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History

Though MAPP made its official debut in community in August 2005 with a week-long residency at the Native American Youth and Family Center in Portland, OR, its roots extend back more than a decade.

While serving as a mentor artist for the Virginia Avenue Project (Santa Monica, CA) in the mid‘90s, Thomas Kellogg was asked by Artistic Director Leigh Curran to assist her in conducting Playmaking sessions for the project youth. A few months later, Tom had the opportunity to work with Playmaking creator Daniel Sklar, and studied Daniel’s techniques firsthand. The following year, Tom was asked by Leigh Curran and Frederick Rule to conduct a writing program with Wilshire West, an alternative school for at risk teens in Santa Monica, CA. Tom became the Playmaking Director for the Virginia Avenue Project and conducted various in-house playwriting programs, along with continuing to develop the program at Wilshire West, over the next few years. Through The Virginia Avenue Project, he implemented another outreach writing program at Hollygrove Children’s Residential Facility.

In 1996, Tom was invited to Portland, OR, to conduct playwriting workshops with the newly formed Haven Project, an underserved youth theater program working in conjunction with the Portland Trailblazers Youth Center. During his four-year tenure, he created a mentor handbook with Tania Myren, designed and implemented the playwriting mentoring program for the Haven Afield Playwriting Projects at the Clinton Alternative School, the White Shield home for teen mothers, Rosemont Young Women’s Detention Center, St Mary’s School for Boys, and various teen substance rehabilitation centers and alternative high school programs in the Portland area. He conducted mentor orientation workshops with University of Portland and Portland State University students and trained the professional artist mentors, all of whom continued his work after his departure in 2000.

Concurrently, in 1998, Tom co-founded the San Francisco Bay Area’s Each One, Reach One, designed to work with incarcerated and on-probation juveniles. As Artistic Director, Tom designed all playwriting programs, artist recruitment, and mentor orientations. He designed and implemented programs at the Youth Guidance Center (YGC), Thornton Alternative High School, Hillcrest Juvenile Facility, and other locations.

While working with the Haven Project and Each One, Reach One, Tom experimented with a more sophisticated method, introducing a series of writing exercises which address the concepts of crisis, urgency, possible consequences, character motivation, sensory work, and theme. He restructured workshops according to what he saw as the unique dynamic of the one-to-one mentor artist to young writer relationship. This restructuring has evolved over the years, and allowed for a more accessible process for writer and mentor alike.

In 2001, Tom was invited by the Autry National Center to design and implement the Young Playwrights Project (YPP) in conjunction with their Native Voices at the Autry program. Working with young people from the Native American Clubhouse and the Southern California Indian Center, Thomas served as Artistic Director/Lead Artist for five years in this outstanding annual program for urban Native youth.

In 2003, Tom finished a 6 year residency with the Each One, Reach One organization and founded the Mentor Artists Playwrights Project (MAPP.)

In 2004, Tom invited Myra Donnelley to partner with him in developing the MAPP organization.  During 2004-05, with Myra's assistance, Tom created and implemented the Autry’s YPP Reservation Outreach program at the Coeur d’Alene Tribal School in DeSmet, ID. This outstanding demonstration project brought sixth, seventh, and eighth graders from the Coeur d’Alene Tribal School together with Master Directing and Writing Students from the University of Idaho, Moscow, for a two-week in-school writing workshop. 

This workshop was followed by a 10-day actor residency that brought Native American theater, film, and television actors from Los Angeles to the Inland Northwest to present the plays in a series of professional staged readings in community. Actor mentors included Thirza Defoe (Oneida/Ojibwe), Andrew Roa (Shasta/Aztec), Delanna Studi (Cherokee), Kalani Queypo (Hawaiian/Blackfeet), Princess Lucaj (Gwitch’in Athabascan), and Elena Finney (Mescalero Apache/Tarascan). Community venues for the staged readings included the Hartung Theatre at the University of Idaho, the Tribal School, the Plummer Middle School, the Rose Creek Longhouse, the Museum of Art and Culture in Spokane, WA, and the auditorium/theater at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene. More than 3,000 people were able to attend these readings and the Native actors participated in two North Idaho College Forum television shows taped for local PBS stations, reaching potentially thousands more in the viewing area. The program received positive press coverage from local and national papers including the Spokesman Review, the Coeur d’Alene Press, the U of I Argonaut and Indian Country Today.

In August 2005, MAPP ran its inaugural writing program at the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA)  in Portland, OR. An intensive one-week summer workshop culminated in a performance of traditional Native American dance and song by guest mentor, Thirza Defoe (Oneida/Ojibwe), and a staged reading of the young writers’ original plays by professional Portland actors.

In March 2006, more than 800 people shared these plays read by Native actors Andrew Roa, Thirza Defoe, Elena Finney, DeLanna Studi, and 13 local Portland artists including, Elle Poindexter, Francesca Sanders, Rick Sanders, Kam Sisco, Dainichia Sullwood, Patrick Wohlmut, Chris Harder, Sokrates Frantzis, Kimberley Wilson, Debbie Hunter, Jason Maniccia, Michele Mariana, and Michael Mendelson. The plays were read at Chemawa Indian School in Salem, the Portland State University Native American Students and Community Center, the Hollywood Library, and McMenamins Kennedy School. KATU/Channel 2’s AM Northwest featured hoop dancer Thirza Defoe and NAYA young writers at the Kennedy School, teaching reporter Corinna Allen some dance moves. MAPP returned to the Coeur d’Alene Tribal School in DeSmet, ID, in October 2006 for a writing workshop at the Tribal School and community readings of short plays and monologue work.

In November 2006, MAPP returned to NAYA (Portland) at their new center to conduct a playwriting mentoring project with a new group of students.

In March 2007, MAPP conducted a series of readings in Portland, OR, from the NAYA playwriting workshops.

2008  has been busy and exciting with programs, funding and development happening  all over Indian Country.  Contact us for the latest in podcasts, photos, newsletters, video, press releases, and more.    



 
 
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