Meet the Staff
Rhiana Yazzie
Artistic Director and Founder
Rhiana Yazzie is a 2025 United States Artist Fellow. She is also a Lanford Wilson and Steinberg Award winning playwright, a director, and filmmaker. A Navajo Nation citizen (Ta’neeszahnii dóó Táchii’nii), she is the Artistic Director of New Native Theatre, which she started in 2009 as a response to the lack of connection and professional opportunities between Twin Cities theaters and the Native community and it is the recipient of a 2023 Headwaters Bush Prize for social justice.
Rhiana has been a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow and was recognized with a Sally Ordway Award for Vision. She's been a Playwrights' Center Fellow multiple times and last year she made her East Coast premiere with Nancy (2023 Kilroys) at Mosaic Theater Company. Nancy is the second play in a series about Pocahontas and her family, originally co-commissioned by The Public Theater and The Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the American Revolutions: United States History Cycle.
She wrote and directed her play, The Other Children of the Sun, in February 2025 for The Kennedy Center and is currently writing plays for Long Wharf Theatre & Rattlestick Theater (co-commission), Solas Nua & Ireland's Fishamble Theaters, and the University of New Mexico. In 2023, she directed the US premiere of Missing at the Anchorage Opera and is now working on her first libretto, Little Ones. She wrote, produced, and directed her debut feature film A Winter Love, currently seen in mainstream and Indigenous film festivals globally.
She is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Masters of Professional Writing where she produced events featuring Stephen Hawking, Herbie Hancock, and Spalding Gray. Rhiana wrote on AMC’s Dark Winds seasons 2 & 3 and is working on her second feature film.
Genevieve Lane
Managing Director
Genevieve Lane has a master’s degree in Anthropology and more than 15 years of experience in Native services, cultural programming, and behavioral health. She has worked with the U.S. Government, Tribal Nations, and Native community clinics, with a focus on partnership-building, program development, and cultural storytelling. Her career spans museums, post-secondary education, and public service, bringing a strong foundation in collaboration and community care. Genevieve’s path into theatre began with New Native Theatre, where she first performed as an actor and discovered how adaptability and play can become powerful forms of communication and healing. She is dedicated to uplifting Native voices and ensuring communities see themselves reflected in their own stories.
Benjamin Wilson
Benjamin Wilson (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) is a theatre director, playwright, and producer. A recent transplant from Milwaukee, he has worked with such companies as Optimist Theatre, Outlaw Theatre Artists, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, and the Electa Quinney Center at UW- Milwaukee. He is co-founder of Youngblood Theatre in Milwaukee. He currently lives in the Whittier neighborhood in Minneapolis.
Artistic Producer
Bianca Alynnsia
Artistic Associate Intern
Bianca Alynnsia (She/Her) is a musician & actor born in Minneapolis, MN. In summer 2024, she was an Artistic Associate Intern with New Native Theatre through the Keep the Fire Alive program. She enjoys being creative and organizing things to bring the community together. She loved working with IPTF and New Native Theatre so much that summer of 2026 she decided to become an Artistic Intern for New Native Theatre through the Keep the Fire Alive program again. Bianca is a singer, songwriter, and actor. She loves singing, dancing, and meeting new people. She made her acting debut in the New Native Theatre production of “Fallenstar: The Watchoverers” as animal-loving Rosie. In her free time, she writes poetry and songs; she loves to explore nature, and she moves with intention and believes in honesty, creativity, and kindness. She exudes confidence and is very smart!