Native Voices at the Autry Announces the Cast for
the World Premiere of Jump Kiss: An Indian Legend
by Diane Glancy

–       Wednesday, June 5, through Sunday, June 23, 2002 –

LOS ANGELES – Jump Kiss: An Indian Legend is the poetic story of a mixed-blood Native American woman in mid-century Kansas City. Described by the playwright as “an explanation ceremony,” Jump Kiss moves easily between past and present and between Native and non-Native worlds to recover events, experiences, and relationships. The first script chosen for a Native Voices at the Autry production, Jump Kiss is an exciting new play that integrates live theatre with music, film and still images to create a dynamic landscape of mind and memory.

Gil Birmingham, Tonantzin Carmelo, Dolores Apollonia Chavez, Mark Cross, Ellen Dostal, Phillip Dunbridge, Yvonne Fisher, Bradford F. Kelly, Robert Vestal and Vincent Whipple star in Jump Kiss.

Jump Kiss: An Indian Legend was written by Diane Glancy and is directed by Randy Reinholz. Native Voices at the Autry is a collaboration between the Autry Museum and the Native Voices Theatre Company, led by Randy Reinholz, of Choctaw descent, and produced by Jean Bruce Scott.

In a thirteen-performance run, Jump Kiss will be presented June 5 through June 23, 2002 in the Autry Museum’s Wells Fargo Theatre. The opening night performance on Wednesday, June 5, and subsequent performances Thursday through Saturday are at 8:00 p.m., except Saturday, June 8, which is at 2:00 p.m. Sunday performances are at 2:00 p.m.

Tickets are $15. To order tickets, call 323.655.8587. Groups of 10 or more save 20% by calling Mary at 626.578.1940.

Native Voices at the Autry is made possible in part by grants from Wells Fargo, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Sidney Stern Memorial Trust and the National Endowment for the Arts.

THE CAST

Gil Birmingham (Comanche)

Gil Birmingham, born in San Antonio, Texas, spent his formative years in a military family that moved around the country, living in Texas, Alaska and Hawaii before settling in San Francisco.  After relocating to Southern California, Birmingham graduated from USC in business administration and worked as a petro-chemical design engineer. His lifelong passion for music culminated in work as a professional guitarist while perfecting his craft as an actor.  On stage, Birmingham has played the lead in Roundball, Dark of the Moon, and Of Mice and Men, and he had a supporting role in How We Talk in Boston. On the small screen he was the lead actor as Peter Sweeney in Gentle Ben I and Gentle Ben II. He also starred as Greyhawk in Family Law and was a featured actor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. On the big screen, Birmingham starred in Dreamkeeper, Skins and Doeboy, was the lead in Lone Ranger, and was a featured actor in Wild Wild West.

Tonantzin Carmelo (Tongva/Mexica)

Tonantzin Carmelo was born and raised on her ancestral land, (the Los Angeles Basin) and is a graduate of UC Irvine. Her acclaimed stage roles include Anita in Exmagare, Christina Khalo/Paula in Frida Khalo, and multiple characters in Malinche. She is in national commercials and starred in the feature film King Rikki with Jon Seda and Mario Lopez. Carmelo is a traditional Aztec dancer and pre-columbian musician, recording 3 CDs with Canyon Records. She is an Emerging Voice with the California Indian Storytellers Association and a mentor for the Native Voices Youth Playwright Project.

Dolores Apollonia Chavez (Chicana/Yaqui)

Born and raised in East Los Angeles, Dolores Chavez studied theatre at La Verne University and in England and France. Chavez is the producer for the Mark Taper Forum’s P.L.A.Y. (Performing for Los Angeles Youth) Theatre for Young People. As an artist, Dolores Chavez presented her one-woman show Cleavage and Smokes at Highways and was part of the Mark Taper Forum’s New Works Festival as well as the South Coast Repertory’s Hispanic Playwrights Project. She was a recipient of a McKnight Foundation grant at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and a guest director for Native Voices at the Autry. Chavez has been a member of the Mentor Playwrights at the Taper and of Wordsmiths at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Currently she is the chair of the Community Advisory Board of KCET and a member of the Native Voices Community Advisory Committee.

Mark A. Cross

Mark Cross is from Wichita, Kansas. He became a theatre major at Kansas State University in 1985 and has remained an actor ever since. Mark obtained an MFA in acting from USC and stayed in California. He has performed in more than 40 plays, including Our Town, Taming of the Shrew, A Lie of the Mind, The Real Thing and The Lady’s Not for Burning. Mark has performed in Kansas, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Northern California as well as Los Angeles.  This summer, he is working on a film called Death Voice. His TV credits include The Bold and the Beautiful and Passions. He currently has a television commercial airing for Jeep. Mark also is a writer and has published several short stories.

Ellen Dostal

An Iowa native, Ellen Dostal brings to the production a long and varied theatrical career including regional productions of Night Watch, Private Lives, The Rivals, Stop the World I Want to Get Off, Seesaw and Annie Get Your Gun. She has entertained the troops for the Department of Defense in Greenland and Newfoundland and sung in many shows for Carnival Cruise Lines. On television she has appeared in Hell Hath No Fury with Barbara Eden, The Bold and the Beautiful and Miami Vice. She is also an award-winning radio morning show host and the voice behind many commercials and narration projects across the country.

Phillip Dunbridge (Chickasaw)

Phillip Dunbridge was born and raised in Southern California. He is currently a senior at San Diego State University. After he receives his master of fine arts degree, he plans to teach college theatre. Dunbridge has performed in numerous stage productions, including Please Do Not Touch the Indians at the Autry Museum last year. He also played the part of George in Our Town (Wilder), Stanley in Brighton Beach Memoirs (Simon), and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare).

Yvonne Fisher (Cherokee)

Yvonne Fisher is a Southern Californian at heart, even though her spirit is Cherokee and Japanese. Her last place of residence (San Diego) is where she earned her theatre degree from UCSD; created Twelfth Night Performing Arts Academy, a theater school for young adults; and performed on many of the local stages. Her wildest role was Columbia in The Rocky Horror Show. Life in L.A. has proven to be exciting; she volunteers at the Children’s Hospital while fervently pursuing her acting career. To truly fulfill the life of an actress, Yvonne works very hard as a waitress to serve hundreds of Angelenos their morning coffee and pancakes.

Bradford F. Kelly (Ojibway)

Bradford F. Kelly was born in Grand Rapids, Manitoba, Canada, raised in Winnipeg of the same province, and graduated from the University of Manitoba. Bradford previously worked in Ottawa, Canada, as a policy officer in the Assembly of First Nations, Canada’s national Aboriginal lobby and political advocacy organization. He previously worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade where, as vice consul in Atlanta, Georgia, he was responsible for Canada’s international trade relations with the southeast United States. Bradford is also a commercial pilot and played international hockey in Australia. He began acting two years ago.  Stage credits include A Little Hotel on the Side, Separate Tables, The Mouse Trap, and Beauty and the Beast. Television credits include The West Wing, The Practice, The Court, and The Bold and the Beautiful. His film credits include Stingers, Don Braggard, The Tempest, Voices, and Star Trek: Nemesis.

Robert Vestal (Cherokee)

Robert Vestal started acting seven years ago while earning a BA in English at the University of Chicago in his hometown of Chicago. He then studied at Second City and had a stint in the long-running Tony’ n’ Tina’s Wedding. Here in L.A., his theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and the critically acclaimed Mancard. He also has performed at the Comedy Store and Nevada’s Shakespeare in the Park. He has appeared on television in numerous commercials and, most notably, in ER. His film credits include the multiple award-winning feature No Turning Back, which is currently nominated for an Alma Award.

Vincent Whipple (Oglala-Santee, Sioux, and Navajo)

Vincent Whipple, born on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and raised in South Dakota, obtained a BA in Anthropology from Harvard (1990) and an MA in American Indian studies from UCLA (2001). He was the principal dancer in the American Indian Dance Theatre and in the Daystar Dance Theatre. Whipple was a featured Native American dancer and singer in Wild Bill’s Wild West Show and Knott’s Berry Farm’s Indian Trails in Orange County. On the silver screen he will appear in Windtalkers, directed by John Woo and starring Nicholas Cage. Whipple was awarded the 2002 Inland Theatre League special award for “Outstanding Contribution to the Native American Music, Dance, and Theatre” and was given a similar award in 2001 for his portrayal of Alessandro for the 2001 production of the Ramona Pageant. Whipple currently serves as the artistic director for the Wichozani Native American Dance Theatre, a Southern California–based theatre company.

About the Playwright: Diane Glancy

Diane Glancy (Cherokee) is a professor of English at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1997, she published War Cries, a collection of nine plays.  Another collection of six plays, American Gypsy, is being published by the University of Oklahoma Press. Glancy has published six novels, including Pushing the Bear, a novel of the 1838 Trail of Tears. She also has published several collections of poetry, essays, and short stories. She is the recipient of a Many Voices Playwriting Fellowship from the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Glancy also received the 2001 Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize from Nimrod International Journal.

 About the Director: Randy Reinholz

Randy Reinholz (Choctaw) is the co-creator and artistic director of Native Voices Theatre Company.  Reinholz has twenty years of experience in theatre, film, and television in the United States and Canada as an actor, director, producer and script developer. He directed The Rez Sisters, an award-winning play by First Nations playwright Tomson Highway (Cree), for Theatre Cornell as the centerpiece of Cornell University’s Indians’ Indians: Re-presentation of Native American People in the Arts, was the executive producer and director of the critically acclaimed Urban Tattoo at the Autry Museum and at venues in Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary, Canada and producer of The Baby Blues at Centre Stage of Pennsylvania. Reinholz received his MFA in Theatre from Cornell University and is tenured Head of Performance at San Diego State University.

About the Producer: Jean Bruce Scott

Since 1993, Jean Bruce Scott, co-creator and executive director of Native Voices, has provided her expertise as a producer, director, script developer, and actor. She produced Now Look What You Made Me Do (recipient of a McKnight Fellowship), The Baby Blues, Urban Tattoo, and directed Do Not Touch the Indians at Native Voices Back to Normal and Te Ata at Native Voices in New York. She acted in Pranks at the Theatre of the World Festival and Now Look What You Made Me Do at the Minneapolis Playwrights’ Center. Her acting television credits include series leads in Airwolf and Days of Our Lives and recurring roles in Magnum P.I. and St. Elsewhere. She is currently on ABC’s Port Charles. Scott is a guest artist for the California State University Summer Arts Program and an adjunct faculty member at San Diego State University.

 About Native Voices at the Autry

In 2000, the Autry Museum launched Native Voices at the Autry, a theatre initiative devoted to the development of new works for the stage by Native American writers. This project brings established, mid-career and/or emerging writers to the museum to workshop material with professional directors, dramaturges and actors.

About the Autry Museum

The Autry Museum of Western Heritage provides rich learning opportunities for all people by exploring the myths and realities of the American West and its diverse populations. The museum enhances our understanding of the present by collecting, preserving and interpreting objects and art, making connections between people today and those who have shaped the past.

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