Our Mission
Mni Giizhik Theatre Ensemble is a Native-led creative collective rooted in Mni Sota Makoce (Minnesota). We are dedicated to uplifting the stories, specificity, and lived experiences of Dakota, Lakota, Anishinaabe, and the Indigenous peoples throughout the Twin Cities and the greater Midwest. Our name—Mni Giizhik, meaning Cedar Water—honors both Dakota/Lakota (mni, “water”) and Anishinaabe (giizhik, “cedar”) languages, reflecting our commitment to bringing our cultures together through the living, changing, and healing power of performance. Guided by the values of relationality, ethical creative practice, humility, and community care, we center Native audiences and strive to create work that is accessible, culturally grounded, and nourishing. Each production includes collaboration with a local elder for region-specific cultural consultation, ensuring that our process remains respectful, accountable, and rooted in community knowledge. Mni Giizhik operates within a collaborative leadership model founded by Sequoia Hauck, Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha, and Adrienne Zimiga January. This structure promotes equality, fairness, and recognition of the plurality and intersectionality within our identities. Through this model and our artistic practice, we work to cultivate spaces where Indigenous knowledge, creativity, and storytelling can thrive. Mni Giizhik Theatre Ensemble is a recipient of the inaugural 2025 First Peoples Fund Native Performing Arts Grant.
Sequoia Hauck - Co-Founder
Sequoia Hauck (they/them) is a two-spirit, queer, Anishinaabe and Hupa filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist and director who creates work that indigenizes the process of art-making. Their work weaves Indigenous epistemologies, indigiqueer identity and the possibilities of Indigenous futurism. They graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a B.A. in American Indian Studies. Sequoia has worked on and offstage with organizations such as Aniccha Arts, Art Shanty Projects, Exposed Brick Theatre, Guthrie Theater, The Jungle Theater, Māoriland Film Festival, An Opera Theatre (AOT), Pangea World Theater, Patrick's Cabaret, Poetry and Pie, Rosy Simas Danse, The Southern Theater, Taja Will Ensemble and Turtle Theater Collective. Sequoia is a 2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellow as well as an Aniccha Arts Artistic Associate. www.sequoiahauck.com
Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha - Co-Founder
Dr. Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha is a theatre director, scholar, and educator. Sara's directing work has been seen across the Twin Cities with the Jungle Theatre, Full Circle Theatre, Stages Theatre Company, Minneapolis Musical Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, and others. Favorite directing credits include High Fidelity the Musical (Minneapolis Musical Theatre), 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (St. Olaf College), Fly By Night (Northern Fort Playhouse), SIXPACK (Jungle Theatre), and Men on Boats (UMN). Sara holds a PhD in Theatre Historiography from the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on intercultural collaborations between Indigenous artists and PWIs. In addition to her directing work, Sara serves on the Native Advisory Council at the Guthrie Theatre and has worked as an Indigenous consultant, advocate, and scholar with organizations such as the Jungle Theatre, the Stratford Festival, Native Voices, History Theatre, New Harlem, and UMN. She is an enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate from the Big Coulee District and currently teaches in the Theater Department at St. Olaf College
Adrienne Zimiga-January - Co-Founder
Adrienne Zimiga-January is a professional creative director, graphic designer, and performer who has worked with theater companies throughout the region. A proud member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, Adrienne’s passion is working with others to build community while removing barriers and opening doors for Indigenous creators and performers. Adrienne has been seen onstage at the Guthrie Theatre in For the People (Commissioner Bobby Grey) and Stories From the Drum, at the History Theatre in Rollicking (Winuna Greycloud), Asolo Repertory Theatre in the Wild West Show (Zitkala-Sa), An Opera Theatre’s film Minagi kin dowan (My Spirit Sings): A Zitkala-Sa Opera (Elder Zitkala-Sa), and countless readings and workshops across Minnesota theatres. Adrienne recently began directing, leading a production of Marcie Rendon’s Ancestral Reckoning at Out of Hand Theatre in Atlanta, GA. A founding member of the Native Advisory Council at the Guthrie Theatre, Adrienne’s original “You’re on Native Land” designs (sold in the Guthrie gift shop) have helped raise thousands of dollars for Native organizations in the Twin Cities.
Our Collaborators
We work with many theatres and organizations throughout Minnesota and from other parts of the country.
Native Performing Arts Network
Native Voices
History Theatre
Stages Theatre
Exposed Brick Theatre
Pangea World Theatre
Guthrie Theatre’s Native Advisory Council