Ty Defoe

Ty Defoe is an Ojibwe and Oneida performance artist, activist, and writer living in New York.

Defoe grew up in Wisconsin in the Ojibwe and Oneida communities of his parents. Defoe is two-spirit,[1] a term used in many Native American nations to indicate gender fluidity, non-traditional gender roles, or queerness.[2] He began his performative life as a toddler when he learned to hoop dance. Ty continues to hoop dance in his performances, along with eagle dancing, puppetry, and other various art forms.[3] With Lakota playwright and choreographer Larissa Fasthorse, Defoe founded Indigenous Direction, a "a consulting firm that helps organizations and individuals who want to create accurate work by, for and with Indigenous peoples."[4] Indigenous Direction's clients include The Guthrie Theater.[5]

Career

Defoe holds degrees from the California Institute of the Arts, Goddard College, and New York University's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at Tisch School of the Arts.[6] He works with indigenous populations such as the Alaska Native Heritage Center and the Hawaiian Playwrights Initiative, among others. He is also a member of the youth council at the East Coast Two-Spirit Society. He received a Grammy award for Best Native American Music Album for his work on Come to Me Great Mystery: Native American Healing Songs.[7] Defoe is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

DeFoe has written, produced, and performed in many theatre productions, including Clouds are Pillows for the Moon, In the Cards, Heather Henson's Flight: A Crane’s Story, Tick,Tick, and Honor +Family. Additionally, he collaborated on the Grammy Award-winning album, Come to Me Great Mystery, featuring the work of several Native American musicians. Beginning in June 2018, he, with Kate Bornstein, portrayed stage versions of themselves as "interlocutors of indeterminate gender" in the Broadway premiere of Young Jean Lee's play Straight White Men.[8][9][10]

List of Theatre Works
Name Collaborators Production History Year
Clouds Are Pillows For the Moon Book and Lyrics: Ty Defoe

Music: Tidtaya Sinutoke

 Collaborative Development Production (CDP) Workshop

Yale Institute for Music Theatre

B-Side Production

New York University

 2014

2014

2014

2013

In the Cards Book and Lyrics: Ty Defoe

Music: Tidtaya Sinutoke

 Boston-International Contempo Festival

New York University

 2014

2013

Heather Henson's Flight: A Crane's Story Play & Consulting: Ty Defoe

Producing and Story: Heather Henson
Tick, Tick Book and Lyrics: Ty Defoe

Music: Tidtaya Sinutoke

 Prospect Theatre Company Lab-West End Theatre 2014
Honor + Family Lyrics: Ty Defoe

Book: Nolan Doran

Music: Collin Martin

 West Village Musical Theatre Lab 2012

References
    1. "ty_defoe". ty_defoe. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
    2. "How Two-Spirit Fits into LGBTQ America". The FADER. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
    3. Stony Brook University (April 6, 2017), Five Questions With Ty Defoe, retrieved September 16, 2018
    4. Group, TCG: Theatre Communications. "2017 Fall Forum on Governance: Turning the Tide". tcg.org. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
    5. "TCG Fall Forum: A Collegial Conversation About Systemic Challenges". AMERICAN THEATRE. December 1, 2017. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
    6. "artEquity ty defoe". website-8. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
    7. "51st Annual GRAMMY Awards". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. November 28, 2017. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
    8. Stasio, Marilyn (July 24, 2018). "Broadway Review: 'Straight White Men' With Armie Hammer, Josh Charles". Variety. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
    9. "Review: 'Straight White Men,' Now Checking Their Privilege on Broadway". Retrieved September 4, 2018.
    10. "The Soullessness of 'Straight White Men'". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
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