Creativity and culture at North Idaho College

By DEVIN WEEKS

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — Culture and creativity will combine Thursday evening when the Mentor Artists Playwrights Project (MAPP) comes to North Idaho College.

Professional actors from film, television and stage will bring one-act plays to life as they read works written by eight middle-schoolers from the Coeur d'Alene Tribal School and Lakeside Middle School in Plummer.

"Part of the mission of MAPP is to give young people a platform to say what's important to them, to talk about what's important to them. Young people, especially in marginalized communities, don't have that voice," said MAPP founder/director Tom Kellogg. "Arts education has been gutted from schools, so it's also an opportunity to give young people a chance to express themselves creatively."

"It is going to be great," Evanlene Melting Tallow, NIC's American Indian Student Alliance adviser, said Tuesday. "For (the actors) to be able to take their time to do this is huge."

The professional artists include: Miles Villanueva, currently starring as Lyle Menendez in the NBC drama "Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Brothers;" Zilah Mendoza, an award-winning actress currently starring in the play "The Enemy of the Pueblo" in Los Angeles; Valente Rodriguez, known for his role as Ernie on "The George Lopez Show;" Sarah Hennessey, a seasoned MAPP performer and mentor; and Thomas Dean Kellogg, a professional writer, theater artist and founder/director of MAPP.

"I'm looking foward to meeting the artists and listening to the plays of the young playwrights," Melting Tallow said. "We're going to have younger students coming in and they're going to look at this and say, 'Wow, these students can write a play. I can write a play.'"

MAPP is an arts education provider and events producer that partners with schools, tribal councils, nonprofit community development organizations, human rights and social justice advocates and colleges and universities to bring unique creative workshops, arts programming and live presentations to marginalized communities throughout the world.

"It's about culture and diversity," Melting Tallow said. "When you see the actors up there, they're all from different ethnic groups."

The last time MAPP visited the NIC campus was during American Indian Heritage Week in April 2009. Melting Tallow said it was really well received and at least 200 people attended the previous event.

"This was an exciting opportunity to have young artists from the middle school to be able to read with NIC students and community members to help them create their plays, which were read by the professional actors," she said. "A lot of (the plays) were from their lives, from stories they've heard before and they were able to put it into words. Having the actors speak those words was really profound."

The young playwrights will be on the stage as the actors perform their pieces.

"Anything we have that shows young adults that they can do this, I think is a benefit," Melting Tallow said.

The MAPP Young Native Playwrights Initiative will take place at 6:30 p.m. Indian tacos and fry bread will be on sale from 5 to 6:30 p.m. to raise funds for the Che'nshish Scholarship, which benefits native and native descendant students.

Info: 208-769-3365 or www.mentorartists.com