"Imagine a beautiful garden. A garden, in order to be attractive, needs different flowers of different sizes. If the whole garden is just one species of flower or plant, it may not be so attractive. So similarly, I think the human garden of different cultures and different ways of life is the more attractive. And in order to achieve that beauty we have to take care of each individual plant."
—His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
The message of the Dalai Lama is universal. Since the first production of The Buddha Prince, there has been a commitment to the diversity of culture and spirituality in our creative process. The play itself was inspired by the Dalai Lama's image of the 'human garden', as quoted above, and we have worked hard to practice and support this vision of beauty in diversity. With each new incarnation of the play, our intension is to continue to broaden the diversity of our creators, performers, administrators and audience.
If you are interested in collaborating on this production please contact us at info@tigerlion.org.
Company & Collaborators
Tenzin Ngawang, Creator/Music & Dance Director/Lead Musician
Tenzin was born in Dharamsala, home of the Tibetan government in exile, where he joined the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. After 11 years of rigorous training and touring opera globally, he graduated with a Degree in Advance Studies in 2004. Tenzin then moved to MN to serve 10 years as Head Teacher of Traditional Performing Arts for 200+ students in the Tibetan community. Tenzin performs nationally and has co-created plays with TigerLion Arts for 18 years. Tenzin is the producer & lead singer of Melong Band, a Tibetan rock band with three albums to date, and performed in Martin Scorsese's Kundun.
Jay Ramos, His Holiness the Dalai Lama (HHDL), Ensemble
Jay has performed in many venues in the Twin Cities area, such as the Ordway, the Phipps Center for the Arts, and At the Foot of the Mountain. He performed with The Minnesota Opera Company from 1986-1992, and he was a soloist in Paul Bunyan, by Plymouth Music Series, which won the 1988 Gramaphone Classical Music Award in the Operatic category. Jay also performed in Greater Minnesota productions, including Jesus Christ Super Star, Little Shop of Horrors, and many others. Since 2012, Jay has performed semi-annually in original comedic productions at Anton’s Restaurant dinner theater in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Clay Man Soo, (he/him), Story Dalai Lama, Ensemble, HHDL U/S
Clay has performed with the Guthrie Theater, Ten Thousand Things Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Theater Mu, Park Square Theatre, Pangea World Theater/Lab Theater, Playwright’s Center, Theatre Coup D’Etat, SD Shakespeare Festival, BARD Shakes, and Guthrie Dowling Studio, among others. TEACHING: Pillsbury House + Theatre, Upstream Arts, Theater Mu, On Stage MN, History Theater, Park Square Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company. TRAINING: B.A. Gustavus Adolphus College, GRSF Actor Apprenticeship,Theater Mu Institute, Penumbra Summer Institute Internship, Remedios Creative, and Encompass Collective NYC from Yale School of Drama. UPCOMING: Pillsbury House + Theatre: Passage claymansoo.com
Tenzin Namgyal, Story Dalai Lama
Namgyal is a 5 year old boy who loves to entertain others by singing and dancing. Namgyal enjoys performing and playing instruments on stage at his school. In his spare time, Namgyal enjoys playing with his fire trucks, wearing his firefighter jacket, helmet and water hose bag pretending to put out the fires. Namgyal will be graduating from KG this June and will be entering first grade this fall of 2023.
Winifred Froelich, Reporter, Ensemble
Originally from and then replanted in Minnesota, Wini has worked for the Minnesota Historical Society for 19 years at Mill City Museum where she has performed and plans k-12 curriculum. She obtained her MFA at UW-Madison and studied at DellArte’ International School of Physical Theater in Blue Lake, CA. Wini has performed in Ohio, Georgia, Alabama, Wales UK, California, and Wisconsin. Locally, she is a 16 year veteran of The Mystery Cafe. She has also appeared with Six Elements Theater, Wayward Theater, Freshwater Theater, and Open Window Theater. This fall she will appear in Any(mous) with Full Circle Theater.
Janelle Tangonan Anderson, Mother, Ensemble
Janelle is thrilled to be part of The Buddha Prince production. Janelle is an artist based in the Twin Cities. She has a B.A. from Pomona College and an M.A. from University of Southern California. She participated in Mu Training Institute with Eric Sharp and Katie Bradley. Recent credits include: Super, “Don Giovanni,” MN Opera; Super, “The Song Poet,” MN Opera and Theater Mu. She has also worked with the SEAD Project, Rosetown Playhouse, Fairmount Avenue United Methodist Church, and Cultural Society of Filipino Americans. She is grateful to her family for their love and support.
Maje Adams (he/they), Ensemble, Musician
Maje is an actor, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer from Minneapolis, MN. Their stage work has covered everything from Shakespeare to Shrek as they've performed roles across the theatrical and opera map. When they aren't on stage, they produce music in a number of bands as well as solo work in a collection of albums called The Color Cycle.
Alex Galick (he/him), Mao, Ensemble
Alex is a Twin Cities stage and screen actor with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from Macalester College. His work onstage includes productions with Minnesota-based companies Theater Mu, Guthrie Theater, Park Square, History Theatre, and Stillwater Zephyr Theatre, Three Seasons with Swine Palace in Baton Rouge, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Door Shakespeare in Wisconsin. On screen his work includes SHUDDER original features RUIN ME and Scare Package 2.
Ashley Horiuchi (she/her), Guide, Ensemble
Ashley is very excited to be a part of The Buddha Prince this summer! She's from Salt Lake City, Utah, and recently graduated from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program. Past credits include Menelaus/Helen/Andromache/Helenus in Troilus and Cressida in the Dowling Studio at the Guthrie Theater, and Olga in Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow. IG: @ashleyhoriuchi
Tenzin Choeying, she/her, Tibetan Dance Ensemble
Choeying is grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of The Buddha Prince! She was born and raised in Tibetan Settlement in Dehradun, India. Arrived in the US in 2016 when she was about 7 years old. Choeying loves being a part of her community. She is looking forward to the chance to socialize with new people and have fun!
Elena Orsak, Violin Player, Musician
Elena is the daughter of two professional musicians. Her ear for music began developing in earnest when as an infant she spent countless hours in a carrier while her parents taught music lessons. At age three, she was determined to learn the violin and was fortunate to be taught by Suzuki master, John Kendall in St. Louis, MO. Elena grew up attending the Minnesota Waldorf School, always natural and gifted with musical instruments of all kinds. Elena released a full record of original songs at age eighteen, and spent the next handful of years as an active singer songwriter living in Santa Barbara, Boulder, London, and eventually settling in Minneapolis. She made her way back to Waldorf Education and was hired at City of Lakes Waldorf school first as a string ensemble teacher, and later as a lead Kindergarten Teacher. She is passionate about the intersectionality of her work with young children, her love of community, and music. A frequent collaborator with TigerLion Arts, Elena has appeared in the productions of Nature: a walking play, The Dragons are Singing Tonight, and The Buddha Prince. She has also added her musical talents to TigerLion’s recently released The Buddha Prince Album. She and her husband run a small company, Hup (clap) HEY!, which brings circus arts education and performance to communities around the globe. Mother to three beautiful girls, Elena and her family live a life of adventure, living part of the year in Costa Rica, and the rest in their hometown of Minneapolis.
Steven Hobert, Accordion Player, Musician
Steven's transportive sound from the heart embodys Wonder and Mystery. He seeks to facilitate playfulness, healing, provoke compassion and warmly sink into the moment. His music has been described as “delightful, innovative and viscerally inspiring” that “dazzles audiences, opens hearts and fires up imaginations.” Steven performs on piano, accordion, & vocals as a soloist, with jazz project Sirclesound, the world beat-driven ensemble FireFlyForest, and Oudyano with renowned Syrian oud player Issam Rafea. He has released three albums: "Ballet", "Ocean Eyes", and "Soft Equation". Steven recently published a songbook - Piano Animals for beginning pianists with whimsical original tunes.
Markell Kiefer, Creator/Producer/Director
Markell is a pioneer of outdoor walking plays such as The Buddha Prince and Nature, with performances in MSP, LA, Chicago, BOS, and NYC. She has directed/produced all TLA productions, and worked with Circus Juventas, Minnesota Boychoir, Drala Mountain Center, Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, TPT Twin Cities, Guthrie, CTC, Pillsbury House, Stages, and U of M/Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program. Markell is a practitioner of Tibetan and Zen Buddhism. Directorial credits include: Thunderstorm - life of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Brush Master - life of Kobun Chino Roshi, The Rabbit in the Moon - life of the Buddha, The Life of Milarepa, and KIPO!. Training: MFA, Lecoq Physical Theatre, Naropa Univ.; BA, Religion & Environmental Ethics, Middlebury College; Professional Certificate, Circle in the Square Theatre School.
Michael French, Writer
MICHAEL FRENCH is originally from London, England, and he has been a theatre director, writer, and theatre arts educator for over 20 years. He has written the Ovation award winning play The Rainy Season, collaborated with TigerLion Arts on the much acclaimed The Buddha Prince, a walking play about the life of the Dalai Lama, and directed over forty-five plays in London, New York City, and the Bay Area of San Francisco. Michael is a resident director for Playground, a resident artist for Oakland Theatre Project, and the artist development coach and director of creative writing classes for Afro Urban Society. He is currently directing OUT of SITE: Sylvester, Might Real, about the trailblazing life of Sylvester, disco and gospel singer from the 1970s, and writing his first collection of short stories entitled Babble.
Carlyle Coash, Writer
Mr. Coash has been steeped in the world of theatre
for much of his life. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from
Northwestern University in 1990, he remained in Chicago acting, directing,
producing, selling real estate, delivering packages, and street performing
until 1997. Highlights of that period included performances with Chongo
Bongo's Village Carnival of Catastrophe, an improvisational musical theatre
group, which he founded with long-time collaborator Chris Metzger, as well
as an adaptation of Jean Cocteau's Les Enfants Terrible. He was also in
numerous children's theatre productions for Chicago-based Kidz Writes as
well as a touring production of African Tales, which involved clowning and
acrobatics. In 1995, he was one of the founders of The Actor's Gymnasium,
an alternative theatre arts school dedicated to the teaching of circus
arts, mime, clowning, and all-around buffoonery. The school holds close ties
to Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company. In 1999, he graduated with an MA
in Socially Engaged Buddhism from Naropa University. He worked as a
chaplain for Hospice of Boulder County and is a Board Certified Chaplain
through the Association of Professional Chaplains. He is the first Tibetan
Buddhist practitioner to receive such an honor. Despite this work, Mr. Coash
has been eager to bring to fruition the premise of his Masters's thesis,
which focused on manifesting social change through the medium of theatre.
The recent collaboration with The Buddha Prince has been a highlight.
Waylon H. Lewis, Writer
Waylon, a so-called "Dharma Brat," was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado's Buddhist community. After majoring in magazine journalism from Boston University, Waylon worked at Shambhala Publications. Returning to Colorado, Waylon spearheaded the expansion of a small rural Buddhist retreat into a major, international, year-round public center now known as Drala Mountain Center, where he also helped to guide the completion of The Great Stupa—a 108-foot traditional Tibetan memorial to peace, tolerance, and compassion. During that time, with Markell Kiefer, he co-authored The Buddha Prince and Thunderstorm, subsequently performing in their premieres. Waylon now serves as editor-in-chief of Elephant Journal, a 22-year-old online magazine devoted to yoga, organics, sustainability, independent business and the arts with 15 million social fans. He's the author of two books, Things I would like to do with You, and It's Never too Late to Fall in Love with your Life.
Nina Rolle, Composer
Nina Rolle (she/her) is a voice actor, singer, storyteller, former accordionist, and recovering clown, who makes her living as the digital assistant for a nefarious corporate overlord. She sang in the acclaimed Bay Area band Charming Hostess for the better part of the 1990s; toured her original show, Zen Cabaret: a contemplative burlesque 2002-2007; produced and hosted Truth Be Told story slam in Boulder, Colorado 2013-2019; was key vocalist in Fluxcrew Conduction Ensemble with Dino J.A. Deane; in 2021, Nina launched Giving Voice, an audiobook collaboration with women authors whose stories she feels moved to narrate, raising awareness and funds for the populations featured in each book. Her voice was aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft during the uncrewed Artemis I mission. Nina is hard at work on her memoir, so if you have any amends to make, now would be a good time.
Ngawang Choephel, Tibetan Music Composer
Ngawang was born in 1966 in Tibet. He had
fled the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1968, when his mother Sonam Dekyi
had carried him as a two-year-old boy on her back through the Himalayas to
India. Growing up in the Tibetan refugee settlement of Mundgod in southern
India, Ngawang Choephel was enthralled by the music of the land he had left
behind, and he found that traditional music was just about the only link he
had to home. As a teen, he taught himself to play the dramnyen; a
six-stringed lute. In 1992, after graduating from the Tibetan Institute for
Performing Arts in Dharamsala, India, Choephel earned a Fulbright
scholarship and spent a year studying ethnomusicology and filmmaking at
Middlebury College in Vermont. Ngawang taught music at a variety of schools
in India and has produced an album of Tibetan Folk Music. He currently
lives in New York City where he is pursuing his filmmaking career and his
passion for music. Ngawang most recently helped composed the final musical
score of The Buddha Prince.
Tyson Forbes, Creator/Producer/Technical Director & Designer
Tyson serves as a writer, creator, and producer for all TigerLion's productions, including Nature, The Buddha Prince, KIPO!, The Flame Brigade, and The Dragons are Singing Tonight. He manages all technical elements of productions and is integral to fundraising efforts. Tyson also has extensive performing experience with numerous appearances at the Guthrie Theater, Jungle Theater, Ordway, Ten Thousand Things, as well as regional theaters across the country. He has specialized in outdoor performances for over two decades and has a great passion for nature.
Katie Haggerty, Mask and Puppet Artist
Katie has been a Buddhist
practitioner for 42 years. She studied Buddhist sculpture at Naropa
University and worked for eight years on the great Stupa of Dharmakaya at
Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. The Great Stupa
is the largest and most elaborate stupa in the West, reaching 108 feet in
height. It is a memorial structure that acknowledges Chogyam Trungpa
Rinpoche's teachings and role in bringing Buddhism to the West. Katie
studied Bhutanese sculpture techniques and was chief mold maker and
technical problem solver at the Stupa.
Sky Brooks, Mask and Scenic Artist
Sky is a painter, mask, and puppet maker, builder of papier-mache curiosities, and scenic artist. She teaches both process painting and papier mache classes from her home in Boulder, Colorado. She has studied and performed clown with Giovanni Fusetti and has collaborated with TigerLion Arts on their numerous projects over the last twenty years: Thunderstorm, The Buddha Prince, Nature, and KIPO! She has been a Buddhist practitioner for 40 years.
Thupten Dadak, Cultural Consultant, TLA Board Member
Thupten is Founder of the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota (TAFM) and was the coordinator of the Tibetan Resettlement Project in Minneapolis/St. Paul, which worked to help 160 Tibetans emigrate and become successfully established in the Twin Cities. Working with a church which petitioned Congress for 1000 visas, and with a mandate to work only with donations and private support, the Tibetan Resettlement Project in Minneapolis was able to work with local volunteers to provide housing, job, and all other needs to the 160 Tibetan recipients of visas. The success of the Resettlement Project in Minnesota is evident in the thriving Tibetan community which is second largest in the nation, after New York. Thupten has always felt a strong calling to preserve the world treasure that is Tibetan culture by helping Tibetans directly. Tibetan Education Action (TEA), which he founded with his wife Nancy Dadak, works to provide immediate and sustainable financial, medical, and educational assistance in some of Tibet’s poorest villages.
Tenzin Nordon, Cultural Consultant, Guest Speaker
Tenzin is a Tibetan-American leader with a passion and mission to bring sustainable change to communities. She immigrated to the United States with her family in 1998 and has been an active member of the Tibetan community in Minnesota since then. She graduated from Tibetan Cultural School and was a member of the Tibetan Performing Arts of MN (shapto group) through the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota all throughout middle and high school. In 2008, Nordon co-founded Lamton, a college access program for Tibetan youth in Minnesota, and led the program for 10+ years. In 2015, she went on to co-found Youth for Umaylam to raise awareness for the Middle Way Approach through education, political advocacy, community engagement, youth empowerment and peaceful conflict resolution. She led the organization as its President for 2 years and Vice-president for 2 years. In 2019, Tenzin was recognized by the Central Tibetan Administration as a 5 Under 35 Youth Ambassador. In 2020, Tenzin was elected to the board of the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota where she served as its Education Director for two years. She is currently serving on the board for Lamton and Youth for Umaylam. Tenzin attended Carleton College and graduated in 2011 with a B.A. in Biology. In 2020, she graduated with an M.A. in Organizational Leadership- Strategic Management from St. Catherine University. Her master’s thesis explored how the Tibetan Exile Community can intentionally cultivate leadership among the next generation of Tibetan women.
Kira Troilo (she/her), EDI Consultant
Kira is a Boston-based creative and owner of Art & Soul Consulting, a company that offers Equity, Diversity & Inclusion consulting services uniquely tailored to work in theater and the arts. Kira earned her certificate in Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace from ESSEC Business School and anti-racism training from Anti-Racism Collaborative (ARC), and she is currently working on an HR Essentials certificate from eCornell. She strives to serve as an open door and bridge builder through her blog (biracialmom.com), writing frequently about her experiences as a Black, biracial woman, creative professional and mother. Her groundbreaking work in EDI consulting was recently featured in American Theater Magazine. Kira regularly consults for Goodspeed Musicals, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Greater Boston Stage Company, and many other arts organizations. Kira has also crafted and shared her own, fully-tailored EDI training and development sessions with adjudicators, arts educators, theater ushers and volunteers, and boards of directors. Kira takes an empathetic approach to her work and believes that mindfulness is the key to growth, change and genuine connection. artandsoulconsulting.com
Eric Sharp (he/him), Creative/EDI Consultant
Eric is a multidisciplinary theatre artist and EDI consultant based in Minneapolis. He has appeared onstage nationally and internationally at the Guthrie Theater, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Ten Thousand Things, The Jungle Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, and the Toronto and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. He played Mowgli in The Jungle Book at CTC, and the young Dalai Lama on multiple tours of TigerLion Arts' The Buddha Prince. An Associate Artist at Theater Mu, Eric wrote and starred in the world premiere of Middle Brother and was seen in Cambodian Rock Band, Hot Asian Doctor Husband, Two Mile Hollow, Twelfth Night and many more. A long time facilitator and monologue artist for Penumbra Theatre’s RACE Workshop, he has led race and equity trainings around the country for clients such as The Federal Reserve Bank, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Second Harvest, Optum, The BrandLab, Colle+McVoy, Ameriprise Financial, Hennepin County, RBC, Periscope, and the University of Minnesota School of Social Work. WorkSharp.org
Megan Fae Dougherty (she/her), Production Stage Manager
Megan has been a professional Stage Manager for 15+ years, mostly in the Minnesota - Twin Cities area, but has toured around the country in multiple capacities. She has been working on various shows with Tigerlion Arts since 2011, including a few past touring productions of Nature, and The Dragons Are Singing Tonight.
Alan Fessenden, Co-Creator
A founding father of the Jobsite Theater
Company in Tampa, FL, Alan currently lives in NYC. You can see him perform
regularly in the Sketch show Saturday Night Rewritten, Sunday nights at
Juvie Hall (juviehall.com), or with his improv group Stomping Ground
(stomping-ground.net). You can also look for Alan in the Indy movies,
Slow
Jam King and
Dead Meat, as
well as in his upcoming One-man Show, I think I'm Dumb. Other Favorite roles
include The Soldier in The Tinderbox, Bottom in A Midsummer Nights Dream,
Clown in The Winters Tale, Jesus Christ and Dante in Clive Barker's History
of the Devil, and Austin in True West. Directing credits include Roddy
Doyle's Brownbread, Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening, 2 by Lanford Wilson:
Home Free and Ikke Ikke Nye Nye Nye, The Ruins, or Meditations on the
Revolutions of Empires, The Law of Nature, a musical comedy which he also
helped write, and Something, Something Hope with Becky Yamamoto.
Karen R. Nelson, Communications, Publicity & Marketing Professional
Karen R. Nelson launched K.Rae Communications in 2021, with clients including TigerLion Arts, Theater Latté Da, Brave New Workshop, Lundstrum Performing Arts, IndiaFest, PRIME Productions, Artistry, The Dakota, Salsa Fiesta, Brazilian Nites Productions in Los Angeles and Encore Learning in Washington, D.C. Locally, she held communications leadership roles at Hennepin Theatre Trust, the American Swedish Institute, Arts Midwest, American Composers Forum and the Playwrights’ Center. Nationally, she was on-staff at the J. Paul Getty Trust and UCLA Live in Los Angeles, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She has studied in Spain and Brazil, is a musician, bicyclist, and performing arts enthusiast.
Kate Fleming, Social Media and Marketing Manager
Kate is a writer, editor, graphic designer, and social media and marketing wiz. She also serves as a mindfulness meditation teacher, mentor, Paradox Process facilitator, and board member of FeelBetterDoGood.org. Katie has worked as a full-time editor and Academy community manager for Elephant Journal. Despite being a digital nomad, she calls Michigan her home. Fun fact: Katie and her children are proud to have contributed feedback for the rough cut screening of the now award-winning "Mission: Joy" film, featuring Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Kathy Crowe, Website Designer
Kathy is a web and graphic designer, and an illustrator. See more of her work at
www.KathyCrowe.com.
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