Our history
In 2003, after more than a decade of creating and implementing mentored arts programming with various non-profit organizations throughout the United States, Thomas Dean Kellogg founded The Mentor Artists Playwrights Project (MAPP). The MAPP – Young Native Playwrights Initiative began in 2005. Our goal is to bring creative education opportunities to underserved indigenous youth, to create a platform for their unique voices, and to bring a greater awareness of these amazing youth and their cultures, which have so much to give to the world at large. Thus far, we have created successful programming with Reservation communities and Urban native centers in Alaska, British Columbia, California, Oregon, and Idaho. Currently, we are expanding, with more development in the process, including more native communities in the Dakotas, Washington State, New Mexico, and Arizona. In 2018 Mentor Artists began expanding our platforms to also include storytelling workshops in Animation and Mask Making which resulted in updating our name to Mentor Artists-MAPP. We are thrilled that our work and partnerships continue to grow. The story lives on…
Founder/Director
Thomas Dean Kellogg
Director
Thomas has conducted theatre workshops in Indonesia, Malaysia, Hungary, Russia, Great Britian, Turkey, and Spain. With his award- winning multi-disciplinary company, theatre fofo, he has devised, staged, and participated in festivals around the world. He has been a guest artist at the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab West, in Los Angeles, California, sharing his innovative theatre philosophy and techniques. For nearly two decades, he has worked with cultural and social service organizations, to bring arts-based literacy training, artist- mentored playwriting workshops, and professional presentations of the work to marginalized and disadvantaged youth and their communities throughout North America. He has implemented and led artist- mentored theatre workshops in juvenile detention centers, drug rehabilitation facilities, alternative schools, and orphanages. Over the past decade, he has expanded MAPP’s Young Native Playwrights Initiative, to include over a dozen Reservation and Urban Native communities throughout the United States and Canada. More recently, he has worked with human rights and social justice organizations to introduce multicultural programming with international refugee, Native American, Latin American, LGBT, and Euro- American participants. As a public speaker, he specializes in cross cultural dialogue and the importance of arts education for all.
Associate Producer
Zilah Mendoza Hill
Associate Producer
Zilah’s work coincides with her lifelong activism around creative education, the natural environment, mental health, and cultural diversity, especially in Indigenous and Latina representation in the arts. She has a 14-year history working in community with Mentor Artists-MAPP as a producer, videographer, and professional actor. A nationally recognized actor who has originated roles in contemporary theatre across the country. She has worked on original material with writers Lisa Loomer, Sarah Ruhl, Luis Alfaro, and Jose Rivera. She has had recurring and guest-starring roles on television on several shows including The King of Queens and Greys Anatomy. She has received multiple awards for her work in the theatre becoming the first Chicana to receive and OBIE, she also received a Lucille Lortel nod. She has received several Backstage Awards and a Garland for various new works.
Advisory board
Dr. Chris Meyer, Director of Education, Coeur D’ Alene Tribe Dept. of Education
Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee (NPTEC) – Nez Perce Reservation
Verna Johnson, Special Education Instructor, Lapwai High School, Lapwai ID
Bob Sobotta Jr., Director of Native American/ Minority Student Services, Lewis- Clark State College (LCSC), Lewiston, ID
Ed Keener – Human Rights and Social Justice Activist, Kessler Keener Foundation Boise, ID
Jaime Campbell, Director of TRIO Upward Bound, Boise State University
