Excerpts, talkbacks and Q&A with special guests
providing health and healing education and advocacy.
Wednesday November 25 at 7:30pm
A Thanksgiving Celebration Honoring Native Americans and Indigenous Peoples
featuring
Leland Faulkner
Walker Between Worlds
Walker Between Worlds brings traditional Native American tales and legends to life with the simple magic of unforgettable characters like the trickster Coyote and the magical web weaving Grandmother Spider. These creative tales of wonder and entertaining lessons from the first Americans are a gift and legacy to future generations. Native American Leland Faulkner shares stories from his stage show and in conversation about Indigenous American tradition, practices, strides, and frictions.
About the Performer
Leland Faulkner is a Native American. His mother was from the Bad River Band of Chippewa Indians in Odenah, Wisconsin and his father was a Shoshone Bannock from Fort Hall, Idaho.
Leland has travelled the path of theatre for over thirty years. His parents were part of the Foreign Service and Leland grew up with an international background, his parents being posted in Afghanistan, Iran, and Africa. When Leland stepped onto the path of the creative artist his performances took him to festivals and on tours all over the U.S. to Canada, Russia, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Spain, and Turkey. Experiencing life in multiple cultures inspired the title for his program Walker Between Worlds.
Leland is the former owner and artistic director of Celebration Barn Theater in S. Paris, Maine. He trained at the feet of the great mime artist Tony Montanaro, worked and taught with mask master Bari Rolfe and many other renowned teachers. He holds a degree in Motion Picture Studies from Brooks Institute.
Leland is a professional touring artist, performance coach, film and theater director, and performance deviser. This work has been the foundation of his career. Leland’s creative endeavors include his programs for schools World of Wonder and Visions of Peace, the original comedy production Parade, an original devised production for ensemble titled Shadowplay at Virginia Commonwealth University, teaching working professionals at The Very Physical Comedy Institute, inspiring other teachers at the Tennessee Arts Academy, and teaching movement for opera singers at The Castleton Artists Training Seminar. He was recently the physical comedy director for The St. Louis Repertory Theatre’s hit production of One Man Two Guvnors.
Leland teaches workshops, coaches professional performers, and has directed the award winning fiction film The King O’ Cats, the documentary Theater and Inspiration, and multiple broadcast television programs like Inside Santa Barbara and Nuestra Ciudad for the City of Santa Barbara.
As a director, he has inspired actors, clowns, storytellers, mimes, and magicians using his years of experience and abilities as a creative deviser to elevate their work.
Walker Between Worlds is a harvest of favorite and traditional Native stories that speak to all of us through the wisdom of the first Americans.
ABOUT SOLO ARTS HEAL
Solo performers present real-life, empowering stories. Transformative experiences for audiences. A theater of resilience that celebrates overcoming mental and physical life challenges and offers hope and inspiration. SOLO ARTS HEAL includes excerpts, talkbacks, and Q&A that provide education and advocacy. Readings or clips of performances will be shared by artists in conversation with Gail Schickele, whose work as a manager and producer of solo artists inspired collaboration of performing arts presenters with artists on a medical track based on their personal experience. The collective creative vision? To help communities through educational outreach and the healing power of the Arts.
About the Host
Gail Schickele (Host) champions arts & sciences taking her left and right brain wherever she travels. As an arts manager, consultant, and producer dba SAGE Artists, she convened an ‘Arts Heals’ group of solo artists at APAP 2020 whose unique stories of physical and mental challenges evince the healing power of The Arts. The COVID lockdown inspired Stephanie Weisman to create SOLO ARTS HEAL to share these outstanding stories of resilience, dramatic and comedic, for the entertainment and benefit of communities everywhere. Gail’s expertise in marketing, management, booking and production has served various theaters, festivals and events nationwide. Trained as a journalist in New York and Colorado, Gail has covered Colorado state politics and the environmental landscape of the Rockies. Environmental science inspires her educational and advocacy work in California with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, and for the League of Women Voters for which she’s worked as an administrator and reporter on environmental issues Including legislation, climate science outreach, and co-chair of an environmental speakers series. Gail is honored to host SOLO ARTS HEAL where artists powerful stories offer audiences great performance and ‘informance’ on issues related to health and the environment, inexorably linked.