Birthday Brunch, A World-Premiere Workshop Presentation
Written by Jen Olivares
Directed and produced by Carolina Hoyos
Commissioned by Celebration Theatre
FEATURING: Kelly Lynne D’Angelo, Eric Stanton Betts*, Brían Pagaq Wescott*, Jehnean Washington, and Mikki Hernandez
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Thursday, September 29, 2022
7:30-9:00pm PT
Davidson/Valentini Theatre
@ The Los Angeles LGBT Center
1125 N. McCadden Place, Los Angeles, CA 90038
Free to the Public
Donations Gratefully Accepted
Celebration Theatre presents a world-premiere workshop reading of Birthday Brunch, a semi-autobiographical work by commissioned playwright Jen Olivares about the contemporary Native experience in Southern California. Through the lens of Tiffany, a queer, housing-unstable artist venturing back into her homelands, we dance alongside her struggles and joys as her estranged family reveals and reconnects the unjust histories and bonds buried between them. With little land, and at times, community to hold onto, Tiffany's birthday wish is for a home reborn. (Running Time: 90 minutes)
About the Artists
Jen Olivares
PLAYWRIGHT
Jen (she/they) is an artist, writer, creative director, and choreographer and began her professional career in television and commercials at age 5. Her work as a stage actor spans the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Atlantic Theater, Yale Repertory Theater, and national touring companies of Rock of Ages. Jen is an enrolled member of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation, a tribe indigenous to what is now Southern California. Jen is currently consulting on and directing several up-and-coming Native works, including Molly Spotted Elk with Penobscot Theatre in Maine. Passionate about empowering Native youth through cultural and community connection, Jen writes and produces for the Native youth strengthening organizations The 5th Direction and Red Eagle Soaring. www.jenolivares.com
Carolina Hoyos
DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
Carolina Hoyos (she/they) is a nonbinary Afro-Indigenous (Quechua-Kichwa) Latine stage and film actor-writer-director, musician and voice artist. Recent credits include Macbeth, Comedy of Errors and Romeo & Juliet with Black Girls Luv The Bard, The Bowels at Women’s Theatre Festival, solo commissions with The Peace Studio and Celebration Theatre, and directing debut film/theater hybrid Indigiqueer Identity: Reclaiming Past, Present and Future. Film/TV credits include "MTV Hits", Nicholas Winding Refn’s "Too Old To Die Young", "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and a Netflix series releasing late 2022. Carolina is a 2021 Peace Studio Creative Peacebuilder, a 2020 West Hollywood Directing Artist, a 2019 LA Skins TV Writer Lab Fellow and an official LA County Artist until 2024. www.carolinahoyos.com
Kelly Lynne D'Angelo
TIFF(ANY ROSE)
Kelly Lynne D'Angelo (she/her/they) is a Two-Spirit Tuscarora (Haudenosaunee) writer, performer, and activist who has done her fair share of storytelling in different mediums, including television, books, and musicals (Starry). Recent credits include "Rutherford Falls" (Kim), TBS’ "Miracle Workers", and Netflix’s "Spirit Rangers". Awarded "Writer of The Year" in 2019 by LA Skin's Fest and listed on “Top 100 Twitter Accounts to Follow in 2021” by BroadwayWorld, Kelly is also a proud Selection Committee member for Outfest’s Screenwriting Lab as well as Mentor for Creative Lab Hawai’i’s Ideation Program for Indigenous Storytellers. @kellylynnedang
Eric Stanton Betts*
TRISTAN
Eric Stanton Betts (he/him) is honored to be part of a group representing his Native roots and the Indigenous peoples of America. A proud descendant of the Cherokee Nation, Eric has traveled around the world for theatre and fashion. He’s walked in Paris and Milan Fashion weeks and toured Asia and the US in Broadway’s Kinky Boots. He was recently seen on the LA stage in Three Tables at the Zephyr Theater on Melrose and in Kinky Boots once again at the Hollywood Bowl. Follow him @StandsTooTall21 or www.EricStantonBetts.com.
Brían Pagaq Wescott*
FATHER (FRANK)
Brian Wescott (Koyukon/Yup’ik, he/him) was born and raised in Alaska and educated at Harvard and Yale. He will next appear in two animated network-TV series (one recurring), plus an Amazon feature as a VO dubbing artist (all TBA soon). He co-produced “Christmas in the Clouds,” the first comedy feature set in a Native community (Prime). He serves on the indigenous committees at SAG-AFTRA and the WGA, and for the latter wrote the core document for the “Do’s and Don’ts of Writing Native Characters.” Still, he’ll always be the boy from the long dirt road in Alaska. SAG-AFTRA/AEA/WGA/KMR Talent
Jehnean Washington
JOCELYN
A multitalented artist, Jehnean (she/her) is descended from the Yuchi, Seminole and Shoshone nations and hails from the house of the storyteller. She comes from an extensive line of performers, singers, and musicians. A graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, Jehnean has worked professionally for over 30 years as an actor, singer/songwriter, and musician within the entertainment industry’s venues of film, television, radio, voiceover, concerts, opera, and live theater. She has performed with the prestigious all-Native American Mahenwahdose productions theater company as well as acting as assistant artistic and musical director for the legendary American Indian Theater Company. She is an Ensemble member of Native Voices at the Autry and is a recognized and archived performing artist with the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Jehnean sings opera with Los Angeles-based opera company The Industry and is a singer and producer with the Listen For Life world music organization. She is the owner of the Los Angeles-based production company Lighthorsewoman Productions and Al-Kee Records and co-wrote the award-winning screenplay for the movie RAVE. Member: SAG-AFTRA.
Mikki Hernandez
LENA
Mikki (she/her), a California native, is an LA-based actress. Recent credits include "We’re Doing Good" (SXSW), Second (HollyShorts Film Festival), "The Don’t Call List" (Amazon Prime), and voiceover for Target heard in stores and on screens nationwide. Mikki is a proud UCLA alum and enjoys traveling, dancing, writing, and sharing stories through her digital publication MixedKids&Co. Her debut children’s book Cake Mix: Learning to Love All Your Ingredients is now available.
Ayame Nishinaka Orlans
STAGE MANAGER / NARRATOR
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Ayame (they/them) has always had vast exposure to the visual delights that the city has had to offer. Having a father as a photographer and a mother in advertisement, Ayame grew up surrounded by photography and creative imagery since birth. This foundation would keep them involved in the arts throughout childhood and adolescence. After a first job working as a studio photographer for Lifetouch Portraits in 2006, Ayame branched out into the freelance world taking on live stage photography for theater and dancers. Today Ayame's passions for the local music scene, social justice initiatives, and celebration of Los Angeles itself has grown a thick body of work stretching across all genres of photography. ayamefoto.wix.com/ayamefoto
Presented as part of Celebration's Indigiqueer Identity series, this FREE TO THE PUBLIC program is supported in part by arts grants from the California Arts Council and City of West Hollywood.
CREDITS
Written by
Jen Olivares
Directed and Produced by
Carolina Hoyos (she/they)
Executive Produced by
Christopher Maikish (he/him), Michael O'Hara (he/him), and Brittney S. Wheeler (she/her)
Stage Managed by
Ayame Nishinaka Orlans (they/them)
Graphic Design by
Raven TwoBirds Arbuckle
Anishinaabe-Choctaw
* Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
This production is presented under the auspices of the Actors’ Equity Los Angeles Membership Company Rule.
Special Thanks:
Willa, Matt Richter, Patricia Sutherland, and Jonathan Muñoz-Proulx at the Los Angeles LGBT Center
Celebration Theatre acknowledges that we operate on the unceded lands of the Tongva, Kizh, Chumash, and other Indigenous peoples who made their homes in and around the area we now call Los Angeles. Naming the original caretakers of this land is one way to register our impact on the financial, emotional, and generational damage we may cause by using local spaces for our purposes of entertainment. We also understand that this acknowledgment will change as our commitment evolves and, importantly, that these statements are by no means a replacement for actual justice for Indigenous people.
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