Oregon Origins Project IV
Artists and Presenters
Sara Jean Accuardi
playwright
Sara is an award-winning playwright whose work has been seen at Shaking the Tree Theatre, Vivid Stage, Theatre Vertigo, PlayMakers Repertory Company, the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Spooky Action Theater, The Blank Theatre, and Victory Gardens, among others. She has received the Oregon Book Award for Drama, Drammy Award for Outstanding Original Script, Leslie Bradshaw Fellowship for Drama, and she was the winner of the Inaugural International Thomas Wolfe Playwriting Competition. Sara Jean is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild and LineStorm Playwrights. She holds an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University.
Josie Seid
director
Josie is an all-around storyteller who is active in several aspects of theater making, working as an actor/singer, director, playwright, and teacher. She has directed productions in Portland including two world premieres: Hazardous Beauty with PassinArt and A Dark Sky Full of Stars with Vertigo. She is a proud member of the LineStorm Playwrights collective as well as the ART Playwrights group Squabble and Throb. Most recently, Anonymous Theater produced her collaborative work Fezziwig's Fortune with fellow LineStorm playwright Sara Jean Accuardi in 2022. She has produced several works in partnership with Linestorm, including the short plays Jordan’s Wisdom and The Portland Colored School: A Lesson in Reading Between the Lines. Her plays have been featured in Profile Theater’s 24 hour short play festivals, the Fertile Ground Festival, Reading Parlor, and Play At Home Project. Her short film Being Me in the Current America is a multiple award winner in festivals around the world. Josie is a resident artist with Artists Repertory Theater and has performed in shows with them as well as Shaking the Tree, Broadway Rose Theater Company, Vanport Mosaic Festival, and Portland Actors Ensemble. She is an international arts envoy for the United States and has performed in Egypt, representing the United States in the International CIFCET Theater Festival.
Taya Dixon
actor
Taya (Alsea/Tututni/Chetco/Sixes) received her BFA in Performance from Southern Oregon University. She is very excited to be a part of this new work for Oregon Origins Project, and to get a chance to create and play with some new artists and friends. Audiences may have seen her most recently in Our Utopia (as Columbia) at Bag&Baggage. Other recent shows include: Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry IV pt. 1-2 and Henry V, and Two Gentlemen of Verona at Original Practice Shakespeare; The Muskrat, 12 Angry Indians, and Butterfly for the Yale Indigenous Playwright Festival; and Hedda Gabler, Love's Labour's Lost, Silkworms, and Into the Woods at the Oregon Center for the Arts. Taya is currently working in education as a substitute teacher for the Hillsboro School District, and absolutely loves it. She loves singing, photography, and improv/sketch comedy, as she loves making people laugh and telling meaningful stories. She would like to thank her family for always telling her to reach for her dreams.
Mandy Khoshnevisan
technical director
Mandy is a multifaceted theater artist based in Portland, dedicated to creating wonder and delight, and helping people tap into their artistic potential. Over the past 25 years, she has taught theater arts to innumerable children ages preschool through high school, as well as created theater both improvised and scripted for and with adults. In the Portland area, her professional stage career has included work as an actor, improviser, voiceover artist, burlesque host, puppeteer, director, and choreographer; and as a designer of lights, costumes, sets, sound, and projections. She is currently the Technical Director, and a member of the resident artist company, at Bag&Baggage Productions in Hillsboro. In 2017, she published her first book, Managed Mischief, about improvisation and creativity. At home, she maintains an excess of books, art supplies, and impractical musical instruments.
Riley Lozano
stage manager
Riley Lozano is a Chicana storyteller, actor, dancer and stage manager. Working mostly behind the scenes, she helps facilitate and organize new works within the fat, queer, and BIPOC communities in Portland. Some of her favorite credits include dancing in Weighted Bodies, producing Dearest Eva for the big screen, and co-writing and performing in Not Coming Back — a comedy music video — with her best friend. Her hands are still bloody from playing Agave in The Bacchae. During her apprenticeship at the Portland Playhouse she wrote and starred in her solo show, Riley’s Radical Radiant Irreverent Radio show. She is a producer and deviser with Kryptic Films. Recently she stage managed for Hand2Mouth’s Time & Time Again. Over the summer she performed in Witch Hunt Theatre’s The Last Dance.
Nikko Macklin
assistant stage manager
Nikko Macklin is a theater maker passionate about arts, community organizing, and story, and the intersections between them. Nikko uses creative practice as a means to open the imagination and cultivate connection and understanding for impact. Recently, Nikko served as a stage manager for the world premiere of Tunnel City by Gray Ashford, and served as a backstage production assistant for the world premiere of Awe/Struck by Christopher Oscar Peña. Nikko would like to thank all of the teachers and artists who have shared their wisdom with her.
Maia McCarthy
actor
Maia McCarthy is an actor, teaching artist, and facilitator who loves nothing better than working with other artists to tell stories in real time. They have recently worked with H2M, Fuse, The Reformers, and Crave Theatre. One of their favorite experiences last year was opening The Common Opus composed by Emily Lau and premiered at the Winningstad Theatre in July 2023. They are so happy to be a part of Oregon Origins Project IV: Convergence and have the opportunity to collaborate with this phenomenal group of people.
Daniele McKay
geologist
Daniele is a Senior Instructor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon. She lives in Bend, Oregon and teaches online geology courses throughout the academic year, and field courses in central Oregon during the summer. Her research background is in physical volcanology with a focus on recent mafic eruptions in the central Oregon Cascades. She is also interested in how societies prepare for and respond to natural disasters, especially volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. She has worked with Deschutes County, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management, Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience, and the Red Cross on natural hazard preparedness and mitigation in central Oregon.
Jim O’Connor
geologist
Jim is a Research Geologist in the US Geological Survey’s Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center. He chiefly works on the geology and geomorphology of the Pacific Northwest. Jim majored in Geological Science at University of Washington and earned his MS and PhD degrees at the University of Arizona. Since 1991, he has worked at the US Geological Survey, intent on improving understanding of the processes and events that shape the remarkable and diverse landscapes of the Pacific Northwest.
Jayna Sweet
actor
Jayna is a Portland-based actor, writer, and producer, originally from Phoenix and Los Angeles. Recent notable stage credits include The Lightning Thief at Oregon Children’s Theatre, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and Red Velvet at Bag&Baggage, Blithe Spirit at Lakewood Theatre Company, and Proof at Gallery Theatre, where her portrayal of Catherine earned her the BroadwayWorld Regional Award for Best Performer in a Play. With a decade-long film and TV career in Los Angeles, Jayna contributed to projects like Lemonade Mouth, Turnt (40 episodes on Facebook), and the award-winning pilot No Place to Fall. As the Artistic Director of Stomping Grounds Arthouse, Jayna uplifts emerging artists and writers, fulfilling her lifelong dream of nurturing talent. Additionally, she endeavors to enrich the lives of young artists through teaching at Oregon Children’s Theater.
Oregon Origins Project III
Artists and Culture Bearers
Hii-ne Jake DePoe
multidisciplinary artist
Yashuwe’ Tututni Dené
Hii-ne Jake A. DePoe (she/her) is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon and a direct descendant of the Rogue Tututni-Dee-ni’ village of T’cemetunne at the mouth of that river into the Pacific Ocean. She is an artist writer and community advocate for Indigenous, queer, and neurodivergent issues, as well a board member for NAIC (Northwest American Indian Coalition). Hii-ne’s mission in the Dee-ni’ Indigenous creative world and the greater native west Americas is to bring light and visibility to the beautiful, artistic, creative, regionally massive and wholly unique culture of her peoples, the Dee-ni’. Huu-cha~’.
Oregon Origins Project II
Artists and Presenters
Matthew Packwood
director/composer
Matthew is director of Oregon Origins Project. He studied composition at Northwestern University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. Recent commissions include confrontation (2019) for Fear No Music and Wonderland Lullaby (2018) for the Oregon Symphony concert Musical Reflections of Oregon’s Ecosystem. For many years Matthew co-produced the WGBH Radio program of American classical music Art of the States, which received awards from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music and National Endowment for the Arts. A Portland resident since 2007, Matthew currently works at Reed College.
Makino Hayashi
choreographer
Makino is a choreographer, dancer, and filmmaker based in Portland. She was born in Kumamoto, Japan where she began ballet at Kumamoto Ballet Studio at the age of nine. She danced professionally with Colorado Ballet from 2002-2008, has guested with several companies in the US and Japan, and has been dancing with Oregon Ballet Theatre since 2010. She has been choreographing professionally since 2013. Recent works include The Message 2022 for the Artists Climate Collective Art 2 Action; and Beauty in you (2022) for the BB Dance Film Fest in Boulder, CO; and KIZUNA (2021) for the Portland City Arts Program’s Ten Tiny Community Healing Dances.
Keiko Araki
violin
A native of Vancouver, BC, Keiko was inspired to begin violin lessons at age seven after seeing Itzhak Perlman on Sesame Street. She received her BM from the Vancouver Academy of Music and a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, where she was a member of the Peabody Camerata contemporary music ensemble. Her primary teachers were Lawrie Hill, Gwen Thompson, and Herbert Greenberg. Keiko is a member of the Oregon Symphony, Fear No Music, and Portland Taiko.
Maia Hoffman
viola
Maia has performed with the Oregon Symphony since 2021. Originally from Portland, she grew up playing in the Portland Youth Philharmonic and studied with Joël Belgique and Brian Quincey. Maia earned her BM and completed one year of a Professional Studies degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Robert Vernon and Stanley Konopka. Passionate about historical performance, Maia also studied baroque viola with Julie Andrijeski at Case Western Reserve University and has performed with Apollo’s Fire and the Oregon Bach Festival.
Christopher Kaiser
dancer
Christopher is from Los Angeles, where he trained at Los Angeles High School for the Arts. Afterward, he was accepted to The Juilliard School, where he graduated with a BFA and danced in the Edinburgh International Festival. He danced with Alberta Ballet for three seasons before joining Oregon Ballet Theatre in 2016, where he was promoted to soloist in 2021. He has enjoyed performing roles such as Nacho Duato’s Gnawa, William Forsythe’s Herman Schmerman, Nicolo Fonte’s Left Unsaid and Giants Before Us, and Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella as a Step Sister.
Isaac Lee
dancer
Isaac was born in Billings, Montana and started dancing after moving to Eugene, Oregon at the age of 12. He began training at the Oregon Ballet Academy under John Grensback, and later danced with Eugene Ballet Academy in their pre-professional program. He attended Houston Ballet Academy’s summer intensive and pre-professional training program between 2017-19. Isaac performed with Syracuse City Ballet and Eugene Ballet Company before joining Oregon Ballet Theatre in 2021.
Jessica Lind
dancer
Jessica is from San Jose, California, where she began training at Dance Theatre International. Following one year at San Francisco Ballet School, she joined OBT in 2011 and has served as principal dancer since 2022. Her favorite OBT performances include William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, George Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Nicolo Fonte’s Left Unsaid, and Trey McIntyre’s Robust American Love.
Michael Linsmeier
dancer
Michael was raised on a family dairy farm in Cato, Wisconsin. He trained at Jean Wolfmeyer School of Dance and at Virginia School of the Arts under Petrus Bosman. He joined Milwaukee Ballet before joining OBT’s corps de ballet (2011) and was later promoted to soloist (2013).
Ian Madin
geologist
Ian grew up spending summers backpacking and rafting in California, Oregon, and Idaho. His love of the outdoors led him to study geology, earning a BA from UC Berkeley and MS from Oregon State University. In 1987 Ian began a long career at the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) that included work on earthquake and landslide hazards and geologic mapping. For many years Ian served as DOGAMI’s Chief Scientist, with stints as Interim Director and Assistant Director until his retirement in 2022. Ian enjoys sharing his love of geology with others, working as a river guide and ride-along geologist for Cycle Oregon. Ian recently discovered a passion for stone carving and now spends way too much time in his studio, messing about with rocks collected from the wilds of Oregon.
Valdine Ritchie Mishkin
cello
Valdine performs with Third Angle New Music, Fear No Music, 45th Parallel, Portland Cello Project, Duo Apaixionado, and on occasion with the Oregon Symphony. A champion of new music, she has premiered works by composers John Luther Adams, Kenji Bunch, Nancy Ives, and Karim Al-Zand. Beginning studies at age three and making her solo debut at age 10 with the Winnipeg Symphony, she has since performed concerti with the Sunnyside Symphony, Chehalem Symphony, and Mercury Ensemble. Valdine is on faculty at Reed College, has a private studio, and serves as an adjudicator, coach, clinician, and conference presenter. She holds degrees from Rice University under Lynn Harrell and Norman Fischer, and McGill University under Antonio Lysy.
Inés Voglar Belgique
violin
Inés studied music under “El Sistema” and came to the US States in 1996 to complete her BM and MM from Duquesne and Carnegie Mellon Universities. She is in her 14th season with Fear No Music, and served as its Artistic Director from 2005-2011. She joined the Oregon Symphony in 2004, and in 2012 became its Assistant Principal Second Violin. Inés is a faculty member at Lewis & Clark College and Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, conductor of the Portland Youth String Ensemble since 2015, and member of the Palatine Piano Trio. Her most influential teachers were Roberto Valdes and Andrés Cárdenes. Since 2018 Inés has been a part of Venezuela’s Voice in Oregon, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing aid to centers in need in Venezuela.
Oregon Origins Project I
Artists and Culture Bearers
Aiyanna Brown
musician, storyteller
Komemma Kalapuya/Hanis Coos
Aiyanna is a descendant of the Komemma Kalapuya and Hanis Coos tribes and a member of the Confedered Tribes of Siletz Indians. She has been actively involved in preserving the Kalapuya language through a new dictionary and language lessons.
Jake DePoe
multidisciplinary artist
Yashuwe’ Tututni Dené
Jake A. DePoe is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon and a direct descendant of the Rogue Tututni-Dee-ni’ village of T’cemetunne at the mouth of that river into the Pacific Ocean. She is an artist writer and community advocate for Indigenous, queer, and neurodivergent issues, as well a board member for NAIC (Northwest American Indian Coalition). Jake’s mission in the Dee-ni’ Indigenous creative world and the greater native west Americas is to bring light and visibility to the beautiful, artistic, creative, regionally massive and wholly unique culture of her peoples, the Dee-ni’. Huu-cha~’.
Fred A. Hill, Sr. (Táwtalikš)
singer
Umatilla/Cayuse/Yakama/Nez Perce
Fred was born in Pendleton and raised by grandparents and an uncle after his parents died in his infancy. Raised in Pilot Rock, his grandmother, Annie Jo, spoke to him in the Umatilla Yakama dialects and the Nez Perce language. Fred said when he started public school he knew little English and focused intently on mastering the language. Due to racial tension he left Pilot Rock to attend the Chemewa boarding school in Salem. There he had the opportunity to get back into traditional drumming and singing, run cross country and play basketball. Before returning to the Umatilla Reservation, Fred attended colleges in Salem, Lawrence, Kansas, and Santa Fe and lived on the Yakama Reservation where he married.
A teacher at Nixyaawii Community School in Pendleton and editor of a Umatilla dictionary, Fred shares his knowledge of language, singing, drumming, and traditional culture with his students. An avid big drum powwow singer and longhouse religious singer, Fred is often asked to conduct naming, first deer or elk killed, or fish salmon caught ceremonies. A self-described, “happy husband, happy grandfather,” Fred is an avid reader of history and is delving into his family’s early history. He is a known presence at the Homeland Project’s Tamkaliks and attends other celebrations as a drummer and singer.
Justin Quaempts
mixed media artist
Cayuse/Walla Walla
Justin Quaempts is an Indigenous/Native American self-taught mixed media artist who specializes in freehand spray paint/graffiti-style abstract art. Justin was born and raised on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in eastern Oregon, and after a great life journey off-reservation for a few years, it’s where he and his family still reside today. A former Major League Baseball draft pick of the Texas Rangers, NCAA Division I baseball player, and graduate from Oklahoma State University, Justin currently coaches softball for Pendleton High School, and gives private lessons as a hitting coach as well.
Shannin Stutzman
musician, storyteller
Komemma Kalapuya/Hanis Coos
Shannin was raised in the traditions of her ancestors, the Komemma Kalapuya and Hanis Coos. Stutzman has a lifetime of experience in education and traditional youth summer camp administration. She serves as the cultural director for a Native American youth camp and has given presentations on Kalapuya history, singing, drumming, and storytelling in schools, universities, and libraries for over 20 years. She is deeply involved in the Kalapuya Language project, serving as curriculum writer and researcher.
Wilson Wewa
storyteller
Northern Paiute/Palouse
Wilson Wewa has been involved with tribal language, culture, and lifeways throughout his life. He was raised on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central Oregon. As a child he spent countless hours hearing the stories of his family, tribe, and past lifeways as they pertained to his life. Later, Wilson traveled extensively with his family and especially his grandmother to other parts of the Great Basin where he met many other Northern Paiute elders that added to his knowledge of his people. He continues to be called upon by his people as an orator, storyteller, and funerary officiate. Wilson works for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs as the Senior Wellness Coordinator, a position he has held since 1980, and is consulted by other tribes and organizations in the United States on elders’ issues. More recently, he was invited as a guest lecturer to the prestigious College of William & Mary in Virginia to speak on Native American issues that related to health, spirituality, environment, and treaty rights as they pertain to water and land. He also works with the University of Oregon and Oregon State University as a consultant on Northern Paiute history and ethnobotany. Recently, he wrote a book entitled Legends of the Northern Paiute, which was printed by Oregon State University Press and is being sold through Amazon. Wilson continues to be called to lecture at museums and venues around the Northwest.
Justin Quaempts, If the mountains could talk (2021-22) [detail]