Tucson: Borderlands Theater presents Dust Eaters

-----Original Message-----
From: Eva Tessler [mailto:wetborderdog@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 9:31 AM
Subject: Borderlands Theater: Dust Eaters Press Release

BORDERLANDS THEATER
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BORDERLANDS THEATER TO PRESENT THE PLAY DUST EATERS BY JULIE JENSEN, OCTOBER
4-21,2007 AT BEOWULF ALLEY THEATRE, 11 SOUTH 6TH AVENUE.

CONTACT: Eva Tessler                                                        
                                                                 
wetborderdog@hotmail.com

                                                                     Winner of the Steinberg
                                                                        New Play Award
                                                                         for Best New Play
                                                                produced outside New York City
                                                                (American Theatre Critics Association) Borderlands Theatre initiates its 2007-08 with the play “Dust Eaters” by Julie Jensen. The play takes an intimate look at two families one white, one Native American, living side by side in the Utah western  desert.  “Dust Eaters” covers 140 years of struggle between the Goshute tribe, original inhabitants of what is now Utah, and the Mormon pioneers who arrived to claim their promised land.

We follow the life of Albertine who begins as a defiant 10-year-old Goshute girl living with a white family on a ranch next to her tribe's ancestral land. We trace the interdependence and resentment, the love and denial of the two families. In the end Albertine's great-grandchildren are grappling with a decision to store high-level nuclear waste on their reservation. The play is a chamber history that defines the past through everyday, intimate human detail and looks at the assumptions behind both cultural points of view. It presents history as we see our own personal history, as a life lived in the wake of seminal events.

“Dust Eaters” is directed by Barclay Goldsmith and includes a cast of four actors who play all roles ins this seven generation saga: Roberto Guajardo, Karole Spangler, Leanne Charlton-Whitewolf, and Ernie Tsosie.

Julie Jensen is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Award for New American Plays ("White Money"), the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work ("The Lost Vegas Series"), and the LA Weekly Award for Best New Play ("Two-Headed").  She has received the McKnight National Playwriting Fellowship ("WAIT!"), the TCG/NEA Playwriting Residency ("WAIT!"), a major grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts ("Dust Eaters"), and was a finalist for the PEN Drama Award ("Dust Eaters").
Her play, "Two-Headed," was included in the volume Best Plays by Women, 2000.  She is currently Resident Playwright at Salt Lake Acting Company, and her work is available from Dramatic Publishing.

Leanne’ Whitewolf Charlton)  received her formal theatre and dance education
from Northwestern College and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.    She
has studied with The Milwaukee Ballet as well as the Afro-Modern Dance Company Ko-Thi.  Her Arizona credits include the role of  The Third God in The Good Woman of Setzuan with The Rogue Theatre, Linda Waterman  in the Arizona Premiere of Fiction for Beowulf Alley Theatre, and Indian Maid , in John Keat’s Endymion.  She is especially thankful to Russ, Dixie, Miss Maria Tallchief and the founding members of The Florence Players.

Roberto Guajardo’s last appeared with Borderlands Theater as Gil in "How to Improve Your Golf Game" which he also co-directed. He has also worked extensively in theaters throughout the State, including performances with Arizona Theatre Company, Beowulf Alley and Invisible Theatre here in Tucson, Arizona Jewish Theatre, Actor’s Lab in Scottsdale, Phoenix Little Theatre and four seasons with the Flagstaff Festival of the Arts. Regional credits include appearances at The Pasadena Playhouse, San Jose’s Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Denver Center Theatre Company and the Organic Theatre in Chicago. He has made numerous appearances on television and in film.

Karole Spangler ‘s Tucson acting credits include the Nurse in “Romeo & Juliet” and Madame Parnelle in Tartuffe, both with the ART. Before coming west, Karole spent five seasons with Stage One in Louisville, KY, playing everything from an earthworm to a paranoid-psychotic "evil" queen to a Holocaust survivor. In her off time she worked in Denali, AK, performing at the Cabin Nite Dinner Theatre, acting with the Alaska Shakespeare Co., and helping train sled dogs for the National Park Service.  Some favorite roles from her career include Dolly Gallagher Levi in “Hello, Dolly”, Bobby Gould in “Speed the Plow”, and Du in “Keely and Du”. She earned her MFA in Acting from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Ernest David Tsosie, III is a former Pima Community College student and started his acting career at the Pima College Center for the Arts as a PCC Drama student in the 1990’s. His first professional acting job was in the Borderlands Theater and San Francisco Mime Troupe co-production of the world premiere play “13 Days”/ “Treces Dias” – The Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas, Tsosie played the role of “Xun”. Borderlands production of “Dust Eaters”
will mark Ernie’s return to the Tucson area, as well as his return to the role of “Bone”. Ernie played “Bone” in the world premiere production of “Dust Eaters” for the Salt Lake Acting Company, in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2005.
Since his early student acting days at Pima College Ernie has been working in plays, TV, films, radio, and comedy. He is a dedicated actor and comedian and has been a full time working performer for the last six years. He is the co-founder of “James & Ernie Comedy” a Native American Comedy Duo starring himself Ernie Tsosie, and fellow performer James Junes of Farmington, New Mexico. Their DVD “James & Ernie-fied” won “Best Variety” at the International Cherokee Film Festival in 2005.
Ernie can be seen in the independent feature films “Mile Post 398” (2007, Sheephead Films), and “Turquoise Rose” (2007, Holt Hamilton Productions).
Ernie also played “Clem Allison” in the PBS movie of the week “Thief of Time” (2004).
        Community partners for “Dust Eaters” are Alianza Indigena sin
Fronteras and the Arizona State                     Museum office of
Ethno-Historical Research.

At A GLANCE:
DUST EATERS
by Julie Jensen
October 4-21, 2007
Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S 6th Ave
Tickets Prices: $10.75- $ 19.75 with various discounts. Season Flex Pass: 5 shows for$70.
Ticket Outlets: Borderlands Theater office (enter thru Jackson St.) and at the door.
RESERVATIONS: (520)882-7406


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