Ronee Penoi

Ronee Penoi (Laguna Pueblo/Cherokee) is a composer, arts presenter, facilitator, and activist. She is composer and co-lyricist of the musical-in-development The Carlisle Project (co-written with Annalisa Dias), which has been the recipient of commissions from Pittsburgh Public Theater and Baltimore Center Stage, as well as a Berkeley Rep Ground Floor Residency (2024). For her composing work, she is a two-time recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Individual Artist Fellowship, and received a Sundance Institute Interdisciplinary Program Grant.

Ronee is Director of Artistic Programming (and as of 2023, Interim Executive Director) of Boston’s leading presenter of contemporary world theater, ArtsEmerson. Since 2021 she has been co-lead of First Nations Performing Arts (FNPA) with Yup’ik choreographer Emily Johnson. FNPA’s mission is to decolonize the contemporary performing arts field and make the field of Indigenous arts workers visible through gathering, advocacy, trainings, and kinship.Previously Ronee has produced at Octopus Theatricals, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Arena Stage, and toured nationally with Anna Deavere Smith. She is a two-time ISPA Global Fellow, and has been an APAP Leadership Fellow and TCG Rising Leader of Color.

She is a proud board member of the Producer Hub. She graduated with honors from Princeton University with a degree in Music with certificates in Vocal Performance and Theatre & Dance.