The Thanksgiving Play

Brittni is overjoyed to make her first appearance at Sierra Repertory Theatre. She is a long time Company Member at B Street Theatre and a regular guest artist at Capital Stage in Sacramento. Some of her favorite past roles include Nora in A Doll’s House (CapStage), Sylvia in Tribes (CapStage), Sally Ride in Ride, Sally Ride (B Street), Michele in Love and Baseball (B Street Theatre, Theatre L’Homme Dieu, Minnesota), Maisie in Insertion (winner of the 2024 New Comedies Festival, B Street) and playing Elizabeth Bennet eight times over the span of ten years (CapStage). She studied theatre at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts CAP21 program as well as at CSU Sacramento. She currently lives in San Diego and does fun commercials for companies like Lume, Glamnetic, Fairytales Hair Care, Lomi, DudeWipes, and many, many more. Thank you to Jerry and Scott for this exciting opportunity!

Dane is a Los Angeles based actor and fight choreographer. He most recently directed the combat for Sierra Rep’s The Shawshank Redemption and The Three Musketeers. Previous favorites include She Kills Monsters, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and anytime he can get his hands on a shakespearean duel. His background is in competitive fencing, martial arts, and parkour, but the best training came from falling out of trees as a child. The concussions don’t seem to have affected him all that badly.

Joelle Ziebell (Alicia) is an NYC based actor who is BEYOND excited to make her Sierra Rep debut!  Off-Broadway: Medea: A Musical Comedy. Regional: The Glass Menagerie, Henry V (Murphys Creek Theatre), Jersey Boys (Short North Stage, The Milton Theatre), The Addams Family, Saturday Night Fever, The Rocky Horror Show, Quarantine With the Clauses (Short North Stage), Boeing Boeing (Chenango River Theatre), The Bikinis (Circa ‘21 Playhouse), The Patient (Live Business UK). Commercial (select): Microsoft, Windows, Kate Spade, Pace Salsa. Other: The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon’s Tonightmares, Nina West’s Heels of Horror, 54 Below: Return to Woodstock Concert, SAGA Luxury Cruises, West End Does: Christmas, Bliss: The Musical Workshop (ATG), The Devil’s Advocate Workshop (ATG). Education: MFA Musical Theatre (Guildford School of Acting), BS Psychology (The Ohio State University). Love to her family, friends, and Ben!

Brendan is absolutely thrilled to be making his Sierra Rep Debut in these two hysterical productions! The son of two Air Force Colonels, Brendan received his BFA in Acting from Oklahoma City University, and is currently living as an actor and voice actor in Los Angeles. He was recently seen as Ariel in The Tempest with Chanticleer Shakespeare, and Brutus in Julius Caesar with Shakespeare by the Sea. Other stage credits include: Almost, Maine (Rubicon Theatre); Boeing Boeing (Village Barn Playhouse); Much Ado About Nothing (Oklahoma City Rep); Macbeth (The Classical Theatre of Maryland); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Colorado Springs FAC); Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Classical Tahoe). Brendan has also recorded several national radio commercials and audiobooks, including his recent narration of the finale of the Side Quest Row Trilogy, A Draught for a Dragon (now on Audible). He gives thanks and love to the cast and crew, his beautiful friends and family, and to Zach, of course. For Dad.

Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota Nation) is an award-winning writer and 2020-2025 MacArthur Fellow. Her satirical comedy The Thanksgiving Play made her the first known female Native American playwright on Broadway, at the Helen Hayes under the direction of Rachel Chavkin. Her new plays in 2023 are Wicoun (Cornerstone Theater Company), Democracy Project (Federal Hall), Fake It Until You Make It (CTG Mark Taper Forum), For the People (Guthrie), and the national tour of Peter Pan (Networks). Selected past plays include What Would Crazy Horse Do? (KCRep), Landless and Cow Pie Bingo (AlterTheater), Average Family (Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis) and Teaching Disco Squaredancing to Our Elders: a Class Presentation (Native Voices at the Autry), as well as numerous productions of The Thanksgiving Play, making it one of the most produced plays in America.

Larissa created the nationally recognized trilogy of community engaged theatrical experiences with Cornerstone Theater Company; Urban Rez, Native Nation and Wicoun. She and her collaborator, Michael John Garcés, spend years on each project in an Indigenized community engagement process. “The engagement itself is the art form.” These projects have earned them national funding and an appointment to Arizona State University’s Department of English as professors of practice (literature).

Larissa’s company with Ty Defoe, Indigenous Direction, recently produced the first land acknowledgement on national television for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC and continues to consult for them. They also consult for the largest theater organizations in the country.

Larissa also writes in film and television, most recently as a creator for NBC, Disney Channel, Dreamworks, Muse, Netflix and others. She is based in Los Angeles with her husband, the sculptor Edd Hogan, and represented by Jonathan Mills at Paradigm NY. She is especially honored to follow in the footsteps of the last known Native American playwright on Broadway, Lynn Riggs. hoganhorsestudio.com

Photo Credit: Conor Horgan

Scott Viets is Sierra Rep’s Executive Producer. He has directed over 60 shows for SRT since his arrival in 2002. As a director, his SRT favorites include The Wizard of Oz, Intimate Apparel, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Christmas Story, All My Sons, Shipwrecked, The Robber Bridegroom, and The Glass Menagerie. Thank you for supporting live theatre and continuing (or beginning) your journey with us!

Jerry Lee is Sierra Rep’s Artistic Director. He’s appeared in the SRT productions of Misery, Sunday in the Park with George, Elf The Musical, Shrek The Musical, Camelot, Cabaret, Route 66, Intimate Apparel, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Man of La Mancha, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s State Fair, and The Drowsy Chaperone. As an actor: I Love You…Change, Forbidden Broadway (California Musical Theatre); Life Could Be a Dream, A Christmas Carol (CenterREP); A Little Princess, The Fantasticks (Sacramento Theatre Company); West Side Story (Mountain Play); Orlando, An Iliad, A Tale of Two Cities (SacImpulse Theatre). As a soloist: Rodgers and Hammerstein Celebration (Sacramento Choral Society); Billy Bigelow in Carousel in Concert (Sacramento Philharmonic). As a director: HAIR, Little Shop of Horrors, Mean Girls JR., Sh-Boom! A Christmas Miracle (World Premiere), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Twelfth Night, Jersey Boys, Clue, Disney’s Winnie the Pooh KIDS, Elvis The Musical (West Coast Premiere), Dogfight, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Steel Magnolias, Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka KIDS, I Love You…Change, The Wizard of Oz, Holiday Jukebox, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, The Robber Bridegroom (SRT); I Love You…Change (STC). Lee began his association with Sierra Rep in 2010 when he stepped in as a replacement in Guys and Dolls.

In 2019, Lee created SRT in Schools, a touring program that brings live professional theatre to Tuolumne County schools at no cost to the schools, students, or their families. In 2023, the program branched out to include Stanislaus and Calaveras counties.

Janetta is very pleased to be working once again in a loving and professional theatre! She received her MFA from New York University. Coming from a broad base she has managed several costume shops, worked as an assistant for Broadway and numerous regional theaters. Additionally, she was a member of Elsen Associates, the wig and makeup company. Some of her favorite work venue’s include Washington Opera, Sesame Street Live, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Alice Tully Hall, The Denver Center, Philadelphia Street Theater, Jacobs’ Pillow and Central City Opera.  Favorite shows which she has been able to design are: The Comedy of Errors, The Threepenny Opera, Tartuffe, Electra, The Turn of the Screw, Blood Wedding, Noises Off and Ragtime.

Christopher is always excited to work with Sierra Rep. SRT: Shrek The Musical, Baskerville, Man of La Mancha, Sweeney Todd, and Macbeth. Christopher lives in New York now, with his wife Christine Rowan and their daughter Vivian. He is known for his succinct bios.

Brenda O’Brien began her theater career in San Diego, where she was seen as Judas in Godspell, Louise in Gypsy, Nicki in Sweet Charity, and Viola in Twelfth Night (to name a few). She received awards for her roles as Ouisa in Six Degrees of Separation, Joan in Dames at Sea, Aldonza in Man of La Mancha, and Electra in Gypsy. Brenda then went on to perform as Svetlana in the 1st National tour of Chess. Soon after she began portraying Carmen San Diego on the PBS television show and video games. In addition to acting, Brenda is an accomplished make-up artist and hairdresser for TV, Film, and Theater. She received her 25 years on Broadway pin in 2019 for her work on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Les Misérables, Jekyll & Hyde, and Disney’s The Lion King. SRT Audiences might remember her as Tanya in Mamma Mia (2018), or as Tootie in Meet Me in St. Louis (2021). So glad to be back!

Maggie Braun (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be back at her theatre home! SRT: Steel Magnolias, Murder on the Orient Express, Route 66, The Wizard of Oz, Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, and Million Dollar Quartet. With her associate degree in Theater from Modesto Junior College, she is proud to have her dream job here in Sonora. She would like to thank her family, best friends, and Connor for supporting her in her journey of chasing her dreams. “Look ma, I made it!”