Madeline Sayet

Madeline Sayet is a clinical associate professor in the Department of English and member of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. For her work as a stage director, writer and performer Sayet has been recognized with numerous honors, including being named to Forbes 30 Under 30, serving as National Directing, TED, MIT Media Lab, MacDowell, and Hermitage Fellows, and receiving The White House Champion of Change Award from President Barack Obama. 

Her plays, including: Where We Belong, The Fish, Antigone or And Still She Must Rise Up, The Neverland, Daughters of Leda, Up and Down the River, have been seen at theaters, and schools across the nation. The national tour of her play Where We Belong, produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in association with the Folger Shakespeare Library was presented at: The Public Theater, The Folger Theater, The Goodman Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, Portland Centerstage, The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, and Philadelphia Theatre Company. Where We Belong is published by both Methuen Drama, and Dramatists Play Service. 

Her work as a director has been seen at Long Wharf Theater (CT), Perseverance Theatre (Alaska), Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Delaware Shakespeare Festival, South Dakota Shakespeare Festival, the Krannert Center (Illinois), TheatreSquared (Arkansas), Penobscot Theatre (Maine), HERE Arts Center (NY), 59e59 (NY), The Glimmerglass Festival, Native Voices at the Autry (LA), and more. She is currently a resident artist at Center Theatre Group (LA) and a member of Long Wharf Theater's Artistic Ensemble. 

She served six years as Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (YIPAP), developing new plays by Native playwrights and creating awards and programs to support the next generation of Native Theater artists. Under her leadership, the program received the Indigenous Theatermaker Award from the Dramatists Guild Foundation. 

She was recently appointed by President Biden to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA). She also serves on the board of the New Harmony Project. A citizen of the Mohegan Tribe, she has directed two short films Flying Bird's Diary and Up and Down the River about significant moment's in Mohegan history.