Madeline Sayet

Madeline Sayet is a member of the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut, where she was raised on a combination of traditional Mohegan stories and Shakespeare. Both of which have influenced both her work as a playwright and as a stage director of new plays, classics, and opera.

For her work she has been named a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Hollywood & Entertainment, a NCAIED Native American 40 Under 40, a TED Fellow,  MIT Media Lab Director's Fellow,, and a recipient of the White House Champion of Change Award from President Obama. She is the Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (YIPAP). Within her field she has also been acknowledged as a 2019 Drama League Director in Residence, a member of the 2016 National Directors Fellowship Cohort, and is currently a member of Long Wharf Theatre's inaugural artistic ensemble. Her directorial work has been described by critics as effervescent, enchanting, magical, insightful, and fearless. As a performer she was nominated for a Jeff Award for best Solo Performance for her run of her play Where We Belong at The Goodman Theatre. 

She received her BFA in Drama from Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied under the Atlantic Theatre Company. She has a MA in Arts Politics & Post-Colonial Theory from NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and a MA in Shakespeare & Creativity (with Distinction) from The Shakespeare Institute (Stratford Upon Avon, UK). 

She is a Clinical Assistant Professor with the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University, and Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program

She currently serves on the Board of Directors for NEFA (New England Foundation for the Arts), Red Eagle Soaring: Native Youth Theatre, and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

Her play Where We Belong is available from Methuen Drama/Bloomsbury.
Her work as a playwright and performer has been seen at The Public Theater (NY), The Goodman Theatre, Seattle Rep, Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Shakespeare's Globe. 

Her directing work has been seen at the Long Wharf Theatre, Perseverance Theatre (Alaska), Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Delaware Shakespeare Festival, South Dakota Shakespeare Festival, Orlando Shakespeare Festival, The Krannert Center (Illinois), Theatresquared (Arkansas), Penobscot Theatre (Maine), the Public Theater (NY), HERE Arts Center (NY), 59e59 Theaters (NY), Ars Nova (NY), Lark Play Development Center (NY), the Glimmerglass Festival (NY), as well as in Iceland and the UK. 

Her play Where We Belong is currently on a national tour produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co, in Association with the Folger Shakespeare Library that includes: Baltimore Center Stage, Philadelphia Theatre Company, The Goodman Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Seattle Rep, The Public Theater, Portland Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and The Folger.