Native Voices Presents 27th Festival of New Plays

Kaili Y. Turner (Nipmuc) is a comedian, actress, writer, producer, and puppeteer born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised between Mashpee, Massachusetts, and Boston. Turner attended the Actors Studio Drama School MFA program. Her full-length play Indian Country is based on her own experiences growing up as a Black Indigenous girl on the reservation with a community that doesn’t necessarily look like her, as well as what it is like to live in three different worlds. Currently, Turner’s comedic pilot about women, dating, and sexuality after 35, Fk’d Up & Fabulous , is streaming on Tenoir TV, and she is working on Squannit , a

coming-of-age horror-fantasy-thriller based on the Native American folklore and stories she grew up on. Turner is a member of Grown Ass Women, Golden Gals, and To Karen, with Love. She created Rock the Bells Comedy, is a producer for Act Now Foundation/ New Voices, was a former member of the Walt Disney/ABC Native American Pilot prep program 2020 and Bars Cohort 4 at the Public Theater and was a semifinalist for the Eugene O’Neil Playwrights program. Turner is the recipient of the 2021 SNL/Second City Scholarship. IG: @Mdamstarlight / Twitter: @kailiyturner / FB: Kaili Turner

Jehnean Washington (Yuchi, Seminole, Shoshone) is a multitalented and multicultural artist. A graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, she has worked for more than 30 years not only as a singer/songwriter and

musician but also in the entertainment industry in film, television, radio, and voiceovers. She is a recognized and archived singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and storyteller with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., and an ensemble member of Native Voices at the Autry. She is also the owner of the Los Angeles–based film company Lighthorsewoman Productions and co-wrote the award-winning screenplay for the movie Rave .

Brían Pagaq Wescott (Athabascan/Yup’ik) hails from Alaska and is now based in L.A. A graduate of Harvard and Yale, his recent credits include They Don’t Talk Back (Native Voices and La Jolla Playhouse), Our Town (Perseverance Theatre in Alaska), and a filmed broadcast of The Winter Bear Project via Zoom (Perseverance March–April 2021). No matter what, he will always be the boy from the dry cabin at the end of a long dirt road in Interior Alaska. Ryffin Phoenix (Navajo/Omaha) is a writer and performer. Ryffin was born and raised on the beautiful lands of the Navajo Reservation. Her passion for storytelling led her to train in the craft of acting. Her most recent performance was as Jacqueline in Rhianna Yazzie’s play, Nancy , for the Playwright’s Center. She has performed in several productions for Native Voices at the Autry. She spends her free time writing short stories and screenplays.