Casting Announced for New York Premiere of Between Two Knees at PAC NYC

The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) has announced complete casting for the NY premiere of the 1491’s comedy Between Two Knees, directed by Obie Award winner Eric Ting, at the new performing arts center at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. Between Two Knees is an Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Yale Repertory Theatre production and will run February 3-24.

The company will feature Rachel Crowl, Derek Garza, Justin Gauthier, Shyla Lefner, Wotko Long, James Ryen, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, and Sheila Tousey. The understudies are Irma-Estel Laguerre, Jessica Ranville, John Scott-Richardson, Kholan Studi, and Ryan Anthony Williams.

Between Two Knees is a comedy about American history by the intertribal sketch comedy troupe the 1491s (Reservation Dogs, Rutherford Falls). The play takes a hard look at the effects of systemic oppression by centering on one family’s story of love, loss, and resilience spanning the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee, forced re-education at Indian boarding schools, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, and the American Indian Movement occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973.

The creative team includes choreographer Ty Defoe, scenic designer Regina García, costume designer Lux Haac, lighting designer Elizabeth Harper, sound designer Jake Rodriguez, projection designer Shawn Duan, wig and hair designer Younghawk Bautista, fight director Rod Kinter, and dramaturg Julie Felise Dubiner.

The production provides the following content advisory: Between Two Knees contains depictions and graphic details of violence against Native peoples including war, genocide and massacres; depictions of death and gun-related violence; depictions of Native American boarding schools; use of aggressive and stereotypical anti-Native rhetoric; pedophile priests; Nun-ja fights; country line dancing, ballet, hip hop, traditional powwow; Vaudeville; prophecies; surprise revelations; loud rapping; 31 wigs; over 300 props; Disney princesses; mime wolves; a bison; a rapture; and a really big explosion.