In a small town jail cell just outside Yellowstone National Park, an east coast social justice worker awaits her arraignment. Her crime? “Calfnapping.” When she finds herself with a dead baby bison, its mother, and a local rancher as her cell mates, she’s forced to reckon with her worldview. In The Buffalo Play wildness takes over, women and buffalos dish on sex, guts become armor, and media is an unavoidable storm. Inspired by true events, The Buffalo Play poses the question, "What kind of an idiot puts a baby bison in the back of their car?”
BetweenTheLines Theatre and MT + NYC Collaborative have teamed up to present The Buffalo Play. Inspired by real events in Yellowstone National Park during the spring of 2016, The Buffalo Play creates a poetic world in the confluence between wildness and media culture. As a city woman, a rancher, and two bison turn a Montana jail cell into a landscape of personal history, they move from conflicting ideals and grow towards creating and traversing common ground. This satirical, magical realism theatrical event will be devised and performed in Missoula, Montana before moving to New York City for a three-week run co-produced by The Tank.
When can I see it?
MISSOULA:
when:April 13, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27th @ 7pm
Where: MASC studio 1200 Shakespeare Street
New York CITY:
When: May 8-12th, 16-20th, 22-23rd @ 7pm
Where: The Tank 312 West 36th Street (Between 8th and 9th AVE)
Who is involved?
Kendra Mylnechuk, Producer/Writer/Actress (Bison)
Kendra is a Native (Lummi) theatre artist and filmmaker. Her film performances screened at Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, and festivals around the world. In 2013, she won best actor in NBC/Universal Pictures Short Cuts Film Festival. NY theatre includes both off and off-off Broadway venues. Regional work includes a national tour as Shelby in Steel Magnolias for MT Rep, and productions in LA, OR, and MT. She developed a theatre program at N'Kwusm Salish language school on the Flathead Reservation with William Yellowrobe, created and implemented 2017 curriculum for MCPS on Native American Studies using theatre in education techniques, and presented work at Thinking Its Presence '15 and '17, a conference on race, creative writing, and literary study. In 2015, she co-founded MT+NYC Collaborative, and directed two of the company's first productions: "The Woodstove," and "Dido of Idaho", and performed in "The Wolf". With BetweentheLines, she directed last year's "In the Snow." Kendra is currently working on a documentary called DAUGHTER OF A LOST BIRD about her adoption and reunion with her biological mother and Native heritage.
Ciara Rose Griffin, Producer/Writer/Actress (Woman)
Ciara Rose Griffin is a multidisciplinary artist whose inspired makeup creations have been seen on Good Morning America, The Late Night Show with David Letterman, Tribeca Film Festival, Fangoria, Vogue Online, Bust Magazine Online, Glamour, Refinery 29, and Comedy Central. Her NYC theatrical work includes FCKNLZ on Broadway (Museum of Art and Design), Three Day Hangover's Twelfth Night, or Sir Toby Belch's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Hamlet Project, Spem in Alium (MT + NYC Collaborative), and Astronauts Wanted (Dixon Place). Recent Montana credits include Dido of Idaho, and The Woodstove. Film credits include The Triangle, The Case of Josephine H, and Two Guys. In 2005 Ciara became a founding member of The Buttenik Ensemble (Butte Montana, Seattle Washington) and spend several years at Annex Theatre in Seattle as a company and staff member. In 2015 Ciara founded the MT + NYC Collaborative with Kendra Mylnechuk Potter. Since its conception the MT + NYC Collaborative has been an incubator for new works through a works in progress monthly reading series, productions, and writers retreats.
Mason Wagner, Director/Producer
Mason is a creator, director, actor, and producer based in Missoula, MT where he serves as the Artistic Director of BetweenTheLines Theatre. His love for Nature and open spaces brought him from his home in Upstate New York to the Mountain West. Mason founded BetweenTheLines in May of 2016, and has since produced ten new and/or critically-acclaimed contemporary scripts. Directing credits: The Flick, Constellations, Stupid F*cking Bird, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, and AD for In The Snow (BetweenTheLines); 1984 (Pendragon Theatre Regional Tour); and Denmark is a Prison (international collaboration with the Moradokmai Theatre School in Thailand). Mason holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Montana and recently trained with SITI Company during their month-long intensive. Regional acting credits include national tours of The Great Gatsbyand All My Sons (Montana Repertory Theatre); The Aliens, 4000 Miles(BetweenTheLines); Look Back In Anger (Roothead Studio) and PVT. Wars(Montana Rep). Having always envisioned a way to tell stories that heal and confront our perceived dominion over nature, The Buffalo Play, in many ways, is everything he could dream of as a director. He is honored to be a part of the creative team for The Buffalo Play.
JEREMY SHER, Actor (Hank)
Jeremy lives and works in Missoula, Montana, where he’s performed with Montana Repertory Theatre, Between The Lines, The Colony, Bare Bait Dance and other companies. Prior to that he lived in Chicago, working with The Neo-Futurists, Writers Theatre, Redmoon, Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens and many others. Regionally he’s performed at St. Louis Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Shakespeare Theatre D.C. and Off- Broadway at New Victory Theater. He has worked overseas in Spain and France, and he’s created several original works including “The Dirty Sexy Chocolate Show.” Big thanks to Mason, Kendra, Ciara and Sukha for opening their beautiful circle and sharing this vital, wriggling new work.
Sukha Belle Potter, Actress (Baby Bison)
Sukha is a 5 year old of Lummi descent born in Brooklyn, currently living in Montana. She had her performing debut in critically acclaimed 2016 film Buster's Mal Heart by Sarah Adina Smith. Her work on that film solidified her desire to play all the time, which she does. She is the daughter of theatre artist Kendra Mylnechuk Potter and playwright Tyler Potter.
Peter Musante, Sound Design
Peter creates interdisciplinary performances with a diverse group of artists. A regular collaborator with Missoula's own Bare Bait Dance - Wonderwomen, Lovesong, Hysteria and the.humanest (director/media design) - Peter spends most of his time in NYC. With Andrew Schneider: AFTER (Ensemble Co-director/Scenic Coordinator/performer), YOUARENOWHERE (Co-creator/performer) and FIELD (treadmill dancer). Also in NYC: Up and Away (Lincoln Center Education; 1-on-1 Experience Director), Martha Clarke’s Angel Reapers, a canary torsi’s The People To Come, Trusty Sidekick Theater Company (Park Ave Armory), and Blue Man Group. As lead artist in the creation of original work, Peter's projects have been presented by Incubator Arts Project (St. Mark's Church), BLDG92/The Brooklyn Navy Yard, The Brick, The Kraine, Galapagos, and The Chocolate Factory's THROW series. www.petermusante.com
Kate Morris, Dramaturge
Kate is a playwright and performance artist born and raised in Western Montana. Her performance work and short plays have been hosted at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago's Rhinoceros Theatre Festival, the Mid-America Theatre Conference, and at the Old Marquer Theatre in New Orleans. Her writing is published in Present Tense Pamphlets, F Newsmagazine, Infinity's Kitchen, Collected, and Duende. Her plays Fake yr Death in 6 Lonesome Steps, Venn Diagrams (or the Bee Play), Qyou Are Here, Graceful Exits, and most recently In the Snow, have received popular productions in Missoula. She holds an MA in Devised Theatre from the University of Montana and an MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she received a 2016 Post-Graduate Writing Fellowship and recently served as a faculty lecturer in Liberal Arts.
Marshall Granger, Media
Marshall Granger is a filmmaker and editor based in Missoula, Montana. His work has screened throughout the Northwest including Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Northwest Filmmaker's Festival, Local Sightings Film Festival and Treefort Music Festival. By day, he is a designer for Missoula's non-profit community cinema The Roxy Theater, and co-director of Montana Film Festival.
Liza Buzytsky, Installation Artist
Liza Buzytsky is an installation and fiber artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She completed her BFA at Pratt Institute and MFA at Tyler School of Art. Born in the Soviet Union, her process addresses the importance of memory in personal narrative, bringing together materials embedded with history to create large scale, tactile immersive environments and sculpture. When she is not crafting, she can be found traveling internationally, writing and teaching yoga. Her visual work can be found on www.buzytsky.com.
Sarah Kelly, Costume Designer
Sarah Kelly was born and raised under the Big Sky. She fell in love with theatre at six years old and continues to be inspired by it's magic. While studying for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Acting, at the University of Montana, Sarah taught numerous Young Actors Workshops at The Shane Lelani Center for the Arts in Livingston. Following in her mother's footsteps, she also took on the role of costumer for the workshops, outfitting well over 100 children in less than two weeks. After receiving her acting degree, she moved to New York City where she teaches preschool and has worked in multiple shops making costumes for major Broadway productions including The Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, and most recently, trying her hand at millinery, hats for The Rockettes. Sarah is overjoyed to be working with MT + NYC Collective and Between The Lines Theatre and is beyond honored to be a part of their exciting endeavor to create brave new works.
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