FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 26, 2005

Contact: Sarah McGreer
sarah@maaa.org

The following project will be staged at the Lied Center in Lawrence, Kansas, thanks in part to support from Mid-America Arts Alliance.

TRINITY REP AND PENUMBRA THEATRE COMPANY
ANNOUNCE CAST AND DATES FOR TOURING PRODUCTION,
GRANDCHILDREN OF THE BUFFALO SOLDIERS

Trinity Repertory Company of Providence, RI, and Penumbra Theatre Company of St. Paul, MN, are pleased to announce the cast and national tour of Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, a new play by William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers will premiere September 23 – October 15, 2005 at Penumbra Theatre Company, St. Paul, MN. After the Minnesota premiere, the Midwestern leg of the multi-state tour will bring the production to South Dakota and Kansas. From December 2 through January 8, 2006, the production will be a part of Trinity Rep’s main-stage season, after which it will continue touring New England and the Mid Atlantic region. This project marks this country’s first fully-mounted professional collaborative touring production by regional theaters of a Native American play by a Native playwright. Details about the project, including the touring calendar, may be found at www.buffalosoldierstour.org.

ABOUT THE CAST
Directed by Lou Bellamy, Founder and Artistic Director of Penumbra Theatre Company, this new work will feature a cast of Native American and African American actors led by Penumbra Company member James Craven (Craig Robe). Mr. Craven has appeared in more than a dozen Penumbra shows and has also appeared with Mixed Blood, Guthrie Theater, ACT in San Francisco, Houston's Alley Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and the European tour as well as the Broadway production of Gospel at Colonus. Joining Craven will be Jake Hart (Brent Robe), Freedome Bradley (Elmo Robe), George Keller (Sugar Robe Jackson), M. Cochise Anderson (Stevie Jackson), Maya Washington (August Jackson), Donna Couteau Brooks (Jeanette Walking) and Jason Turner (Kenny Tassel).

Jake Hart’s (Brent Robe) regional theater credits include: Edge of the World at Seattle Repertory Theater, MacBeth at Perseverance Theatre; and work with Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

Freedome Bradley (Elmo Robe) has been performing in New York and Los Angeles for the past five years. His varied credits include work at P.S. 122; Ensemble Studio Theater, Chelsea Playhouse; Abingdon Theater; La MaMa and Nuyorican Poet’s Café.

Minnesota-based actress George Keller (Sugar Robe Jackson) boasts a varied list of credits,
among them the lead in Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding at Hey City Theater, and work with The Minnesota Fringe Festival, Actor’s Theater, The Playwright’s Center, and the American Indian Theater Project.

M. Cochise Anderson (Stevie Jackson) is a Native American cultural arts educator, actor, playwright, poet, spoken word artist, storyteller and traditional musician. New York credits include The Essence, Intertribal at The Public Theater, and work at La MaMa E.T.C.; Chuka Lokoli Theatre Ensemble, Ensemble Studio Theatre; Oasis Theatre Company and The Ping Chong Company.

Maya Washington (August Jackson), also a Minnesota resident, has previously performed at The Guthrie and the Children’s Theatre Company in MN and at Stage 52 in Los Angeles.

Donna Couteau Brooks’ (Jeanette Walking) work has been seen onstage in New York at Public Theater, Theater for the New City, La MaMa E.T.C.; Hudson Guild Theatre; Spiderwoman Theatre; Symphony Space and the Nation Arts Theater. Regional credits include work with Ohio Theatre, Brady Theater and the London Shakespeare Company. She has appeared in the films Prizzi’s Honor, Working Girls, Tap and Falling in Love and television credits include "The Jury", "Cosby", "Law & Order", and "The Guardian".

Connecticut-based actor Jason Turner (Kenny Walking) appeared in Trinity Repertory Company’s Theater from the Four Directions Festival of New Plays from First Nations Playwrights readings. He has also appeared at such venues as Mashantucket Pequot Museum, CT; National Museum of the American Indian, NY; Stamford Theatre Works, CT and at Connecticut Repertory Theatre.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Trinity Rep, the 41-year old, Tony Award-winning company, and Penumbra Theatre, one of America’s preeminent African American theater companies, have collaborated to produce this country’s first fully mounted professional touring production by a regional theater of a Native American play by a Native playwright. Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers reveals the historic clash of two fiercely proud yet oppressed cultures, pitted against one another by westward expansion. The play depicts the homecoming of Craig Robe, grandchild of an African American “buffalo soldier” and a Native American woman. Ridiculed as “too black” to be Native, the Robe family has struggled for acceptance not only by their tribe, but perhaps more importantly, by each other. Seeking community, Craig turns to those whose blood runs through his veins. This compelling new drama asks audiences to consider racial and cultural identity, while maintaining a compassionate and open-minded view of the complexity of mixed race heritage in America, and the Native community.

Playwright William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. will tour with the production, joining Bellamy and the cast in
educational outreach activities including post-performance discussions, workshops, and in-depth explorations of related subjects.

“Bill Yellow Robe made an enormous impact in New England during his residency at Trinity Rep,” said
Amanda Dehnert, Acting Artistic Director of Trinity Rep, “writing, listening, building audiences and
bringing communities together. We’re proud to be working with Penumbra to share Bill’s insights -- and encourage dialogue -- in communities across the country.”

Lou Bellamy, the show’s director, as well as Founder and Artistic Director of Penumbra Theatre Company explains, “This is our opportunity to use art the way we feel it should be used to model, teach, learn about ourselves, and exercise our citizenship. Working on this project together, William S. Yellow Robe, Jr., Penumbra Theatre Company, and Trinity Repertory Company are modeling what society should be doing - a respectful address of historical and cultural issues with all the players present. This is the way we plumb the depths of our humanness. The production and tour of Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers is an active investigation of inherent issues within the African American, Native American and dominant cultures of America. This collaboration allows us to explore the ways in which communities touch one another, live in and around one another, sustain and threaten one another.”

Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers at Penumbra Theatre has been generously underwritten in part by a major grant from the Ford Foundation in recognition of the play’s superb artistry, and the project’s intent to engage audiences nationwide in dialogue around issues of race, culture and ethnicity through this partnership between members of the resident theater community and presenters of performing arts. The national tour is also supported in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program, Arts Midwest, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the New England Foundation for the Arts, which will underwrite regional performance residencies.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. (Playwright) is the recipient of an NEA Playwriting Fellowship and a Pew
Fellowship, through which he is the Playwright-In-Residence at Trinity Rep. An Assiniboine playwright, actor, director, and poet, William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. is the author of Better-n-Indins, A Stray Dog, The Pendleton Blanket, The Star Quilter, The Independence of Eddie Rose, Falling Distance, Rez Politics, The Council, The Body Guard and Sneaky, which have been produced by such theaters as Ensemble Studio Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Seattle Children's Theater, and Yale University.

Yellow Robe is a nationally recognized Assiniboine playwright, and he serves as a guest faculty member at Brown University, University of Montana, University of Maine and other institutions. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Missoula Writers' Collaborative, Missoula, Montana, and Red Eagle Soaring of Seattle, Washington. He is the first recipient of the "Native Books Award for Drama".

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Lou Bellamy (Director/ Founder and Artistic Director of Penumbra Theatre Company) has been a member of the University of Minnesota’s faculty for 28 years and is currently appointed to the rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance. Among the awards he has received for excellence in arts and education are the W. Harry Davis Foundation Award for Leadership in Afro-centric Education, the Links Award in Recognition of Excellence in Black Theatre, and a doctorate from Hamline University.

Bellamy’s directing credits include: Reflections of Black Nativity, Dinah Was, On the Open Road, King Hedley II, Someplace Soft to Fall, A Lovesong for Miss Lydia, Louie & Ophelia, Riffs, Black Eagles, The Darker Face of the Earth, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Seven Guitars, Big White Fog, Two Trains Running, Portrait of the Artist as a Soul Man Dead, Coming the Hurricane, Three Ways Home, Buffalo Hair, King of Coons, The Mighty Gents, Little Tommy Parker’s Celebrated Colored Minstrel Show, The African American Company Presents Richard III, Harvest the Forest, Shorteyes, and Soul Alley. His acting credits include lead roles in Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Waiting in Vain, and Talking Bones.

Details-At-A-Glance

Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers
by William S. Yellow Robe, Jr.

Director Lou Bellamy

Co-Producers Trinity Repertory Company and Penumbra Theatre Company

Website www.buffalosoldierstour.org

Premiere dates September 23 – October 15, 2005
Penumbra Theatre Company. St. Paul, MN
www.penumbratheatre.org
Tel (651) 224-3180

Trinity Rep December 2, 2005 – January 8, 2006
production dates Trinity Repertory Company, Providence, RI
www.trinityrep.com
Tel (401) 351-4242

National Tour Schedule and venues are subject to change. All residencies feature public p
performances and may also include panel discussions, pre-performance lectures,
student presentations and post-performance lectures. Each presenter determines when
and how tickets are sold; contact the host sites for additional information.

Midwest tour dates October 17– 19, 2005
Sisseton Arts Council in association with Sisseton Wahpeton College
Sisseton, SD
Tel (605) 698-3966 x1114
www.swc.tc

October 20-23, 2005
Washington Pavilion of Arts & Sciences
Sioux Falls, SD
www.washingtonpavilion.org
Tel (605) 367-6000

November 7-11, 2005
Lied Center of Kansas at University of Kansas
in association with Haskell Indian Nations University
Lawrence, KS
http://www.lied.ku.edu/05-06/events/grandchildren_buffalo.shtml
Tel (785) 864-2787

New England & January 14, 2006
Mid Atlantic Zeiterion Theatre
tour dates New Bedford, MA
www.zeiterion.org
Tel (508) 994-2900

January 16-20, 2006
Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH
http://hop.dartmouth.edu
Tel (603) 646-2422

January 21, 2006
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
Burlington, VT
www.flynncenter.org
Tel 802-863-5966

January 24-28, 2006
National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in partnership with
Roundhouse Theater
Washington DC and Silver Spring MD
www.nmai.si.edu Tel (202) -633-1000
www.round-house.org Tel (240) 644-1100

January 31 and February 1, 2006
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY
www.arts.cornell.edu/theatrearts
Tel (607) 254-2787

February 3-4, 2006
National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI)
New York, NY
www.nmai.si.edu
Tel (212)-514-3700

Tour support The Ford Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program, Arts Midwest, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the New England Foundation for the Arts.

Tour contact Deirdre Valente & Lisa Booth
LISA BOOTH MANAGEMENT, INC.
145 West 45th St. #602 NY NY 10036
(212) 921 2114 artslbmi@msn.com

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. For more information, visit: www.penumbratheatre.org.

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