phantom of the Opera, Billy Elliot, Shrek, Spamalot, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Producers, Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys. Off-Broadway: Gloria: A Life, Smokey Joe’s Café, Jersey Boys, Here Lies Love. Regional: Paper Mill Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Bucks County Playhouse, Westport Country Playhouse. Film: Billy Crystal’s Here Today.  tararubincasting.com

(she/her) 15 seasons at OSF. Other theatres: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum (including Taper Too, Taper New Works, Juneteenth, P.L.A.Y.), Ojai Playwrights Conference, Geffen Playhouse, Huntington Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodman Theatre, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Cleveland Play House, Ahmanson Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Pasadena Playhouse, Intiman Theatre, A.S.K. Theatre Projects. Film/TV: Terri (Sundance Film Festival), Easier with Practice (Cinevegas, Edinburgh Film Festivals), Stephanie Daley (Sundance, Deauville Film Festival), The Business of Strangers (Sundance, Deauville), Interview with the Assassin (Tribeca Film Festival), The Tao of Steve (Sundance), Lush (Sundance), The Independent (HBO/U.S Comedy Arts Festival), Perdita Durango (Toronto Film Festival), Quarterlife (Bedford Falls Productions/ NBC), The Men’s Room (NBC), Off Centre (The WB), The Mullets (UPN). Teaching: Adjunct professor, California Institute of the Arts. Education: BA, Smith College

R. Réal Vargas Alanis they/them, inde/ima, elle/elles (P’urhépecha) (Associate Director) is an indigenous, queer, entrepreneur from the barrio of Winton, California (Yokut) creating art, doing magic, and officiating weddings. Réal is the current Artistic Director of In The Margin, leading an ensemble of intersectional QT,BIPOC artists focusing on new works centering social justice uplifting marginalized stories. Réal upholds taking action as opposed to “listening” while incorporating artistic skill sets to aid in front line activism. Réal was among the inaugural cohort of the National New Play Network’s Bridge Program and was an Executive Producer for The New American Theatre Festival developing ten new works. On their off time, they run their family business Sexii Tacos: “Where the Tacos are Sexii and so are you!” Director: Exhaustion by Fran A. (Latinx Theatre Commons). Solo Performance: A Little Bit of Gay (Latinx Theatre Commons). Playwright/Associate Director: Braided (Theatre of Yugen, Theatreworks, Cal Shakes, ITM). Playwright: La Demanda: A Call to Action (ITM, B St., NNPN). Associate Director: Missing by Marie Clements and Brian Current, directed by Shannon Davis (Anchorage Opera). Actor: La Comedia of Errors adapted by Bill Rauch and Lydia G. Garcia (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). IG: @realvalanis @sexiitacos @inthemargin_itm

Amanda Nita Luke (Choctaw/Cherokee) (Stage Manager) has worked on the Stage Management teams of Kamloopa (WAM Theatre), Manahatta (Yale Repertory Theatre), Soledad (AICH), Ady (AICH), Arbeka (Native Voices), We Will Always Be Here (Cooper Union), Radio Island (Powerhouse Theater), The Metromaniacs (Redbull Theater), Sense and Sensibility (The Old Globe), Peter Pan (Syracuse Stage), Baskerville (Syracuse Stage), The Underpants (Syracuse Stage), and The Bomb-itty of Errors (Redhouse Arts Center). This summer Amanda is a part of the producing team for Live in America, producing a 2Spirit/Indigiqueer Pop-Up Powwow in Bentonville, Arkansas. Member, Actors’ Equity Association.

Edward Astor Chin has appeared in The Headlands (Lincoln Center Theater), Vietgone (Alley Theatre), Small Mouth Sounds (national tour), Veil Widow Conspiracy (New York Theatre Workshop/National Asian American Theatre Company), True West (Curious Frog), The Brig (Living Theatre). Other credits include productions at Roundabout, Ars Nova, Ma-Yi, Woodshed, ACT, Long Wharf, Barrington, Philadelphia Company, Northern Stage. Film and television: Lincoln Rhyme, Manifest, Elementary, Jessica Jones, Person of Interest, Limitless, Feed the Beast, Mysteries of Laura, Set it Up (Netflix). Upcoming: City on a Hill season 3 and Maria Schrader’s She Said this fall.

Rachel Crowl is an actor, musician, and photographer based wherever the next gig takes her. In two seasons at Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Duke Senior and Ensemble in As You Like It; Ensemble in Between Two Knees; Music Captain for As You Like It and Between Two Knees; Pistol, Sir Thomas Grey, Governor of Harfleur, Chorus, and Ensemble in Henry V (mid-May to October 2018); Marcade, Musician, and Ensemble in Love’s Labor’s Lost. Other theater: Fool 1 in The Swindlers (Baltimore Center Stage); Witch/Murderer/Gentlewoman in Macbeth (Stars in the House). Film: And Then There Was Eve and The Smiley Face Killers. In another life she did a whole lot of theater Off-Broadway.

Derek Garza is a First Nations/Latino (Tribal affiliation: Wichita/Comanche) DC-based actor with his M.F.A. in acting from Penn State University. He recently finished two seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where he was seen in Othello, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, and the world premiere of Between Two Knees. Other theaters include North Carolina Stage Company, Theatre for a New Audience, 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 television and films such as ABC’s Betrayal; NBC’s Chicago Fire, PowerBook II: Ghost, and Canal Street. derekgarza.com

Justin Gauthier – 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 M.F.A. in screenwriting. Jud provides audiences across the nation a wholly unique worldview as an indigenous cultural ambassador with undeniable pop culture acuity. Jud would like to say wāēwāēnan (thank you) to all his family, friends, cast mates, crew, and audiences for helping him to become a better storyteller.

Shyla Lefner (of Choctaw, Pamunkey descent) returns to Yale Rep, where she was seen in Manahatta. Recent credits include 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); Fairly Traceable, Off the Rails, The Frybread Queen (Native Voices at the Autry); 50 Years On (Will & Company); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Urban Theatre Movement). 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). Stand-up: Hollywood Improv, The Comedy Store, Ice House, and LA Skins Fest Native Sketch Comedy Showcase. Some film credits include Lies and Alibis, Whatever It Takes, Grace, Woo. Affiliations: Native Voices Artists Ensemble.

Wotko Long is recognized as a song keeper of the Muskoke language. He has also appeared in the documentary This May Be the Last Time directed by Sterlin Harjo. He played a homeless native man in the film called Mekko, who with a friend tried to find their way back to the traditional ways. He was recognized as a living legend from the Muskoke nation and is now in the series Reservation Dog directed by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, with the help of The 1491s’ comedy team.

Shaun Taylor-Corbett 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 Second National Tour of Jersey Boys, Juan in Altar Boyz Off-Broadway, and Usnavi and Sonny in In the Heights on the First National Tour as well as in the Broadway company. He is a Bedlam Theatre Company member (The Crucible, Hedda Gabler, The Winter’s Tale, Bedlam: the Series). His original Indigenous musical, Distant Thunder, received its first production in March 2022 with Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma at First Americans Museum. The show is based on Shaun’s deep connection with the Blackfeet community in Browning, Montana. Other credits include three seasons at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Shaun co-narrated There There by Tommy Orange, which was nominated for an Audie Award in 2019, and recently narrated The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, also nominated for an Audie. Television/film: Hi-5, Discovery Kids, Supremacy, Gamer’s Guide, All My Children.

(Stockbridge-Munsee/Menominee) is a writer, director, and actress with many film, television and theater credits to her name including appearances in Signature Theater and Magic Theater’s The Late Henry Moss by Sam Shepard; Marie in Joanne Akalaitis’s Woyzcek at The Public Theater, and in the Guthrie Theater in Marsha Norman’s adaptation of Louise Erdrich’s The Master Butchers Singing Club. She was a Drama Desk Nominee for acting and is also a company member at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.