LOU BELLAMY (Co-conceiver & Producer) is the founder and artistic director of Penumbra Theatre. He has been a member of the University of Minnesota's faculty for 31 years and is currently appointed to the rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance. Recent awards include the 2007 OBIE for Direction and the 2006 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award. His most recent directing credits include Fences and The Piano Lesson at Penumbra, and A Raisin in the Sun staged at Cleveland Play House, co-produced by Penumbra, Cleveland, and Arizona Theatre. This co-production will also be staged at the Guthrie Theater this season.

WILLIAM S. YELLOW ROBE, JR. (Playwright) is an enrolled member of the Assiniboine Nation located on the Fort Peck Indian reservation in northeastern Montana.  William is the Playwright in Residence at Trinity Repertory Company and has been a Guest Lecturer/Professor at the Africana Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Yellow Robe is an actor, playwright, director, poet, and instructor.  He is a Faculty Affiliate in the Creative Writing Department at the University of Montana, in
Missoula, Montana, and was awarded a Libra Professor of Diversity status at the University of Maine, in Orono, Maine.  His body of work includes over forty-five plays, including full-length plays, one-acts, book for musical, and children’s play.  His plays include; The Independence of Eddie Rose, Sneaky, The Star Quilter, The Body Guards, The Council, Better-n-Indins Falling Distance, Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, and the Pendleton Blanket.” William is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild Inc., Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and is a member of the advisory boards for Red Eagle Soaring Theater in Seattle, Washington, and the Missoula Writers’ Collaborative in Missoula, Montana. His plays have been presented in readings and productions at the New York Public Theater, American Conservatory Theater, the former Seattle Group Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Minneapolis Playwrights’ Center, Illusion Theatre, Montana Repertory Theatre, and the Perishable Theatre. William is a recipient of  a  Theatre Communications Group National Residency Grant, Princess Grace Fellowship, Jerome Foundation Grant, New England Theatre Conference Award, and was awarded the first First Book Award for Drama from the Returning the Gift conference.

BRENT MICHAEL DAVIDS (Musical Director) is a member of the Mohican Nation and an internationally recognized composer whose music features elements of Native American tribal music combined with Western Compositional techniques.  Davids has received numerous awards from organizations such as NEA, Bush Foundation, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Sundance Institute.  Davids holds a Bachelor degree and Master degree in composition from Northern Illinois University and Arizona State University respectively.

MARY K. WINCHELL (Stage Manager) is in her 22nd season with Penumbra. Most recently, she stage managed Penumbra's Fences and Gem of the Ocean. Other Penumbra credits include The Piano Lesson, Get Ready, Black Nativity: Twenty Years of Holiday Cheer!, Seven Guitars, Jitney, Two Trains Running, King Hedley II, and Dinah Was. She has stage managed at the Orpheum Theatre, State Theatre, Pantages Theatre, Children's Theatre Company, Jungle Theater, the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Macy's Glamorama, Dorothy Hamill's Nutcracker on Ice, Aveda's 20th Anniversary Celebration at Radio City Music Hall, and Super Bowl XXVI Winter Magic.

M. COCHISE ANDERSON (Stevie Jackson) is a Chickasaw & Choctaw from Oklahoma.  He is an actor, poet, spoken word performance artist, playwright, storyteller and traditional musician.  Cochise studied at Portland (OR) State University and at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC.  He founded and was the artistic director of Chuka Lokoli (“Community”), Native American Theatre Ensemble in NY with The Ensemble Studio Theatre.  Cochise was the Performance Element instructor for this year’s Summer (Youth) Institute here at Penumbra.  He recently returned from performing in Washington D.C. at The National Museum of the American Indian and The Open House Arts Festival at the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts.  He also has a newly released CD of spoken work, traditional music and contemporary beats entitled, “The Kemosabe Therapy.”  His current full-length play, “Braided Lives,” will be read as part of the Raw Stages Festival this fall at The Great American History Theatre here in St. Paul.  His credits include, (TV) The Cosby Show, Homicide: Life On The Streets, (Film) Daughters of The Dust, Bill’s Gun Shop, and (Theatre) Canned Goods, Penumbra Theatre and originated the title role of “The Independence of Eddie Rose, Seattle Group Theatre.  He dedicates this performance in loving memory to his mother, Juanita A. Anderson, a practitioner of unconditional love, inspiring visions and dreams. www.cochise-okcha-a.com

FREEDOME BRADLEY (Elmo Robe) is artistic director, a founding member, director and actor with Creative Stages Theatre. He is one of the producers of Urban Pop a festival that creates and cultivates new Urban American Theatre. This past summer Urban Pop produced 13 shows during the month of August including Solider Boy Blue by Franco, and A Matter of 2nd’s by Herb Donaldson. Over the past two years he has been responsible for some of New York City’s new cutting edge theatre producing three very successful off-Broadway festivals and working with some incredibly talented playwrights and actors. He originated the role of Albert Parsons Jr. in Melody Coopers award winning play Day of Reckoning. In addition to Urban Pop he has produced Shade at the Abington Theatre and Frozen Bizarre at the Linhart Theatre. Freedome is a Graduate of Sarah Lawrence College’s MFA Theater Program and guest professor at Nassau Community College where he instructs theatre. He wishes to thank the Universe and everyone in it, bus especially his friends & family for giving him a home, support, guidance, and encouragement, through thick and thin.

DONNA (CROSS-COUTEAU) BROOKS (Juanita A. Jones) is a member of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma. With the help of Lee Udall and Rebecca Harkness, she began a classical ballet career in New York City. Donna portrayed Peter Pan in the touring company of Disney on Parade. She worked for Spiderwoman Theatre in NYC. When the 2nd Native American Theater Ensemble formed she met Hanay Geiogamah, Jane Lind and Marie Antoinette Rogers who encouraged her in acting. Donna starred opposite Randolph Mantooth in Footprints in Blood for AITCO in Tulsa, Ok. She and her husband Joe Cross formed Leaparrow Storytellers which includes traditional dance in performance. They were selected as two of fourteen storytellers in the Western Hemisphere to open the new NMAI Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. last September 2004. She thanks William Yellow Robe, Jr., Penumbra Theatre, and Trinity Repertory Theater for the honor of helping to tell this important, historic story. Many thanks to my tribal elders for their support, and my family especially my folks who will celebrate their 60th Wedding Anniversary this fall and my husband, Joe and “Bunny Boy” our Chihuahua.

JAMES CRAVEN (Gabriel) is a longtime Penumbra Theatre company member. He was most recently seen in Penumbra's production of Gem of the Ocean presented at the Guthrie. Other recent Penumbra credits include The Piano Lesson, REDSHIRTS, Get Ready, Zooman and the Sign, and Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers. He performed recently at Kansas City Rep Theater and Arizona Theatre Company in their joint production of Jitney. James is a 2005 recipient of the Spenser Cherashore Fund and was awarded a 2007 McKnight Fellowship.

JAKE HART (Brent Robe) This production is Mr. Hart’s first at Penumbra Theatre Company and he is honored to be here.  Jake is a company member of The Seattle Shakespeare Company and The Colorado Shakespeare Festival.  He is also an Artist/Educator for The Red Eagle Soaring Native American Theatre Group.  His most recent roles include Uncas in Edge of the World at The Seattle Repertory Theatre, and MacDuff and Hecate in Macbeth at The Peseverance Theatre Company.  Mr. Hart is humbled to be working with such an amazing cast and crew, and would like to thank everyone at Penumbra for this opportunity.

GEORGE A. KELLER ( Carol “Sugar” Robe) This is her first show with Penumbra. She is very proud to be a part of Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers cast. A few of her credits include: Yellow Woman in Black Elk Speaks, Catherine in A View from a Bridge and Tina in Tony N’ Tina’s Wedding which she played for over 5 years between Portland, Oregon and the Twin Cities. She has done numerous television commercials and industrial commercials as well films Change of Heart, Lifetime Channel and Halloween Town The Disney Channel. She would like to thank her family for all their love.

JASON TURNER (Kenny Tassel) regional acting credits include Circle of Thanks and Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock, Mashantucket Pequot Museum, CT; Harvest Ceremony: Beyond the Thanksgiving Myth, National Museum of the American Indian, NY; Time Warp, Stamford Theatre Works, CT; Hair (90’s Version), The Three Musketeers, Servant of Two Masters, Tartuffe, Fiddler on the Roof, at Connecticut Repertory Theatre. He was also in the film, Ralph Talk. Previous Trinity Rep Productions include Theater from the Four Directions Festival of New Plays from First Nations Playwrights readings of Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, Blood of the Rez: Paper Wars and The Gap.  Mr. Turner holds a B.F.A. from the University of Connecticut: School of Fine Arts, Dept. of Dramatic Arts.

MAYA WASHINGTON (August Jackson) is an actor, choreographer, writer and arts educator who lives in Minneapolis. She has appeared at The Guthrie Theater, The Children’s Theatre, The Playwrights’ Center, The Great American History Theatre, Alchemy Theater, The House of Blues Sunset Strip, The Powerhouse Theatre, and Stage 52. Maya has worked as Choreographer for Youth Performance Company’s productions of Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business, Free to Be You and Me, Freedom Riders, and Narnia. Maya holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Southern California where she received both the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival: Irene Ryan Nomination and the USC Ava Greenwald Nomination.  Maya is currently completing her thesis project at Hamline University’s MFA Writing Program in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her full-length play, South of Adams, West of Figueroa recently received a staged reading in Burbank, CA. The work is featured in the anthology, The Playwrights’ Center Monologues for Women (Heinemann Drama, 2005). A touring production of her one-act, Colorful Women of Invention, was produced at Youth Performance Company in 2003.  Maya’s poem, January First, commissioned by the Family Housing Fund, is presently featured in “Home Sweet Home Again,” a regional touring fine art and poetry exhibition.

Maggie Erickson is going into 9th Grade at South High School in Minneapolis and will enter the All Nations Program. She began dancing when she was three years old. She participated in a drum and dance group at Heart of the Earth School for eight years. Last year she was named Miss Indian Rochester in a statewide competition at Rochester’s Historical Center. Maggie dances and competes at Pow-wows thoughout the year. She is currently teaching her nieces jingle dress dancing. Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers marks Maggie’s first professional choreography project. She would like to thank her Mom and Dad for helping her, and her teacher Roberta Fox. She would also like to thank her Aunties and the rest of her family for supporting her and helping her continue to dance. Special thanks to Marcie Rendon for introducing her to Lou Bellamy and Penumbra Theatre.

SARAH BELLAMY (Education Director) is Penumbra Theatre's Education Director. A playwright and educator, she holds a B.A. in creative writing and post-colonial theory from Sarah Lawrence College and a Masters degree in Caribbean history and the trans-Atlantic Slave trade from the University of Chicago. She is currently working toward her doctorate in cultural studies and critical discourse at the University of Minnesota.

MAY MAHALA (Dramaturge) is a PhD candidate in Theatre Arts at the University of Minnesota. Her writing has appeared in The Blue Earth Review, California Quarterly, Colere, NYU’s Women and Performance Journal, Theatre Journal, and Xcp: Cross Cultural Poetics. She has worked with The Illusion Theatre, New World Theatre, The Pillsbury House Theatre, The San Francisco Mime Troupe, Theatre Unbound, and Works/Plays. Her fellowships and awards include The August Wilson Fellowship at Penumbra Theatre, two Many Voices residencies from the Playwrights’ Center, and first place in Garrison Keillor’s Festival of Romantic Writing.

LOY ARCENAS (Scene Design) Broadway credits include: Love! Valour! Compassion!, Once on this Island, Prelude to a Kiss, High Society, The Glass Menagerie, The Night of the Iguana. Regional credits include set design for American Conservatory Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, Goodman Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Laguna Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Rep, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre. Directing credits include Warren Leight's No Foreigners Beyond This Point,The Romance of Magno Rubio (Obie Award), Flipzoids, Middlefinger, Watcher. Mr. Arcenas has received several awards which include an Obie Award for sustained excellence of Set Design, LA Critics Circle Award, and the Jeff Award. He's from the Philippines.

MARTIN GWINUP (Sound Designer) is an associate professor in the Theatre Arts and Dance Department at the University of Minnesota. He teaches audio and video technology, design and production. He has also worked in the Twin Cities area as a freelance sound/video designer and technician for 18 years. Martin has worked for the Frank Theatre, History Theatre, Children's Theatre, Cricket Theatre and Eye of the Storm. Recent design credits at Penumbra include Fences, REDSHIRTS, Get Ready, Blue, Black Nativity - A Celebration of Family, A Celebration for the Soul…Testify!, and Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers.

MATHEW J. LEFEBVRE (Costume Designer) most recently designed costumes and set for Penumbra's production of Gem of the Ocean presented at the Guthrie. Penumbra credits include Get Ready, Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, On the Open Road, Black Eagles, Joe Turner's Come and Gone and Jitney. Off-Broadway designs include Two Trains Running at Signature Theatre and Bach at Leipzig at New York Theatre Workshop. Costume design credits at the Guthrie include She Loves Me, Pride and Prejudice, Wintertime, Merrily We Roll Along, and School for Scandal. He has also designed for Milwaukee Rep, Kansas City Rep, Arizona Theatre Company, Trinity Rep, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Geffen Playhouse, and American Players Theatre.

MICHAEL WANGEN (Lighting Design) has been working as a lighting artist in the twin cities area for over 25 years and in that time has produced designs for many area theatres including the Guthrie, The Jungle, Great American History Theatre, Theatre Mu, Pangea World Theatre, Pillsbury House Theatre, and Penumbra where he served as resident lighting designer from 1987-2000 and designed over 60 productions.  Recent local designs include “Hot Comb”, “The Story”, and “Bel Canto” with Pillsbury House; “Treemonisha” with North Star Opera; and “The Wild Party” at the Fitzgerald Theater.  Outside of Minnesota he has recently designed productions of Carlyle Brown’s “The Fula From America” at The Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC. and “Brown Butterfly” a dance/multimedia performance piece developed by choreographer Marlies Yearby and jazz trombonist Craig Harris and produced at Aaron Davis Hall in New York    He is currently employed as the lighting director at The Fitzgerald Theater and also is the lighting designer for Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.”    He would like to dedicate his work on this project to the memory of Rebecca Rice and Kathy Gagnon, two very bright lights in this world.

Since its founding in 1964, Trinity Repertory Company has been one of the most respected regional theaters in the country. Led by Executive Director Edgar Dobie and Acting Artistic Director Amanda Dehnert, featuring an acclaimed resident acting company, Trinity Rep presents a balance of world premiere, contemporary, and classic works, including seven subscription productions, an annual production of A Christmas Carol, and the Trinity Summer Shakespeare Project, for an estimated annual audience of nearly 160,000. In its 41-year history, the theater has presented nearly 50 world premieres, mounted national and international tours, and, through its graduate-level theater arts conservatory, trained hundreds of new actors and directors. For more information, visit www.trinityrep.com.

For 28 years, Penumbra Theatre Company has added an important dimension of cultural and artistic experience to the state of Minnesota, the mid-west region and the American theater scene. In 1976, under the direction of Founder and Artistic Director Lou Bellamy, Penumbra addressed issues of racial tension and misrepresentation between visibly separate black and white Americas. Today Penumbra is widely regarded as a pioneer of cross-cultural dialogue. Penumbra’s artistically excellent and thought-provoking work is presented from an African American perspective to assist in the development of a more pluralistic and culturally diverse future by using art to criticize, problem solve and teach.