Madeline Sayet

Last updated

Madeline Sayet (born July 1, 1989) is an American director and writer. She grew up in Norwich and Uncasville, Connecticut. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Sayet was brought up on stories and traditions of the Mohegan tribe from her great-aunt Gladys Tantaquidgeon, former Medicine Woman, and her mother, Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel ( née Melissa Jayne Fawcett), current Medicine Woman. Sayet holds ancestral ties to Fidelia Fielding who was the last fluent speaker of the Mohegan language, and died in 1908. These ties serve as an influence for much of her work. [2]

From an early age, oral traditions and storytelling all played a major role in her work. In high school, Sayet took part at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center's National Puppetry Conference. Post graduation, she went on to study under the Atlantic Theater Company at New York University as part of the Tisch School of the Arts. After receiving her BFA in Theater, she continued her studies as part of the graduate program, where she received her MA in Arts Politics and Post-Colonial Theory, at NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. [3] During this time, she co-founded and directed the Mad & Merry Theatre Company. [3] Sayet adapted classical pieces to incorporate her own culture. [4] She also has an MA in Shakespeare from The Shakespeare Institute in Stratford Upon Avon, UK.[ citation needed ]

Career

Madeline Sayet is currently the Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program. [5] In 2018, she was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Hollywood & Entertainment for her work as a stage director, reimagining the classics. [6] Early in Sayet's directing and writing career, she remade the Shakespeare classic "The Tempest" by incorporating Mohegan language and culture. This production served as her graduate thesis at New York University and was brought onstage at the Brooklyn Lyceum. [1] While at NYU, Sayet launched The Mad and Merry Theatre Company, which completed three successful seasons of programming dedicated to reimagining classic stories before disbanding. During this time Sayet wrote "Daughters of Leda," a play that chronicles the stories of well-known mythological characters such as: Leda and The Swan, Adam and Eve, Helen, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia, and Electra from the female perspective, which was produced as part of the Women Center Stage Festival, the Dream Up Festival, and Dixon Place's Works-In-Progress. [7] She is the recipient of the White House Champion of Change Award for Native America for her work as a director, writer, performer and educator. [8]

In 2015 Sayet made her opera debut when she directed a new production of The Magic Flute for the Glimmerglass Opera,. [4] In 2015 she also launched the Native Shakespeare Ensemble at American Indian Artists, Inc. (Amerinda) with productions of Macbeth and The Winter's Tale. [9] Sayet also directed "Sliver of a Full Moon" by Mary Kathryn Nagle, which is a play about the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that pays tribute to the re-authorization that occurred in 2013. [10] It aims to get the audience to see Native women that were affected by violence to be seen as human beings rather than symbols.

In Mohegan, her job is called "Kutayun Uyasunaquock" which means "Our Heart She Leads Us There." [4] She is currently a TED Fellow, MIT Media Lab Director's Fellow, and National Directing Fellow. In 2021, she served as the transitional Co-Artistic Director of Red Eagle Soaring: Native Youth Theatre. [11] She served as the Resident Artistic Director at Amerinda [3] from 2013 to 2016, the Artistic Director of the Mad & Merry Theatre Company from 2011 to 2014, and has been a Van Lier Directing Fellow at Second Stage Theatre, and a Creative Community Fellow at National Arts Strategies'. [12]

In 2019, she performed her solo performance piece "Where We Belong," at Shakespeare's Globe in London, making her the first Native American playwright to have her work performed in that space. [13] "Where We Belong" was then produced as a film adaptation by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, in association with the Folger Shakespeare Library in 2021, followed by a national tour of the production, directed by Mei Ann Teo. For the Chicago run of Where We Belong at The Goodman Theatre, Sayet was nominated for the Jeff Award for Best Solo Performance. [14]

Awards

Works

Directing

Writing

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Jose Repertory Theatre</span>

The San Jose Repertory Theatre was the first resident professional theatre company in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1980 by James P. Reber. In 2008, after the demise of the American Musical Theatre of San Jose, the San Jose Rep became the largest non-profit, professional theatre company in the South Bay with an annual operating budget of $5 million. In 2006, it was saved from impending insolvency by a $2 million bailout loan from the city of San Jose; this was later restructured into a long-term loan similar to a mortgage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathryn Hunter</span> British actress

Aikaterini Hadjipateras, known professionally as Kathryn Hunter, is an American-born British actress and theatre director, known for her appearances as Arabella Figg in the Harry Potter film series, Eedy Karn on the Disney+ Star Wars spinoff series Andor, and as the Three Witches in Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth.

Michael Kahn is an American theater director and drama educator. He has, since 1986, been the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. He retired from the Shakespeare Theatre in 2019. He held the position of Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School from 1992 to 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libby Appel</span> 4th artistic director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Libby Appel served as the fourth artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) from 1995 to June 2007. Appel directed more than 25 productions at OSF, and her artistic vision influenced the 11 plays presented each year during her tenure. Despite the festival's name, she placed increased emphasis on new works. “We have made major connections with world playwrights, artists whose voices we’re particularly interested in.” Appel said. “We commission playwrights, we develop plays here; we have playwrights in residence. We’re a world force now, and I’m really proud of that.”

Frank Gouldsmith Speck was an American anthropologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples among the Eastern Woodland Native Americans of the United States and First Nations peoples of eastern boreal Canada.

The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the eastern upper Thames River valley of south-central Connecticut. It is one of two federally recognized tribes in the state, the other being the Mashantucket Pequot, whose reservation is in Ledyard, Connecticut. There are also three state-recognized tribes: the Schaghticoke, Paugusett, and Eastern Pequot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daisy von Scherler Mayer</span> American screenwriter

Daisy von Scherler Mayer, sometimes credited as Daisy Mayer, is an American film and television director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladys Tantaquidgeon</span>

Gladys Iola Tantaquidgeon was a Mohegan medicine woman, anthropologist, author, tribal council member, and elder based in Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Evans (actor)</span> Welsh actor

Daniel Gwyn Evans is a Welsh actor and director.

Gregory Doran is an English director known for his Shakespearean work. The Sunday Times called him 'one of the great Shakespearians of his generation'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dawn Monique Williams</span> American theatre director (born 1978)

Dawn Monique Williams is an American theatre director. She was born in Oakland, California, United States, and is a graduate of California State University, Hayward, San Francisco State University and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2011.

Carey Elizabeth Perloff is an American theater director, playwright, author, and educator. She was the artistic director of American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) in San Francisco from 1992 to June 2018.

Rachel Rockwell was an American theater director, choreographer and performer.

Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel is a Mohegan author, historian, and storyteller who serves as both the Medicine Woman and Tribal Historian for the Mohegan Tribe. In addition, she is executive director of the tribe's cultural and community programs department. Also a prolific writer, Zobel has published many books including the historical biography, Medicine Trail: The Life and Lessons of Gladys Tantaquidgeon, and the futuristic novel Oracles. Some publications appear under her maiden name of Melissa Jayne Fawcett.

Lorin Latarro is a Broadway Director/Choreographer whose work has been seen on Broadway and in dance companies internationally. She began her career as a dancer who performed in fourteen Broadway shows and toured with world renowned dance companies.

William Hardy was an American actor and theatre director with a lifelong career on both the stage and screen.

Larissa FastHorse is a Native American playwright and choreographer based in Santa Monica, California. FastHorse grew up in South Dakota, where she began her career as a ballet dancer and choreographer but was forced into an early retirement after ten years of dancing due to an injury. Returning to an early interest in writing, she became involved in Native American drama, especially the Native American film community. Later she began writing and directing her own plays, several of which are published through Samuel French and Dramatic Publishing. With playwright and performer Ty Defoe, FastHorse co-founded Indigenous Direction, a "consulting firm that helps organizations and individuals who want to create accurate work by, for and with Indigenous peoples." Indigenous Direction's clients include the Guthrie Theater. FastHorse is a past vice chair of the Theatre Communications Group, a service organization for professional non-profit American theatre.

Desdemona Chiang is a Taiwan-born American theatre director, and co-artistic director of Azeotrope in Seattle, WA. Her directing credits include the Guthrie Theater, Alley Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Playmakers Repertory Company, and ACT Theatre. She directs in a variety of genres, including Shakespeare, new plays, and musicals.

Rachel Sayet or Akitusu is a Mohegan tribal member and Native American educator. Sayet has a focus on food sovereignty and bringing back traditional Native foods. Sayet educated the public by giving lectures at historical societies, conferences, high schools, and universities. She educates through storytelling and discussions of Native American foods. She states in her many writings that her main goal is to expand awareness of Native New England history and culture.

Saheem Ali is a Kenyan theatre director. He is Associate Artistic Director at The Public Theater in New York City.

References

  1. 1 2 Dorsey, Kristina. "Where the Bard and Mohegans Meet". The Day. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "Champion of Change". The White House. Archived from the original on April 16, 2015. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Artist Information". Amerinda, Inc. Native American Artist Roster. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 Sayet, Madeline. "What Sort of Bridge Will You Build?". Howlround. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  5. ↑ Gonzalez, Susan (Mar 11, 2020). "Madeline Sayet: The opposite of erasure". YaleNews. Retrieved Jun 1, 2021.
  6. ↑ "One to watch: Madeline Sayet is making waves as a theater director". theday.com. 11 March 2018.
  7. ↑ BWW News Desk (November 18, 2014). "Mad & Merry Theatre Company to Present DAUGHTERS OF LEDA". Broadway World. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Champions of Change: Winning The Future Across America". The White House. Archived from the original on 16 April 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  9. ↑ "How Madeline Sayet is Transforming the Way We Think About Shakespeare". mentalfloss.com. 29 April 2016.
  10. ↑ Cabrera, Victorio (1 April 2015). "Performance explores Native American tribal justice". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  11. ↑ "Red Eagle Soaring Hires Two Co-Artistic Directors in Residence". americantheatre.org. American Theatre. February 5, 2021. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  12. ↑ Sayet, Madeline. "About Madeline Sayet". Creative Community Fellows. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  13. ↑ Khaos, Marissa. "Where We Belong at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse | Theatre review" . Retrieved Jun 1, 2021.
  14. ↑ Floyd, Thomas (June 29, 2021). "Woolly Mammoth's 'Where We Belong' speaks the languages of theater and film with equal elegance". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  15. ↑ "Madeline Sayet". forbes.com.
  16. ↑ "Person Overview ‹ Madeline Sayet". MIT Media Lab.
  17. ↑ Purcell, Carey. "Miss Lead, Featuring Nancy McDoniel and Tanis Parenteau, Will Play 59E59; Madeline Sayet to Direct". Playbill. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  18. ↑ Senier, Siobhan (2014). Dawnland Voices: Writing from Indigenous New England (First ed.). Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.