By Eddie Chuculate
The Guthrie Theater’s free five-session acting from a Native perspective class reached capacity so quickly that workshop leader and actor Ernest Briggs (White Earth) hopes to see another one this summer or fall.
“I was shocked that it filled up so fast,” said Briggs, 40, of Minneapolis. “We wanted to keep it small so that everyone has a chance to get up (on stage) and work with a scene partner during the two hours.”
Fourteen Native participants mainly from the Twin Cities are enrolled in the spring class, held on Saturdays from 10 a.m.-noon, titled “Acting for Indigenous Performers: Scene Study.” The workshop began on Sat., April 19, and concludes Sat., May 24. According the theater’s website, “Participants will dig into cold reading, script analysis, character work and an introduction to the Meisner Technique that will lead to a final showcase — all in an environment created by, for and with Native voices.”
Briggs, whose Guthrie acting debut was from Oct. 7-Nov. 12, 2023, in “For the People,” written by Ty Defoe (Ojibwe/Oneida) and Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota), said at least half of the participants, who range in age from 17 to around 50, have no previous acting experience. One participant is from Oklahoma and a mother-daughter duo travel from Brainerd near the Mille Lacs Reservation, Briggs said.
“They (participants) might work in an office or something and said it was just something they always wanted to do,” Briggs said. “To break out of their comfort zone and do something they’ve never done before.”
Others like Kija Deer (Red Lake) and Sam Aros-Mitchell (Texas Band of Yaqui Indians), both of the Twin Cities, have acting and performing experience and are seeking to hone their skills, Briggs said. Previous acting experience is not required and the age limit is high school and up, according the Special Events tab on the Guthrie’s website.
Briggs, who grew up in Minneapolis and holds an MFA in theater/acting from the University of Florida and a bachelor’s from the University of St. Thomas, said this is the first time he’s taught scene study at the Guthrie. In the past he’s taught introduction to acting. He’s pulling from scripts he’s familiar with by Charles Mee, and wants to include Native playwrights such as William S. Yellow Robe Jr. (Assiniboine) and FastHorse.
Participants work with a partner in two-person scenes.
“We do a lot of physical work and make them use their voices to get more confidence. … I look at acting as a muscle, and muscles get flabby if you don’t use them,” said Briggs, who last month performed the lead role of Berenger in a 10-show run of Romanian-French absurdist Eugene Ionesco’s 1959 play “Rhinoceros,” presented by Pangea World Theater at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis.
“You need to always be working on your monologue or acting in scenes, getting something from the other actors. Your character is angry, but you need to know why he’s angry,” said Briggs, who’s also the artistic director at Twin Cities-based Turtle Theater Collective. “I always ask them (participants), ‘What do you want to get out of it?’ Some say to gain skills to get casted more. Hopefully, they’re more comfortable when they leave class and better at what they want to do.”
Briggs, who also teaches introduction to acting and theater appreciation at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., said for those who experience stage fright, knowledge of your lines is a must.
“The only way to beat it is to know the script backwards and forwards,” he said. “If you don’t, it (an actor’s performance) tends to spiral. It’s all about working that acting muscle.”
Briggs has worked in film, TV, stage and commercials for over 10 years, appearing in theaters in Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Florida. In addition to the recent “Rhinoceros” production, he had a supporting role in the film “Unholy Communion,” which ran at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival in April and was picked as a Best of Fest. Briggs said the movie has been selected for five more festivals and landed a streaming deal.
He said he became interested in acting because his father took him to a lot of movies when Briggs was young, including “Dances With Wolves,” not exactly a kid-oriented film. And at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, Briggs began performing in musicals directed by Philippines native and “South Side legend” Lita Malicsi.
He thinks growing up in such a theater- and arts-oriented city like Minneapolis gave him more opportunities to “see theater, perform and get my work out to the community.”
And the Guthrie, where Briggs sits on the Native Advisory Council (NAC), has stepped up Native outreach in recent years, aided by playwright/screenwriter Blossom Johnson (Dine), community engagement associate for the theater. On April 22, the Guthrie hosted Minneapolis-based comedian Trish Cook’s (Anishinaabe) “Death, Grief and Dying: Indigenous Humor While Crying” with special guest Deanna StandingCloud (Red Lake Nation of Anishinaabe).
Other NAC members include Thomas Draskovic (Hunkphapa Lakhota/Wahpe Khute Dakhota), Sequoia Hauck (Anishinaabe/Hupa), Cindi Martin (Anishinaabe), Samuel Osborne-Huerta (Latinx-European descent), Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) and Adrienne Zimiga-January (Oglala Lakota Sioux).
The Guthrie also held the Native Artists Pop-Up Market on April 26, which featured work from a curated group of local Native artisans and makers, and included the Native-owned Frybread Factory food truck.
The production of “For the People” drew enthusiastic big audiences and gave Briggs (as Levi Mitchell) a chance to perform alongside noted Cherokee actor Wes Studi (“Dances With Wolves,” “Heat,” “The Last of the Mohicans”), who played Herb O’Geezhik.
“It was probably one of the best experiences of my life, to tell you the truth,” Briggs said. “To get to work with someone you grew up watching in cinema and TV, it felt surreal but was also some of the best fun I ever had. We ran that show for a month and a half, but I tell everybody right now I’d do it again, that’s how much fun I had.”
Over the five years leading the Native acting class at the Guthrie, Briggs also taught actor Nathaniel TwoBears (Ho-Chunk Nation). TwoBears went on to perform in “For the People,” “The Tempest” and “A Christmas Carol” at the Guthrie and had a role in Twin Cities-based New Native Theatre’s (NNT) “The Nut, The Hermit, The Crow and The Monk,” written and co-directed by NNT’s artistic director Rhiana Yazzie (Navajo). That show ran from April 16 to May 4 at the Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul.
Briggs sees a melding between a Twin Cities region that ranks among the highest in the country in both urban Native population and theater seats per capita, behind only New York City. The Guthrie has added to that mix, Briggs said.
“Nathaniel (TwoBears) and Adrienne (Zimiga-January) have really made a commitment to that,” Briggs said. “How do we go beyond the land acknowledgment, how are you making the Guthrie a place for Natives to come and see shows, and have programs, classes and events.”
The programs are helping Natives get more engaged in theater, Briggs believes.
“How are we helping the next generation of Indigenous artists?” Briggs said. “Things like ‘For the People,’ classes and Indigenous vendors make the (Native) community feel like they’re represented.”
Future interested participants can check the website at guthrietheater.org or call 612-225-6000.
