Native Voices @ the Autry

Putting the Pieces Together: An Interview with Playwright, Larissa FastHorse

2012-02-02T15:08:00.000-08:00

"Writing is like having a box of a million puzzle pieces then needing to figure out which thousand fit together to make one picture."

Each season Native Voices presents our First Look Series: Plays in Progress. For our first of the year we will be holding a public staged reading of Hunka by Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota Nation), a gritty, funny, and poignant story that explores notions of family, teen pregnancy, adoption, and responsibility. Not only is Larissa an accomplished playwright but also inspiring and generous in spirit. I had the opportunity to see Larissa's creativity in action during one of Native Voices' recent writing workshops and was excited to hear that we would be bringing one of her plays to our stage. So to help us peer a little bit into that artistic brain of hers, Larissa took some time out of her busy schedule to participate in a Q&A with us about her writing.

Read on to find some interesting tidbits about Larissa FastHorse as well as some nuggets of wisdom for aspiring writers!

Q: Tell us about your writing process – do you start with an outline? An idea? A drawing?
A: Every project is different for me. I am fortunate that I’ve written under commission a lot so my projects tend to have some initial impetus from the theatre company. Sometimes that is based on an artistic initiative or my research on their audience and what they may be interested in seeing, from there I do a ton of research and see if anything connects with me emotionally. I look for a particular point of view I can bring to it and go from there.

Q: Describe your ideal writing environment? What objects do you need with you when you write?
A: I like to believe that I could write in coffee houses and my home and the beach, and that is true in spurts. However, to keep up the volume of writing I am committed to, I have joined a shared writer’s office. I plug in my music and do super focused work on my computer. I get more done there in four hours than seven in a coffee house. For notes, I’m converting from handwritten notebooks to my ipad so I don’t have to haul so much stuff around, but I do miss paper and all of my lovely pens.

Q: What do you do when you hit a writer’s block, if any?
A: If the words aren’t coming to me at my computer, I take a walk around the block or do some yoga. I let my mind settle back into my body, then if it still isn’t coming to me, I trust that a lot of writing is just thinking about things. So I create space to really think and discover the problems my brain is trying to keep me from writing on the page.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Hunka? Where did the inspiration come from? Why did you want to tell this story?
A: Hunka is directly inspired by my experiences when I met my birth mother at the age of 21. It was all so much more complicated and strange than I imagined it would be. Later, everyone who heard the story said, 'You should write that'. That said, these characters have taken on their own lives and motivations that are completely different from reality or even what I wish really happened.

Q: Do you have a favorite character in Hunka? Which one was the most fulfilling to write for?
A: Kit. When I started this play it was my first one for grown-ups. I love writing teen voices, so Kit was my bridge from the family theatre world to people who can swear.

Q: You have been able to make a living as a playwright, which is no easy feat. What one or two pearls of wisdom can you offer for those who strive to do the same?
A: 1) You have to do this because you love it and don’t want to do anything else in the world. That keeps you working even when there are no paychecks coming in, which has been the case for me many times.

2) When I was a dancer I learned that I am not right for everyone. Some companies like tall dancers, some like strong jumpers, some like tiny women. My job was to listen clearly to what they needed, then determine if that is what I had to offer. If not, I moved on to the next company. That has been so valuable as a writer. I am not right for everyone, but by clearly listening to what people need, I can focus my time and energy on the best opportunities for me so that my chances of success go up considerably.

Q: Do you think you can speak somewhat about what it is like to be a Native American female playwright navigating the theatre world? What is it like to be able to speak through your specific experiences and lens? What are the challenges?
A: Yikes! My mind is going in a hundred directions right now. Honestly, I have nothing to complain about. I have been employed and funded by all kinds of companies and foundations for both Native and non-Native projects. I also know that the road I am walking on was built by so many Native artists that had to clear every rock by hard work and determination against challenges I can’t comprehend. For that I am so grateful and committed to do the most I can with what I was given.

The biggest challenge for me has been having the clarity and strength to own the cultural experience I have had. It has been a complicated, winding journey for me. Some people have tried to use that against me as a weakness, but I know that journey is uniquely mine and gives my characters a point of view that not everyone has had.

Q: What else are you working on at the moment?
A: I have commissions with Cornerstone Theatre Company, Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences and the Cherokee Historical Association in North Carolina. I am also in the Center Theater Group Writer’s Workshop. Hunka will be doing another reading with the Arizona Theatre Company in March, and then I hope to find a home for its first production.

Q: Laslty, there's a short moment in Hunka where your characters talk about superpowers. So, if you could have any superpower what would it be?
A: Empathy. If you can fully understand what someone else is feeling you know how to help them.

Thanks Larissa! :)

Don't forget to come watch the staged reading of Hunka on Sunday, February 12 @ 2:30 p.m. at The Autry, Wells Fargo Theatre. And stay after for the talkback to see Larissa FastHorse speak about her play live and in person, along with director Laurie Woolery, who is also the Associate Artistic Director at Cornerstone Theatre Company.

2011, What Will You Remember?

2011-12-22T15:13:00.000-08:00

It certainly has been an eventful year - from the hit production The Frybread Queen by Carolyn Dunn, to our Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays in the Summer, to our very first and very successful Short Play Festival in November. We'd like to thank all of you who work with us, lend us your talents, and that support us, give feedback, and participate in our audiences. Without you, Native Voices would not be the premiere Native theatre company that it is. So as we head off into 2012, here is a quick (30 second) review of this past year with Native Voices. See you next year! And feel free to share with us your favorite 2011 Native Voices memories in the comments section!

Artist: Florence and the Machine

Song: Cosmic Love

Photos by Steven A. Soria, Kimberly Norris Guerrero, and NV Staff

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

Getting Started: 5 Tips on Writing Your First New Play

2011-10-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

Have a story to tell? Well, let’s get started.

We all have stories to tell. Some of them compelling and exciting. Some of them are about the dry toast I had for breakfast this morning. Either way, it’s in our human nature to tell stories and what better way than on stage! At Native Voices we produce and develop new plays, some from seasoned playwrights, but many from new writers who just have something to say. We want to see new voices from Native Americans reach a wide number of audiences, and the way to do that is to have people like you write!

Writing your first play may seem like a daunting task, and I’m not gonna lie. It is. It is a lot of hard work, but it will pay off tremendously in the end. There’s no other feeling like hearing actors reading your lines for the first time. But if you find yourself sitting in front of your computer staring at a blank Word document or keep thinking “I’ll just start writing after this episode of The Sing-Off, and do the dishes, and close my eyes for just a little…” don’t worry. First step in a long journey is always the toughest, right? Here are a few tips to help you get over that hump.

1) Read and Watch a lot of plays.

Reading other plays helps give you an idea of how a play is structured, stories are formed, characters interact, and dialogue works. Think of it as a very entertaining textbook. Watching plays helps you understand what happens when words are performed as well as become aware of things like lighting, sound, and stage cues. Check out old classics and new ones as well to get an understanding of the gamut of theatre out there. Go to big shows in 1,000 seat theatres and small ones where there's only ten seats in the house. Seeing what's out there helps generate ideas in your head.

2) Look in the mirror.

Most stories come from the writer's life experiences. Your entire play might be about a particular incident, or one of your characters might be based on your neighbor, or you simply want to use a funny line that your co-worker said. For practice, try thinking about an incident in your life and turning it into a scene that might be in a play. Where were you? That’s the setting. You are the main character, now what was the first thing said in the incident? When taking from your life experiences, remember to give yourself the creative license to fictionalize some portions. Take Joy Harjo’s (Mvskoke) Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, produced by Native Voices in 2009, for example. This play was a deeply personal one-woman show where she weaved in reflections on her life stories with music and singing. You can do the same by keeping a notebook or recorder handy at all times (or try this). You never know what play-worthy encounters you’ll have that you will want to record.

mosangels.ning.com

3) Write the bad version first.

Many writers hit a wall while writing trying to write the perfect first draft. Alas, there is no such thing as a perfect first draft. Don't be afraid to just start writing anything and everything, and it doesn't even have to be in a play format. Don't get stuck on small details or particulars; the important thing is to get words down on paper (or the keyboard). Try one of these prompts to get you going. Native Voices works with plays for a long while, from first draft to production. We had worked with Carolyn Dunn’s (Muskogee Creek, Cherokee) hit play The Frybread Queenfrom 2007 to 2011, working through draft after draft and this is the case for most plays in theatre. It takes a while to get things just right, so don’t put so much pressure on yourself in the beginning.

4) Let your characters speak to you.

Try starting with the characters themselves. Who are they? What is their personality? What does he/she eat for breakfast? Where are they from? Do they have pets? Try to get down as many details as possible – a mini biography of sorts. All of these details shouldn’t be in the play, but are there to help you figure out how these characters will speak and react in the world you've put them in. Only then will they come to life and start speaking to you, rather than you struggling to find the words. This will also help you keep your characters on track in obtaining their goals throughout the play.

Healthygirl.org

5) Be Unique.

There are a lot of resources out there and experts that will tell you how to write a play. While it's important to do research to learn the basics, remember that you are writing a play because you have a story to tell, and we want to hear that story because you are unique. Don't try to just do what's been done but rather put your own spin on an old concept. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been told throughout the centuries in many different forms, but only playwright James Lujan (Taos Pueblo) was able to retell it in a way that had never been done before in Native Voices’ 2005 production of Kino and Teresa. In their most basic forms, everything has been done before. How can you make it different? Plays are all about conveying a specific voice. What’s yours? How can you tell your story your way?

Native Voices 2005 production of Kino and Teresa

But don’t take my word for it! Here are some great sites and blogs about playwriting and writing in general to help you get started! Happy penning!

Script Frenzy

Working Title

Adam Szymkowicz

The Subversive Copyeditor

John August

Got your own tips? Share them with us in the comments section!

BLOG INTERIM…..and WE’RE BACK!

2011-08-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since we’ve had a post on the blog at Native Voices. We’ve been tucked away at the Native Voices offices in Los Angeles and San Diego getting ready for our 2011-2012 Season and preparing for the many submissions we are about to receive during our Call For Scripts. We’ve got some exciting new programming around here coming up (including a Short Play Festival during the Autry American Indian Arts Marketplace!) and can’t wait to read through all those wonderful plays that are going to pass our desks.

http://www.standard1320.com/Stories/1320Stories.html

And we are now also ready to rev up our blog engines, so check back here soon for our first official blog post of this new season to see some sneak peeks, special behind the scenes info, and simply talk about the state of Native American theatre.

See you soon!

Sincerely,

The Native Voices Staff

new chapter...

2011-07-01T00:41:00.000-07:00

photo by altf photography

as many of you know, my time with native voices at the autry has come to a close. it's been a great ride and i'm pleased with the work i'm leaving behind me. thank you for being such loyal followers of this blog and for accompanying (and indulging) me along my journey through native voices' literary processes. i'm sure the company's next blog manager will have an even more exciting perspective to share and i, like you, eagerly await the next post. in the meantime, i wish you all the best in your endeavors. may our cyber- paths cross again.

- carlenne

Spotlighting our Actors for BIRD HOUSE and THE WOMAN WHO WAS CAPTURED BY GHOSTS

2011-05-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

The Bird House
By Diane Glancy

Randy Reinholz (Choctaw) is the Producing Artistic Director and Co- creator of Native Voices at the Autry as well as the Director of the School of Theatre, Television, and Film at San Diego State University. He has directed over fifty plays in the US, Australia, Mexico and Canada. As an actor, his theater credits include roles at Pennsylvania Centre Stage, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Heartland Theatre Company, The Hanger Theatre in New York, and numerous roles at The Old Globe Theatre. He was a series regular on Days of Our Lives, and had roles on Pensacola, China Beach, and Tour of Duty, and the sci-fi film Dead Space.

Ellen Dostal is thrilled to be part of Diane Glancy’s new play The Bird House. For Native Voices, she has appeared in productions of Jump Kiss (also by Diane), Serra Springs, and The Berlin Blues, which toured NY and Washington D.C., plus a number of developmental workshop readings. Other L.A. credits include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Interact Theatre Co.), City of Angels (NoHo Arts Center) and Eastern Standard (Coast Playhouse). Regional/ Tours: The Big Deal (Theatre Museum, London in collaboration with Mercury Musicals), Sour Grapes (Copake Theatre, NY), Seesaw, Private Lives, Night Watch, Midsummer Night’s Dream. As a founding member of the Academy Repertory Company she has workshopped and performed roles in many new musicals like Bonnie & Clyde, At Home in Mitford, Idaho the Musical, and The Water, all part of ANMT’s reading series at The Colony Theatre. AEA/SAG/AFTRA.

Carla- Rae (Seneca, Mohawk) has done some form of acting for many years, though only during the past six years has she has focused entirely on her acting career. Her most recent theatre work has been in staged readings of Tombs of the Vanishing Indian by Marie Clements and The Bird House by Diane Glancy at Native Voices at the Autry. She also has had the privilege of working with the NYC off-B’way theatre group the Liguorian Players, founded and directed by Lenny Delgado. She played Angustias in The House of Bernarda Alba by Frederico Garcia Lorca and Hannah in Edith Stein by Arthur Giron. Her indie film feature role of Rebecca Stonefeather in the award-winning film Imprint won her a Best Supporting Actress Award from the American Indian Film Institute. Her most recent TV episodic guest star roles are in the ABC network series Scoundrels with Virginia Madsen and David James Elliot, PBS’s docudrama We Shall Remain: Trail of Tears, HBO’s Taking Chance, and the FOX series pilot of New Amsterdam, directed by Lasse Halstrom. More recently she and her husband have been creating web videos of her storytelling and children's story reading, with another web series soon coming, of her Quiet Time Words by Carla-Rae, a compilation of daily devotional words of encouragement. Originally from upstate New York, she now resides in L.A.

The Woman Who Was Captured by Ghosts

By Julie Pearson- Little Thunder

Kimberly Norris Guerrero (Colville, Salish-Kootenai, Cherokee) is a native Oklahoman and graduate of UCLA who has appeared on stage in Steel Magnolias (Circle Players/Nashville), Canticle of the Plains (Tapestry/Wichita), and in August: Osage County which she performed in Chicago, on Broadway, at the National Theatre in London, the Sydney Theatre Company in Australia and The Old Globe in San Diego. She recently joined Native Voices in the World Premiere of The Frybread Queen at the Autry in Los Angeles. Her film/TV credits include Grey’s Anatomy, Taking Chances, The Sopranos, Naturally Native, Hidalgo, and Seinfeld to name a few. In addition, she works with youth in tribal communities across North America utilizing creative expression as a tool to promote personal and community development.

Mary Mora Cordova (P'urhepecha, Yaqui, Luiseno) is a cancer survivor who has enjoyed performing in Native Voices' productions of Buz'Gem Blues and Teaching Disco Dancing To Our Elders; staged readings of Kino and Teresa; and various metaphoric characters for their Young Native Playwrights project. She has also performed leads in original works on stage such as Katsina, based on the autobiography Sunchief (Herberger Theatre, AZ); St. Augustine's Confessions (PerrisChief Theatre); End Town (Hollywood Moguls Theatre). She played the matriarchal Senora Morena and years earlier played the flirtatious Margarita in California's Official State Outdoor play Ramona (Hemet, CA). Her favorite TV credits include recurring roles on Unsolved Mysteries. Her recent film credit is with writer/ director/ actor Charles S. Dutton in The Obama Effect. She would like to thank her husband Art, family, and her Autry friends for their continued support. Blessings!

Carla Nell (Chickasaw) has over 16 years experience acting and directing in the San Diego theatre community and is the artistic director of InnerMission Productions. She is an SDSU graduate with a BA in Theatre Arts. While at SDSU she was featured in the KPBS special documentary: Trial by Fire, The Making of a Theatre Professional. She is also a member of the Pasadena Playhouse Directors Lab West.

Michael Drummond is honored to return to Native Voices, where he was last seen as Carbon in Carbon Black. Other favorite roles include Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Old Globe Theatre), Young Macduff in Macbeth (Old Globe Theatre), Randolph in Bye Bye Birdie (Welk Resort Theatre), and Orson in An American Christmas over the past six holiday seasons (Lambs Players Theatre). Television credits include Victorious, iCarly, America's Most Wanted, Everybody Hates Chris, Veronica Mars, and several commercials. In addition to acting, he enjoys photography, surfing, and scuba diving.

Patrick J. Duffy is a performer, sound designer, and as an avid life learner - he is very excited for his first experience with Native Voices. Performance credits include Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Ion Theatre), Smoke on the Mountain, Joyful Noise, Fantasticks, Angel's Arms, Voysey Inheritance, An Ideal Husband, Rehearsal for Murder, Cold Comfort Farm, and South Pacific (Lamb's Players Theatre); Good Doctor, West Side Story (Moonlight/Avo), West Side Story (Limon Carr Prod.), Can Can, Guys & Dolls, West Side Story (Welk Resort Theatre); Scarlet Pimpernel, Good News (Starlight Theatre); Death and the Maiden (Stone Soup Theatre). Sound Design credits include Smoke on the Mountain, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Godspell, Fantasticks, Boomers, Light in the Piazza, Secret Garden, American Rhythm (Lamb's Players Theatre). "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."

Huma Ahmed-Ghosh is a professor in the Department of Women's Studies at San Diego State University. She is also on the Advisory Committees of the Asian-Pacific Studies Program, Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies, and the International Security and Conflict Resolution Program. She has done extensive research in Afghanistan having visited the country six times since 2003. Her research in Afghanistan focuses on how Afghan women-run NGOs strategize women's rights within an Islamic state. She has published on immigrant Muslim women to the USA, women in Afghanistan, gender and Islam in Asia, Islamic and secular feminisms in the Middle East, and on issues of ageing and widowhood in India. She has also conducted Study Abroad Programs for SDSU students to India, China and Turkey. Some of the courses she teaches are on feminist theory, women in cross-cultural perspective, gender and Islam, and gender, war and peace.

Javier Guerrero is a native San Diegan who has been performing professionally since 1998. He studied acting under Randy Reinholz at San Diego State University for two years and then under Jim Wise for one year at Penn State Graduate School of Acting. He has worked for many professional theatre companies in San Diego and Los Angeles including Playwrights Project and Native Voices. He appears in many industrial videos, web ads, and commercials as well as the bad guy in a re-enactment on America's Most Wanted. He also performed the lead in the Station Master which debuted at Cygnet Theatre in Old Town San Diego. Represented by the Shamon Freitas Agency in San Diego.

The Playwrights Retreat kicks off in San Diego this Saturday, May 28 with the Festival of New Plays beginning next Thursday, June 2 at La Jolla Playhouse. For more information about our events or to purchase your tickets now, please visit our website.

Spotlighting our Actors for CIKIUTEKLLUKU and UNGIPAMSUUKA

2011-05-17T15:30:00.000-07:00

Cikiuteklluku (Giving Something Away)

By Holly Christine Stanton

Thirza Defoe (Giizhiigoquay) is a Grammy Award winning artist widely known for hoop dancing, storytelling and cultural education. Her interest is laid in bridging an integral approach to artistic projects pulling in messages rooted through music, literature, video, and theatre. Her dedication and passion have been awarded in both the Native American and artists’ circles throughout the world. Her most recent award includes the National Endowments for the Arts for writing, compositions, and reconstructed choreography in Drum is Thunder, Flute is Wind. Her writing can be viewed in the Pitkin Review, Woody Guthrie Anthology, and the Thorny Locust Magazine. Acting roles: Dome of Heaven, Road Reps, and The Only Good Indian which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She received a BFA at California Institute of the Arts and MFA from Goddard College in writing. Recently she received a Masters Fellowship to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Fall 2011.

Maxton Scott (Mohawk) is from Northern NY, all over the St. Lawrence River Valley. He is a veteran of OEF and OIF, serving 5 years with the 82nd Airborne Division as a Mechanic. A Sundancer and a member of Native American Church, he's also currently pursuing a degree in Acting at the New York Film Academy.

Rose- Yvonne Colletta (Lipan-Mescalero Apache) is delighted to return to the Playwrights Retreat. Raised in the U.S. and Brazil, she embraces the cultures she’s been honored to weave through. Acting credits include: Onion Skins & Angels, and The Origin of Corn (USA and Mexico bilingual TYA tours), American Rhythm at Lamb’s Players Theatre, Collected Shadows Edgefest Los Angeles, Luis Valdez's Bandido! at San Diego Repertory, and Jane Eyre at La Jolla Playhouse. With Native Voices at the Autry: Urban Tattoo, SUPER INDIAN, and Kino & Teresa. Behind the scenes, she has been a director, producer, stage manager, production manager, and writer. Her radio play, Melba's Medicine, was selected for production at the National Audio Theatre Festivals and imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Canada. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre from San Diego State University and is a proud member of Actors' Equity.

Jennifer Bobiwash (Ojibway) is an actor and writer from Canada. She has worked in film, television, and theatre and is currently in pre-production for a documentary and is working on a webseries, as well as writing and starring in another. Her one- person show There is No I in Indian will be premiering in the summer of 2011. You can find her on her Youtube Channel learning her native language. Represented by Redrock Entertainment Development. SAG

Jacob Bruce graduated from the conservatory program at the University of Illinois with a BFA in acting. He appeared in plays around the city of Chicago including Orlando in As You Like It, Jed Rowan in The Kentucky Cycle, and The Creature in Playing With Fire. He then moved to Los Angeles and landed recurring roles on the shows Crossing Jordan and Roswell, as well as episodes of shows including ER, Las Vegas, Standoff, and American Dreams. He was also in the award-winning films Donut Run and Night of the Dog, the Hallmark movie Prairie Fever, and the horror feature The Rig. As a member of the Knightsbridge Theatre in Los Angeles, he played Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a "Critics Pick" in Backstage West and co-created The $5 Only Improv Show. He was most recently seen in Yellow Face with Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego.

Maggie Carney's credits include: Yellow Face (Mo'olelo), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter and the Starcatchers, Salsalandia! (La Jolla Playhouse), The Tempest and Bill Irwin’s Largely/NY (Seattle Repertory), Bad Dates- Thespie Award, Wilde Award Nomination for Haley Walker (BoarsHead), Bedroom Farce- Jeff Citation for Kate, Into the Woods- Jeff Citation Nomination for The Baker’s Wife (Touchstone), Smash- Jeff Citation for Hetty (Bailiwick), Almighty Bob (Theater at the Center), The Book of Liz (Roadworks), What the Butler Saw (Noble Fool), Ghetto (Famous Door), The Gamester (Northlight), Spite for Spite, A Phoenix Too Frequent (Writers’ Theatre). Other companies: WBEZ’s Stories on Stage, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, the Poetry Foundation, The Second City, Creede Repertory Theatre, Peninsula Players and the Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival.

Ungipamsuuka: My Story
By Susie Silook

Dawn Stern was born in Japan on a military base outside of Tokyo. Her father, a Vietnam veteran, was Creole (French, African, and Native American; tribal affiliation unknown), and her mother is Norwegian/ Scottish. She holds a BS in theatre performance from SIU-E and is honored to work with Native Voices at the Autry. Her Los Angeles credits include series regular roles on Viper, 413 Hope Street, Starhunter, and Nobody; a recurring role on The Young and the Restless; and more than twenty-five guest star appearances. She was last seen as a lawyer on NCIS–Los Angeles. Her favorite stage roles are by Shakespeare; she has played Kate, Lady Macbeth, Olivia, Paulina, and Goneril.

Jason Grasl (Blackfeet) is a veteran of stage, film, and commercial. His Native Voices acting credits include Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders and The Further Adventures of Super Indian, as well as an assistant director credit for Salvage. In 2010, he helped found the Fuller Theatre Company at Fuller Theological Seminary (where he attended grad school). Other stage credits include The Blame of Love (which he also co-wrote), From Little Seeds, Be the Hunter, Boomtown 1925, Tony n Tina’s Wedding, and Smell of the Kill. Film credits include Fantasy Football: The Movie, The Seminarian, April’s Fools, and Banking. Most recently, he had a recurring role in the webseries End Result. Represented theatrically by Kathleen Schultz and Associates. SAG/ AFTRA

Rob Guzzo's credits can be accessed through this link.

Elizabeth Frances (Cherokee) is truly excited and honored to be working with Native Voices again. Recent projects include The Frybread Queen (Native Voices World Premiere), The Lunacy Commission (Kirk Douglas Theater), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), Julius Caesar (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), Detained in the Desert (Casa 0101), Tombs of the Vanishing Indian (reading with Native Voices at the Autry), Hamlet (Dir. Lenka Udovicki), Songs and Dances of Imaginary Lands (Dir. O-Lan Jones), and the Soltanoff/ Findlay Project (Center Theater Group). She holds a BFA from CalArts.

Shyla Marlin (Choctaw) Theatre credits include: The Frybread Queen, Native Voices at the Autry; Last Days of Judas Iscariot, UTM/Company of Angels; I Stand Before You Naked, Complex; On The Brink, 68 Cent Theatre; The Elephant and The Mayfly, Berkshire Theatre Festival; The Frontier, USC/DRC; Alphabet Play, USC/DRC; and Birdbath, Annex Theatre. Film and TV credits include Whatever It Takes (Sony); Lies and Alibis (Warner Bros.); Woo (New Line); Fashion House (MY TV); Saints & Sinners (MY TV); Minding the Store (TBS); Grace (32/12 Films); Spiritual Warriors (Gilgamesh Prods.); and A Starbuck’s Story (Anatomy Entertainment). Writing and producing credits include Still Standing (Theatre Asylum) and A Starbuck’s Story (“Best Short” FAIF Film Festival). A graduate of the University of Southern California, she studied Theatre and French.

Check back next week to meet the casts of The Bird House and The Woman Who Was Captured by Ghosts!

The Woman Who Was Captured by Ghosts

2011-05-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

http://unegawaya.blogspot.com/

Our last Retreat and Festival play is The Woman Who Was Captured by Ghosts by Julie Pearson- Little Thunder which was featured during our 2008 Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays. This story follows a Cheyenne woman as she faces her own mortality on a metaphysical journey to a place where tradition is the best medicine. Aiding Julie along her journey are Jere Hodgin, Julie Jensen, and Waylon Lenk.

Julie Pearson- Little Thunder, Playwright

Julie Pearson-Little Thunder (Creek) was raised in Denver, Colorado in a mixed-blood Creek family and discovered theater for the first time while she was in college. She moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1980 to work with an American Indian Theater Company of Oklahoma (ATICO). After AITCO folded, she co-founded Tulsa Indian Actors’ Workshop which is now known as Thunder Road Theater. Besides working with Thunder Road Theater, she's taught theater at Haskell Indian Nations University and Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She's currently employed by the Oral Histories Department at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.

Jere Hodgin, Director

Jere Hodgin has produced over 200 productions, many of which were new and premiere works, and his directing career includes more than 175 plays, operas, and musicals. For 20 years he was the Producing Artistic Director of Mill Mountain Theatre, where he founded the nationally recognized Norfolk Southern New Play Festival. He served as Artistic Director and Coproducer of Highlands Playhouse and has directed at numerous theatres, including Fulton Theatre, Pennsylvania Center Stage, Theatre Artists Studio, Walnut Street Theatre, the Barter Theatre, the Phoenix Theatre, and Wayside Theatre. He has directed new works at the Shenandoah Playwrights Retreat, the Missoula Writers Colony, the Phoenix Theatre's New Works Festival, and Native Voices at the Autry's Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays. He has been a reader and judge for numerous national new play contests and competitions and chaired Native Voices' 2010 National Reading Panel. He recently directed the Native Voices/ Montana Repertory Theatre coproduction of The Frybread Queen in Missoula, Montana. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Actors' Equity Association, Theatre Communications Group, and the National Theatre Conference.

Julie Jensen, Dramaturg

Julie Jensen is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Award for New American Plays for White Money, the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work for The Lost Vegas Series, and the LA Weekly Award for Best New Play for Two-Headed. She has received the McKnight National Playwriting Fellowship for Wait!, the TCG/NEA Playwriting Residency for Wait!, a major grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts for Dust Eaters, and the Edgerton Foundation Grant for Billion Dollar Baby. Her work has been produced in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as in this country in New York and theatres nationwide. She has been commissioned by Mark Taper Forum, ASK Theatre Projects, Kennedy Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Salt Lake Acting Company, Geva Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Penn State University, and Dramatic Publishing. Her work is published by Dramatic Publishing, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts, Inc. Her book Playwriting: Brief and Brilliant has just been published by Smith and Kraus. Her play She Was My Brother premiered in Tucson, AZ, at Borderlands Theatre, and was produced last fall by Plan-B Theatre in Salt Lake City. She is currently the Resident Playwright at Salt Lake Acting Company.

Waylon Lenk, Assistant Dramaturg

Waylon Lenk (Karuk) is a dramaturg and performer currently working at SUNY Stony Brook. He holds a B.A. in Theater and German Studies from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He has worked as a dramaturg at Lewis & Clark, Camelot Theater in Talent, Oregon, and at Stony Brook. He has performed in everything from musical theater in Talent to Absurdist theater in Portland to traditional Karuk storytelling in New York and all over California. Notable credits include appearing as an “Emerging Storyteller” for the California Indian Storytelling Association back in 2003; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Prince of Homburg, and The Balcony at Lewis & Clark; Brigadoon and Cabaret at Camelot Theater; and a new storytelling piece Stories of Our People at the Consortia of Administrators for Native American Rehabilitation’s conference in San Diego.

The Woman Who Was Captured by Ghosts will be presented at La Jolla Playhouse on Saturday, June 4 and at the Autry National Center on Saturday, June 18 at 4:00p. For tickets, please click here.

For a full listing of this year's Retreat and Festival participants, please click here and check back next week for some info on our fabulous actors.

Bird House

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Our next two Retreat and Festival plays may sound familiar to Native Voices patrons. Playwright Diane Glancy is a long- time friend of Native Voices and we're proud to begin a new journey with her as we continue to develop her latest play, The Bird House. This play was featured during our 2010 First Look Series with Stephan Wolfert and Bryan Davidson at the helm. For the 2011 Retreat and Festival, direction will be led by Robert Caisley with dramaturgy by Shirley Fishman.

Diane Glancy, Playwright

Diane Glancy (Cherokee) is professor emeritus at Macalester College. She lives in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. Native Voices has produced three of her plays, Jump Kiss, Stone Heart, and Salvage. In 2010, she made an independent film, The Dome of Heaven, which won the Native American Film Award at the Trail Dance Film Festival in Duncan, Oklahoma. A new collection of essays, The Dream of a Broken Field, is forthcoming in 2011 from the University of Nebraska Press. In 2010, Mammoth Publishers in Lawrence, Kansas, published her latest collection of poems, Stories of the Driven World. Her novels include The Reason for Crows, the story of Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th century Mohawk converted to Christianity by the Jesuits; Pushing the Bear, a story about the 1838-39 Cherokee Trail of Tears.

Robert Caisley, Director

Rob Caisley will be pulling double duty during this year's Retreat and Festival. In addition to directing Bird House, he will be serving as dramaturg for Susie Silook's play Ungipamsuuka (My Story). For information on Rob, please click here.

Shirley Fishman, Dramaturg

Shirley Fishman is the Director of Play Development at La Jolla Playhouse where she oversees commissions and projects in development. Dramaturgy credits at Native Voices: Wings of the Night Sky by Joy Harjo; Fancy Dancer by Dawn Dumont. At the Playhouse: John Leguizamo's Diary of a Madman, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Night Watcher, 33 Variations, Zorro in Hell, The Wiz, among others. At The Public Theater: Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters; Two Sisters and a Piano by Nilo Cruz; Tina Landau's Space; Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Tony Kushner's A Dybbuk: Or Between Two Worlds; David Henry Hwang's Golden Child; readings, workshops and co-curator of New Work Now! Festival. Also Sundance Theatre Lab (I Am My Own Wife; 36 Views; and The Laramie Project), Ojai Playwrights Festival, UC San Diego Baldwin Festival, USC Under Construction New Play Festival. M.F.A. Columbia University. Member LMDA.

The Bird House will be presented at La Jolla Playhouse on Saturday, June 4 and at the Autry National Center on Saturday, June 18 at 1:00p. For tickets, please click here.

Cikiuteklluku

2011-04-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

Artwork and poem by Susan Scharpf, Design Consultant

Our second Retreat and Festival play by a Native Alaskan is Cikiuteklluku: Giving Something Away. Written by Holly Christine Stanton, Cikiuteklluku is about a young Yup’ik girl from rural Alaska who faces heartache when a non-Native couple adopts her baby. Holly's creative team includes director Ed Bourgeois and dramaturg Shelley Orr.

Holly Stanton, Playwright

Holly Stanton (Yupik Athabascan) is from Bethel, Alaska where she has been a Registered Nurse since 2004. After some reflection and consideration for her family, she made a career move to work as a Nurse II for the Bethel Public Health Center and is excited to be branching out into a new facet of nursing. Although this is her first foray into playwriting, she has always had an artistic flair and contributes occasionally to the local paper in Bethel. She is married to Michael Stanton and together they have four children, three stepchildren, and one grandchild. She considers her family her greatest accomplishment in life and is proud that all her children appear to be artistically inclined to both drawing and writing.

Ed Bourgeois, Director

Ed Bourgeois (Mohawk) applies his background as a professional actor, director, and producer to the development of Native Theater at the Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC). As General Director of Anchorage Opera (1996-2007) he was responsible for all operational and artistic functions of a $1M non-profit arts organization, directed mainstage productions and developed the Studio Theatre young artist program. As ANHC’s Director of Public Programs he has co-written and/or directed productions of Panik’s Revenge, Growing Up Native in Alaska, Raven’s Radio Hour, The Three Enemies, and Echoes, which was performed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. His production of Jack Dalton’s Assimilation was lauded by the Anchorage Daily News as “Best Play of 2010”. He is project director of the Alaska Native Playwrights Project, which in its first year saw the creation of nine new plays by indigenous writers.

Shelley Orr, Dramaturg

Shelley Orr teaches theatre history and dramaturgy in the graduate and undergraduate programs in the School of Theatre, Television, and Film at San Diego State University. Her publications have appeared in Theatre Journal, TheatreForum, and Theatre Topics. She co-edited a collection of essays entitled Performance and the City (Palgrave 2009). Her professional theatre credits include serving as a dramaturg for New York’s Classic Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse, and the PlayLabs New Play Festival at The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. Most recently, she dramaturged the new play A Weekend With Pablo Picasso at the San Diego Repertory and 9 Parts of Desire at Mo`olelo Theatre. She holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from University of California, San Diego, and a PhD in Theatre Studies from the UCI/UCSD joint doctoral program. She is past president of the international professional association Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA).

Cikiuteklluku: Giving Something Away will be presented at La Jolla Playhouse on Thursday, June 2 and at the Autry National Center on Thursday, June 16 at 7:30p. For tickets, please click here.

Ungipamsuuka

2011-04-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

Yup'ik Angel by Susie Silook

This year's Retreat and Festival features two plays by Native Alaskan writers. One of the two is Ungipamsuuka (My Story) by Susie Silook. The play follows a sculptor who boldly confronts familial, cultural, and sexual trauma with the healing power of art. Helping Susie bring her story to life will be Stephan Wolfert, Robert Caisley, and Lauren Simon.

Susie Silook, Playwright

Susie Silook (Yupik) is a contemporary Inuit sculptor and published writer, originally from Gambell Alaska, who currently lives on Adak Island, on the Aleutian chain. Her work is included in many private collections and museums, including the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, the Eiteljorg, the De Young, and the Pratt museums. Her themes are taken from her Yupik culture, life experiences, and women’s issues, and incorporate ancestral design in the mediums of walrus ivory, whalebone, and wood. She is the recipient of the Eiteljorg and United States Artists awards, the Governor’s Individual Artist award, and a civil rights award from the Alaska Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Stephan Wolfert, Director

Stephan Wolfert left a career in the military for a life in the theatre after seeing Richard III. Since leaving the Army as an Infantry officer, he has received his MFA in Theatre from Trinity Rep Conservatory; created and directed the military segments for Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel’s Tony–award-winning Broadway musical Movin’ Out; created the largest touring Shakespeare Company in New England; and taught acting and Shakespeare at Cornell University. He currently teaches and directs at the Antelope Valley College, performs with three theatre companies in Los Angeles, and is the founding director of the Veterans Center for the Performing Arts. He was first seen in Native Voices at the Autry’s Please Do Not Touch the Indians and is elated to continue working with them.

Robert Caisley, Dramaturg

Robert Caisley recently directed the LA World Premiere of Carolyn Dunn’s The Frybread Queen for Native Voices. He served as the production dramaturg on the developmental co-production of The Frybread Queen with Montana Repertory Theatre. He is Associate Professor of Theatre and Film and head of the Dramatic Writing Program at the University of Idaho and served as Idaho Repertory’s Artistic Director from 2001 to 2004. His full-length plays include Push, Kissing, Good Clean Fun, Letters to an Alien, The Lake, The 22-Day Adagio, Kite’s Book and Front. His work has been presented at various theatres including the Walnut Street Theatre, Montana Actors Theatre, Idaho Theatre for Youth, Portland Stage Company, Mill Mountain Theatre, New Theatre, Theatre Artists Studio, Phoenix Theatre’s Festival of New Works, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference. His numerous short plays include Hungry 4 U, Western Mentality, The Apology and Santa Fe, which was a finalist for the 2004 Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville and originally produced by New York’s Stageworks/Hudson as part of the 2005 Play by Play Festival. His new play, Winter, is scheduled for production at New Theatre in Miami this January. He was recently named as the 2011 Blaine Quarnstrom Visiting Playwright-in-Residence at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Lauren Simon, Assistant Dramaturg

Lauren Simon is a playwright, journalist, dramaturg and MFA candidate in dramatic writing at University of Idaho. Her play, Adoration of Dora, part of Moxie Theatre’s Fighting Words Festival in 2010, premieres at University of Idaho in September 2011. Other recent performances of her work include Moscow, which placed first among short plays at the ACTF Region VII Festival in February, and Mi Corazon, a play for young audiences, at Missoula Colony last summer. An excerpt from Mi Corazon will appear in the forthcoming Scenes from a Diverse World, published by the International Centre for Women Playwrights. She recently served as dramaturg for San Diego State’s recent production of Paradise Hotel.

Ungipamsuuka will be presented at La Jolla Playhouse on Friday, June 3 and at the Autry National Center on Friday, June 17 at 7:30p. For tickets, please click here.

What a tease...

2011-04-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

Check back soon for more info about our retreat playwrights and their plays! If you have a burning question, leave a comment and I'll be sure to get it answered! If you're shy you can always say you're "anonymous" - we don't judge. ;-D

August: Osage County + The Frybread Queen

2011-03-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

Shyla Marlin, Elizabeth Frances, Kimberly Guerrero, Jane Lind

Guest post by Kimberly Norris Guerrero

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The Indian Out of the Attic
Comparing August: Osage County and The Frybread Queen

For over 800 performances, I was blessed to be able to walk in the flipflops of one of the most enigmatic characters in modern American theatre. A Cheyenne from Oklahoma, Johnna Monevata cooked, cleaned and cared for the Weston family in Tracy Lett’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play August: Osage County. Johnna kept her mouth shut, her head down, didn’t judge, didn’t comment, intervened only when necessary and no matter how bleak it got in the Weston house, never skipped a beat. How? She’d seen much worse.

Those who have read or seen August and want to know Johnna’s side of the story can garner valuable insight into Native American reality by watching Carolyn Dunn’s new play, The Frybread Queen which celebrated its world premiere produced by Native Voices at The Autry Museum in Los Angeles on March 12th. The similarities between the two plays are almost eerie, especially when you realize that Dunn and Letts were writing the pieces at the same time lending credence to the existence of a collective creative consciousness.

Like August: Osage County, The Frybread Queen is a female driven story deftly blending comedy and tragedy where the characters are tied by blood and marriage, represent three generations and have swept painful truths under the carpet—or for the sake of this discussion the Navajo rug—for so many years that it has risen to the height of K2. Also like the Westons, the family of the The Frybread Queen gathers at the old homestead set in rural America, this time the Navajo rez in lieu of “the plains”, to mourn the suicide of a beloved male family member who both plays refer to as “complicated”.

My character in The Frybread Queen, Annalee, a Muscogee Creek originally from Tulsa (where Johnna attended nursing school), is on a mission to scale and conquer the mountain of lies in order to save her teenaged stepdaughter from her ex-mother-in-law’s haunted house much as Johnna saved the teenager from the evil lurking in the Weston house. As Johnna, I nursed a character dying from cancer, as Annalee I am the one dying from lung cancer, the disease which sadly took our original Beverly Weston, the playwright’s father, Dennis Letts one month after we opened on Broadway.

Perhaps the most poignant similarity is that in both plays, I am left alone on stage at the end of the story with the matriarch. The two elders, metaphorical representatives of their respective cultures are forced to choose between perpetuating or breaking the cycle of abuse, addiction and unforgiveness that has spiritually poisoned both of their families for generations. They make very different choices but the T.S. Elliot poem Johnna chants at the end of August: Osage County rings true for both: "this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends"...one with a despairing whimper, the other with a glorious bang.

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The Frybread Queen closes at The Autry this Sunday, March 27. For tickets or more information, please click here.

More Than One Way to Make Frybread

2011-03-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

Director Robert Caisley and The Frybread Queens (Kimberly Guerrero, Shyla Marlin, Elizabeth Frances, and Jane Lind)

A note from Robert Caisley, the director of Frybread Queen, regarding the recipes that are featured in the show.

Each of the very strong, opinionated, passionate women in the play has their own unique take on how to make frybread. The monologues, in which they relate their recipes to the audience, function in several ways. They are an attempt by each character to assert some kind of “authority” over the past, and to take some kind of control over the future. These women are competing, both literally and metaphorically, to be the real frybread queen in the play.

The monologues take place outside the time and space of the rest of the play. They violate the unity of the narrative, and as such, they are jolting (in a good way) to the senses. They are moments in which the dramatic tension of the play is momentarily suspended so we can offer some respite, some editorial comment, perhaps some time for the audience to reflect. They are meta-theatrical. They unselfconsciously break the 4th wall that the rest of the play adheres to. They offer commentary on the preceding act and cast some shadow over the action which is about to unfold in the following act. They give us a glimpse into the interior life of the characters as they exist outside the central conflict of the play – perhaps a moment in time that represents a “better” time in the lives of these women?

Jessie, for example, takes great pride in relating her recipe. Perhaps the domestic chores like cooking frybread have been a distraction from the turbulence of her home life with a physically and emotionally abusive husband and an alcoholic son. The familiar recipe as refuge. Her blue ribbon was perhaps the only “merit badge” she had received that told her she was doing a good job as a mother, and so she clings to this victory fiercely. Pride in her recipe, is pride in her ability to survive in the face of extreme adversity. She has tried so hard to keep some semblance of a family together and frybread is part of the tie that binds. The other women’s recipes are alternately ironic, cynical, and comic.

I like to think of the monologues as “unguarded moments” for each of the women in the play. They are not being observed like they are in the rest of the play. We are able to see a side of them we don’t see at other times in the play.

Frybread is both a comfort food (practically speaking) and a cancer (culturally speaking - according to Lily’s monologue.) Monologues are moments in which a character is able to speak w/o judgment. In a family in which everyone’s past behavior and current motives are being constantly scrutinized by every other character on stage, these monologues give us rare glimpses of these women not under pressure. The frybread recipes provide us with moments of seeming impartiality. However, the playwright has been careful in how she has constructed the recipes … because we slowly learn as the play goes on that these recipes are anything but impartial, and reflect the essential agenda of each of the women. It’s not just a simple recipe with slight variations; the monologues are just as opinionated as the women are in the rest of the play. They are asserting their moral, ethical and emotional rights in these monologues. It is their appeal to the audience to “root for me.” “I’m right.” “I’m the frybread queen.”

In a play that is substantially about the specter of past, and the destructive power of blame and denial, these recipe monologues are a refreshing affirmation of the curative effects of love, home, motherhood, cooking, and the tremendous emotional strength of each of the women in this play.

For more information about The Frybread Queen, please visit our website.

Frybread Queen opens Saturday, March 12

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(click above to purchase tickets)

The Autry Cafe will offering special frybread menu items during the run of the show so be sure to swing on by to try out some of Chef Carolyn Baer's delicious goodness and then come and see The Frybread Queen after! Hope to see you there!

What Happens Next?

2011-02-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

Scripts, scripts, scripts. For a company that only develops and produces new plays, you can imagine the amount of paper we go through to get the submissions we receive read, evaluated, and catalogued in our database. The most frequently asked question I receive regarding our plays is "what happens next?" Meaning, once a playwright submits a script, what else is there to expect from us? This post is dedicated to those playwrights (or those curious about the process).

Everything starts with the play. A play is received by our offices via email or snail mail and is directly routed to me. Once I ensure that all the guidelines have been met, I contact the playwright directly giving him an approximate time of when he can expect to hear from us should his play be selected for a developmental event. This is an extremely important point as we do not contact playwrights who have not been selected for a slot. Of course, if an un-selected playwright were to to inquire about the status of his play, I would be more than happy to discuss the play with him but this is done on a case-by-case basis and I think you'll find that most professional theatre companies operate in this way.

Next, scripts are placed in groups of five based on the order in which they were received and sent to a professional reader for coverage. Coverage, for our purposes, consists of a detailed plot synopsis of the play and the reader's personal recommendations to Native Voices. Our readers represent a variety of cultural, educational, and geographical backgrounds and they are all aware of the company's mission and purpose. Plays that receive high scores from our readers will be placed on the top of my personal reading list; those that receive middle-of-the-road scores are placed at the bottom of that list.

Then I evaluate every play that's been placed on my personal reading list and score each of them individually. As I sort through the plays, I try to find ones that tell a meaningful story by playwrights who have a unique voice. I look for strong characters; characters who I want to live vicariously through; characters who I can identify with. I also look for plays that are theatrical - plays that go beyond three people sitting around a dining room table discussing how their day went. Plays need conflict, they need a dilemma, something has to happen in order to gain the interest of your reader and, more importantly, the interest of your audience member. I want to be able to put the play down and feel as if my life has been bettered by having read it. Now those may sound like lofty goals but, trust me, we have been lucky enough to receive plays that have that criteria.

After I score the scripts, I compile a list of my top plays and send that to Randy and Jean who then have their own criteria the plays have to meet. Then the three of us get together and select the top ten scripts that will be sent to a National Reading Panel for further evaluation. Like our readers, our panelists represent a variety of backgrounds but, in addition, they are a group of nationally recognized theatre artists and Native community leaders. It is with their aid that we ultimately select the handful of plays we will offer developmental opportunities to during our season.

It is a rigorous process, one that involves a multitude of steps and an array of people. I think playwrights would be surprised to learn that the play selection process for Native Voices includes much more than just the company's artistic staff. That when a play is selected (or not selected) for an opportunity with the company, that decision is supported by a variety of voices, not just our own.

I hope this helped dispel the enigma that can surround a company's play selection process. I think some playwrights get discouraged when they submit to a company time and time again and don't get selected. Don't let that stop you from working on your play. You can always ask us for feedback and, as an artist, you can also take the initiative to host your own opportunities for development. Join a writers group, ask a dramaturg- friend or someone with a critical mind to provide you with some notes, invite a group of actor- friends to your place or even your local coffee- house and hold an informal reading of your play to each other. Also, Native Voices isn't the only company accepting scripts. Visit our "Links and Resources" page to find other opportunities to submit your work to. Most importantly, never stop writing. Your stories need to be shared.

Native Voices accepts scripts all year. For a look at our Submission Guidelines, please click here.

Introducing our Frybread Queens

2011-01-04T15:33:00.000-08:00

We are proud to announce our cast for our upcoming production of Carolyn Dunn's The Frybread Queen. Check back here often for more information about our entire team and be sure to save the date for Frybread's opening: Saturday, March 12, 2011!

Jane Lind (Aleut) will portray Jessie Burns

Jane is an actress, director, choreographer, and playwright who began her professional career at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico and continued her training at New York University and Paris, France. A co-founder of the Native American Theater Ensemble, she has performed in various productions by Peter Brooks, Hanay Geiogamah, Andrei Serban, John Vacarro, and Ellen Stewart. She was the female lead and choreographer for Donovan Marley's production of Black Elk Speaks for which she received the prestigious awards of Best Choreographer from the Denver Drama Critics Circle and Best Actress from First Americans in the Arts. Her film and television credits include Percy Adlon's Salmonberries, the mini-series Return to Lonesome Dove, and the TNT production of Crazy Horse. She also performed in Alaska's Perseverence Theater's productions of The Vagina Monologues and Raven's Odyssey; the Cherokee Historical Society's Unto These Hills; the Theater of Yugen's production of Crazy Horse - Moon of the Scarlet Plums; and Native Voices/ Montana Rep's production of The Frybread Queen last fall.

Shyla Marlin (Choctaw) will portray Carlisle Emmanuel Burns

Shyla couldn’t be more excited to work with Native Voices at the Autry for the first time. Theatre credits include Last Days of Judas Iscariot, UTM/Company of Angels; I Stand Before You Naked, Complex; On The Brink, 68 Cent Theatre; The Elephant and The Mayfly, Berkshire Theatre Festival; The Frontier, USC/DRC; Alphabet Play, USC/DRC; Birdbath, Annex Theatre. Film and TV credits include Whatever It Takes (Sony); Lies and Alibis (Warner Bros.); Woo (New Line); Fashion House (MY TV); Saint and Sinners (MY TV); Minding the Store (TBS); Grace (32/12 Films); Spiritual Warriors (Gilgamesh Prods.); A Starbuck’s Story (Anatomy Entertainment). Writing and producing credits include Still Standing (Theatre Asylum); A Starbuck’s Story (“Best Short” FAIF Film Festival). A graduate of the University of Southern California, she studied theatre and French.

Kimberly Norris Guerrero (Colville, Salish-Kootenai, Cherokee) will portray Annalee Walker Hayne

Kimberly is a native Oklahoman and graduate of UCLA who has appeared on stage in Steel Magnolias, Canticle of the Plains, Three Sisters, and, most recently, in Steppenwolf's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County which she performed in Chicago, on Broadway, at The National Theatre in London and The Sydney Theatre Company in Australia. Her film/ TV credits include Grey’s Anatomy, Taking Chances, The Sopranos, Naturally Native, Hidalgo, and Seinfeld to name a few. Additionally, she works with youth in tribal communities across North America utilizing creative expression as a tool promoting personal development. Her performance in The Frybread Queen is inspired by and dedicated to Kay Norris and Dennis Letts.

Elizabeth Frances (Cherokee) will portray Lily Savannah Santiago Burns

Elizabeth is truly excited and honored to be working with such a wonderful cast and crew on this tremendous play. Recent projects include The Lunacy Commission (Kirk Douglas Theater), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), Julius Caesar (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), Detained in the Desert (Casa 0101), Tombs of the Vanishing Indians (reading with Native Voices at the Autry), Hamlet (Dir. Lenka Udovicki), Songs and Dances of Imaginary Lands (Dir. O-Lan Jones), Soltonoff/ Findlay Project (Center Theater Group), among others. She holds a BFA from Calarts.

Native Voices on the Web

2010-12-02T09:08:00.000-08:00

Image from www.cee-mail.com

In this booming age of digital technology when the answer to anything and everything is at your fingertips, it can become a bit daunting to know where the definitive answer lies. Nowadays, companies have multiple websites for multiple purposes and, when one only needs a single answer, searching through all those sites can be a bit frustrating. Since Native Voices is one of those many companies, I thought it'd be a good idea to break down our web presence for you in an attempt to reduce our digital divide.

Blog

Obviously, we have a blog, as most companies do. Ours is managed by myself, Carlenne Lacosta, Native Voices Director of New Play Development and Production. Since I am not part of a marketing team or specifically assigned to productions, my blog posts will have a different perspective from those that are managed by marketing personnel and the like. As I've mentioned in the past, my goal for this blog is to expose our processes and to become a forum for what artists and audience members want to see and/ or read about. If you have a question, please feel free to post it. If you have a suggestion, please send it in. If you're uncomfortable with publicly posting on the blog itself, you can always make your posts anonymous or you can email me directly. On this site, you'll find our newly titled section "Links and Resources," which is a listing of opportunities you may find of interest, as well as an "About Us" page which is pretty self-explanatory. When we have events you can purchase tickets to (such as our Equity productions), our home page will include a section dedicated to our Box Office. But generally, this blog is used to explore topics related to new play development.

Facebook

Whereas our blog features weekly posts, our Facebook page, which is managed by Native Voices Production Coordinator Caroline Chang, contains almost daily updates. If you mosey on over there right now, you'll see that we are seeking an Equity Stage Manager for our upcoming production of The Frybread Queen and if you scroll down a bit you'll see that The Public Theater is hosting an in-house workshop of Joy Harjo's Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light this weekend. Check out our Events page to see what our upcoming shows are and flip through our photos to see what you've missed if you've been unable to join us in Los Angeles. Of course, you can also find our contact information on there as well as copies of our blog entries for those unable to access this page through traditional means. Facebook contains the most up-to-date information on Native Voices and it's monitored pretty closely so I would bookmark this page as the best way to gain our most current information.

Twitter
Our Twitter account is managed by our long-time friend and frequent Production Assistant Jennifer Bobiwash (or @bobiwash). At this moment, you can view a link to an article about Thanksgiving meals that were delivered to residents of the Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Crow Creek, Lower Brule, Cheyenne River, and Standing Rock reservations; or a link to a blog post about human remains that were found at Oxford Alabama Stone Mound. On Fridays, you'll see Native Voices staff members posting their #viewatthemoment; since we all work from different areas, we thought it'd be interesting to see what our different work spaces look like. In September, Native Voices Executive Director Jean Bruce Scott shared her views of Missoula, Montana, her work space during the co-production of Frybread Queen and we can be sure to see views of snowy New York as both Jean and Native Voices Artistic Director Randy Reinholz will be there this weekend for the aforementioned Wings workshop. Twitter is a place where we can actively engage with our followers and disseminate information related to Native issues with a touch of a button.

Myspace
Yes, we still have a Myspace account and it is chock-full of useful information. Not only will you see a listing of all the plays we've developed and produced since being in residence at the Autry, but you can view Visible Film Production's mini-documentary on our Young Native Voices project, "Our Voices, Our Stories" and peruse through a ton of pictures from our numerous events. Although our Myspace page isn't maintained as regularly as our other social networks, it undoubtedly contains the most comprehensive history of the company. Those interested in the company's past should definitely make this site one of their first stops.

Website
Last, but certainly not least, is our Autry website. As implied by the image to the left, we are currently in the process of revamping our site - adding more pages, providing more content, etc - in order to make it your one-stop source for everything Native Voices. Because this overhaul is such an important project, it's hard to tell when "construction" will be complete but you can be sure that you, our blog readers, will be among the first to know. For now, you can visit the site to gain a brief history of the company as well as obtain ample descriptions of our different events.

And that's your cheat sheet to finding Native Voices on the web. If there's anything I've missed, something you'd like to know more about, please feel free to let me know. Social media is nothing without the interaction of our audience members so your views and opinions are not only welcome but essential.

Till next week!

Awaking a Sleeping Language

2010-11-17T19:16:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of Jean Bruce Scott
Pictured left to right: Virginia Carmelo, Seema Sueko, Marie Clements, Jack Dalton, Julie Jensen

To accompany yesterday's post regarding the translation process for Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, Virginia Carmelo has kindly contributed the following reflection which I would like to share with you here:

Last June, I was asked to participate in a theatre workshop for playwrights as a consultant and wondered how I might contribute. It became clearer when I was presented the play written by Marie Clements. The play includes a theme about a Gabrielino ancestor.

I had expected to translate a “few lines” into Tongva the language spoken by the Gabrielino/ Tongva Indians of the Los Angeles Basin. When I realized the few lines amounted to several pages, it became intimidating, as I have only studied this language a very short time (5 years) and I am one of only a few who have studied what is left of the language. Nevertheless I felt I could make a good attempt with the help of the linguist who has graciously given much of her valuable time to our effort.

While meeting with Marie Clements and Michelle St. John, I was impressed with their interest in fine tuning the various aspects relating to the Gabrielino Tribe, striving for authenticity. It was refreshing to find a commonality of ideas on Native topics and portrayal. This was possible because we all shared a native background and experience. A wave of excitement struck me by the possibility that this now sleeping language might not only be spoken but heard by many people here and in distant places. The thought was inspiring and awesome. It would be a tribute to those who knew no other language.

Then, there was mild concern that Carla-Rae would not have enough time to allow those sounds from long ago become familiar to her. Again, I was impressed by her focus in bringing age-old sounds to life.

I am privileged play a small part in putting together this creative endeavor that brings to light the Gabrielinos, their language, and history.

Virginia, thank you for your graciousness in sharing the language of the Gabrielino/ Tongva people with us. For that, we will be eternally grateful.

A Story That Will Never Vanish

2010-11-16T21:18:00.000-08:00

Illustration by Jan Timbrook

Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, which takes place in Los Angeles during the 1970s, features a character referred to as the Lone Woman. She is a young mother who appears to the character Janey to guide her through her own suffering. The Lone Woman imbues Janey with the strength she needs to survive the life that's been handed to her - a life of abandonment and loneliness, of disappointment and seeming hopelessness.

In reality, the Lone Woman led a desolate life. A part of the Gabrielino Tribe, she and her people lived in peace on San Nicolas Island. That is, until the Russian and Aleut hunters stumbled upon the island in the early 1800s and decimated the Nicolenos who were trying to prevent them from hunting the nearby sea otters. Due to the violent nature of these encounters, the missionaries ordered that the remaining island Gabrielinos be brought to the mainland, ostensibly to keep them safe.

In 1835 or 1836, Captain Sparks landed on the island for this very reason. As the Nicolenos began to board the ship, a young woman was allowed to return to her hut allegedly to get her child whom was accidentally left behind. While the woman was away, a storm began to pick up and Sparks was forced to leave the island in order to save his ship, crew, and everyone else on board. The young woman was left behind and her memory became the legend of the Lone Woman. Years later, she was found and brought to the mainland only to die seven weeks after her "rescue."

When Sparks first arrived on the island, he reported that there were about 18 Nicoleno men, women, and children. Can you imagine: a whole culture left to only 18 people to sustain? It's pretty daunting. Needless to say, when these 18 men, women, and children arrived on the mainland, they were forced to assimilate to the dominate culture, coerced to forget their own way of life.

Native Voices exists to allow those who were formerly forced into silence to finally have a voice for their own stories. When playwright Marie Clements wrote Tombs, she included the Lone Woman to represent those who were made to "vanish." Inadvertently, by including this woman in her work, Marie has immortalized her so her story and the story of her people will live in perpetuity. Not only that, but this past summer Marie worked closely with Virginia Carmelo of the Gabrielino/ Tongva Nation to translate all of the Lone Woman's lines into Gabrielino further solidifying this culture's history. Working alongside Marie and Virginia were Assistant Director Jennifer Bobiwash and, of course, the actor who portrayed the Lone Woman, Carla-Rae.

To read about Jennifer's experience regarding the translation of this "dying language", please visit her blog "Floating... around..." The following is Carla-Rae's reflection of this incredible "honor":

What an honor to have been asked to play the role of the Lone Woman in the staged reading of Tombs of the Vanishing Indian by Marie Clements this past summer.

Little did I know, as I devoured every word of the script, that I would be asked if I would be willing to play my character using the language of the original Gabrielino/ Tongva people. Joy, excitement, honor, and fear all mingled together as I heard my mouth say, "I will be glad to." The joy and excitement came because, as an artist, it is always fun to add new layers to the color and facets of a character. Fear, because as a cultural performer, the thought of “slaughtering” a culture’s language is totally, frightening. However, the honor of being given the privilege of trying speak the language, with all of its nuances, as the character of the Lone Woman, was what motivated me to do it.

Virginia Carmelo, the wonderful woman who translated the work and helped me bring it to life, was such a joy to work with. When she had to leave to go home during the rehearsal process I felt as though she was entrusting me with a valuable gift. In essence, she did entrust me with a language that is tirelessly being revived by her people. It is a gift and one that I share with honor, to the Gabrielino/ Tongva people, each time I am given the privilege to perform it before an audience of new ears.

It is my sincerest hope that I bring justice and honor to this beautiful language.

From Frybread to Tombs

2010-11-10T19:03:00.000-08:00

First, an acknowledgement to last week's Frybread team for the incredible amount of work they were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. Everyone arrived with the shared goal of strengthening the script's story line and providing playwright Carolyn Dunn with the support and encouragement she needed in order to achieve that goal. Carolyn reached a major breakthrough with the script this past week and we have Jere Hodgin, Rob Caisley, our very own Jean Bruce Scott, our amazing actors, and our lovely audience members to thank for that. I can't wait for you all to see Frybread Queen in her full regalia come March!

On a completely separate note, next week on November 16th at 7:30p, we, along with San Diego State University's Intercultural Center, American Indian Studies, and the School of Theatre, Television, and Film will be presenting a staged reading of Marie Clements' Tombs of the Vanishing Indian at SDSU's Experimental Theatre in celebration of American Indian Heritage Month. The cast includes Brian Bielawski, Jacob Bruce, Carla-Rae, Tonantzin Carmelo, David Ellenstein, Elizabeth Frances, and DeLanna Studi with Randy Reinholz directing. Please feel free to join us if you're in the area; the event is free and open to the public. Check back next week for info regarding the translation process for Tombs with testimonials from Virginia Carmelo of the Tongva/ Gabrielino Nation; Jennifer Bobiwash, our Assistant Director from this summer's Playwrights Retreat; and Carla-Rae, who will be reprising her role as The Lone Woman at this November's reading.

Spotlight on our Frybread Ladies

2010-11-02T23:45:00.000-07:00

As you know, this week, Native Voices will be holding two readings of Carolyn Dunn's The Frybread Queen, as part of our First Look Series and in conjunction with the American Indian Arts Marketplace at the Autry. With that in mind, I thought this would be as good a time as any to introduce you to the incredible actors who will be bringing the play to life at the Wells Fargo Theatre. I've asked each of them to share their favorite Halloween/ Fall photo with us and answer two questions that will surely put you in the "frybread state of mind." I hope you enjoy the read!

LaVonne Rae Andrews, dressed as the Rich Witch, will be reprising her role as Jessie

Carlenne: Have you ever seen a ghost or had a supernatural encounter?
LaVonne: Believe it or not, I hear voices all the time! Usually those "inner" kinds that tell you what off-ramp to take (to avoid a traffic snarl) or one that warns me about "unsavory" behaving people (even though I know that people are basiclly perfect at their core). And yes, I get visits from my now departed family and friends in my dreams. I especially like the visits from my wonderful Dad from time to time, my Wisdom Teacher.

Carlenne: Is there anything you cook that you're the "queen" of?
LaVonne: Me cook?! My best meals are those I've made via "reservations"! No, not Indian reservations but at restaurants! My cooking days are over! Loved it then but have since used up my cooking gene!

Adeye Sahran, dressed as Miss Scarlett O'Hara, will be joining the cast as Carlisle

Carlenne: Have you ever seen a ghost or had a supernatural encounter?
Adeye: When I was a freshman in high school, the ghost of a dark haired girl of about 8 years old used to follow me around for about a year. Even on sleepovers. She never really scared me, I actually got really used to her.

Carlenne: Is there anything you cook that you're the "queen" of?
Adeye: My eggs benedict, french toast, and chicken pot pie have ruined all others for my family. I rule at them!

Arigon Starr, dressed as Judge Ito along with her friend Brian who's dressed as Andy Warhol, will return to the role of Annalee

Carlenne: Have you ever seen a ghost or had a supernatural encounter?
Arigon: The Frybread Queen seems to come with its own built-in ghosts. I was privileged to be part of the Montana cast of Frybread Queen in September and the cast and crew were buzzing about odd happenings. At least five people working at the theater lost their keys, then found them later nowhere near where they were originally lost. I had a sighting of a figure in black behind one of the set flats. I was heading backstage and saw someone dressed in black looking back towards the stage. I was going to squeeze around them, say “excuse me” and was surprised when I got closer that there was NO ONE standing there. As all of the stage hands were dressed in black, I figured it was one of them. Boy, was I chilled when there was no one really there. It must have been one of those “shadow people” they talk about on “Coast To Coast AM” all the time. AAY!

Carlenne: Is there anything you cook that you're the "queen" of?
Arigon: Would have to be rice and beans. I’m a vegetarian and there are usually rice and beans on standby on the stove or in the fridge. There is nothing like the scent of carrots, onions and celery browning on the stove... and then the final product. Make all the jokes you want about beans being the “Magical Fruit” - but I swear by ‘em!

Rayanna Zaragoza, loving the fall crisp air, will step back into Lily's shoes

Carlenne: Have you ever seen a ghost or had a supernatural encounter?
Rayanna: I don't think I have. But once, during a choir retreat, my friends and I were playing with a Ouija Board and we thought we heard something in the bushes. We all were incredibly freaked out. It was probably our imagination.

Carlenne: Is there anything you cook that you're the "queen" of?
Rayanna: No. I'm an absolutely terrible cook. I eat whatever is made the fastest. Whenever I do try to make something exciting it either results in a horrible mess or a horrible meal.

We certainly hope you'll be able to join us this Thursday at 7p or on Sunday at 2p for the next step in the development of Frybread Queen. For reservations or more information, please click here or check out the flyer above. You may also call 323.667.2000 ext 354 or email us. See you there!

The Queen Returns to the City of Angels

2010-10-26T22:45:00.000-07:00

After a successful stint at Montana Rep, Carolyn Dunn's Frybread Queen returns to the Autry National Center for its final workshop before its world premiere in March. To get us back into the "frybread state of mind," I asked dramaturg Robert Caisley to share a bit of his experience working on the script in Montana and tell us what we can look forward to during next week's readings:

The experience of the Montana production was invaluable to the development of this play. There's not a single page of my "Production Draft" that isn't marked up beyond comprehension. The script underwent some radical transformations, some great tightening of dialogue, so much clarification of the stories of these four powerful characters. Carolyn took great advantage of being in the rehearsal studio with the actors and director, and there was hardly a day that went by without having a script meeting either before and, oftentimes, after each rehearsal. Even after Carolyn had to fly home and Jere and I kept rehearsing with the cast, I would speak with Carolyn on a daily (and sometimes hourly) basis, keeping her up-to-date on moments that we had discovered, continuining to fine tune the dialogue and take care of trouble spots in the text. We actually began a process we now laughingly refer to as "dramaturgy by text." Jere would be working a scene and something might not be working quite right. He would turn to me as dramaturg and I would text Carolyn the page number, the character and line reference, and what the problem was. Usually within minutes, Carolyn would respond with a solution that I could immediately pass along to Jere to test out in rehearsal. It was an extremely efficient method and we were able to save so much rehearsal time this way.

Carolyn and I are now back into the script, working to polish the text for next week's readings. We're making some significant changes to the final scene and we're working through a very long list of notes from the Montana experience - things we simply would not have know without the benefit of that developmental production.

For those who last saw the show in 2009 during our Festival of New Plays, you'll be in for quite a treat as the script is much stronger and clearer then it's ever been. Of course, we still need your feedback so I certainly hope you're making plans to attend either our November 4th reading at 7p or our November 7th reading at 2p. If you RSVP for either day by 5p on Monday, November 1st, you will receive free admission to the Autry's American Indian Arts Marketplace which is being held all day on November 6 and 7. Please click here for more information. We hope to see you there!

Who Says There’s No Theatre in LA?

2010-10-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

A guest post by Native Voices Production Coordinator Caroline Chang

There was the looming chance of rain Monday night , but luckily the skies cleared up over the Autry National Center as members of the LA theatre community dropped in for the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Nominees Announcements.

For those of you who don’t know, the LA Stage Alliance is an organization which brings together and builds awareness and support for performing arts organizations in Los Angeles. They host the annual Ovation Awards which is the “only peer-judged theatre awards in Los Angeles, created to recognize excellence in theatrical performance, production and design in the Greater Los Angeles area”. And Native Voices had the honor of being asked to host this year’s Ovation Nominee Announcements!

It was a great night with old theatre friends, and new ones. As well as a great reception by Cheers Catering before the event. The energy was calm but electrifying – ah, so that’s where the thunder and lightning went! Yes, a clear night sky, conversations about theatre, and bruschetta and cracked pepper hummus. What could be better?

The announcements opened with a presentation by Native Voices. David Burton, Managing Director, kicked it off with thanks from and info about The Autry and our new exciting exhibitions up and coming (come see Siqueiros, its fabulous!). Then next stepped up Tonantzin Carmelo and Kalani Queypo, who both effervescently introduced Native Voices to the audience of theatre professionals. What a great opportunity and such apt folks to do the job!

The next day, David remarked to me that “Native Voices at the Autry was delighted and proud to be the host venue for this year’s ovation nominee announcements. This event was a wonderful reminder of the great talent and diversity reflected in the Los Angeles theatre community. We are happy that NV has long contributed to that diversity and grateful that we had the opportunity to share our accomplishments and future goals with our LA theatre family. Many of the new friendships forged last night could lead to some interesting or surprising collaborations in the future. Wouldn’t that be cool?" I think so! Oh, the possibilities!

The rest of the evening went smoothly as winners from last year’s Ovation Awards announced the nominees. It was exciting to be surrounded by that much talent! And congrats to the nominees! Man, it was terrific year in theatre, don’t you agree?

Special thanks to Terrence McFarland, Doug Clayton, Neal Spinler, Phloe Pontaoe and to everyone at the LA Stage Alliance for putting together a fabulous evening! This year’s Ovation Awards Ceremony will be hosted by the Cabrillo Music Center and the Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Plaza on January 17th, 2011.

And a final thought from Caroline:
Theatre in LA is scattered, in pockets of the city here and there with no veritable “Broadway” (as much as those have tried to make it happen). Like much of the cultural activity in LA, you won’t know it until you stumble upon, it hits you in the face, and you take a chance, but it will dazzle you and find a way to connect with you, and you’ll come back wanting more (trust me).

And the performing arts community is big and small at the same time, much like the city itself. Its full of the experimental, contemporary, traditional, avant-garde, classics, remakes, stars and up and comers, the good, the bad, and the ugly (and the beautiful, its LA of course!).

It’s all over the map. Somebody is always doing theatre in LA.

And that’s how we like it.

Capping Off Diane Glancy Week

2010-10-12T23:30:00.000-07:00

Photo by Lost in Scotland

As you know, last week we kicked off our 2010 First Look Series with a workshop and reading of Diane Glancy's newest play The Bird House. We've developed and produced three plays by Diane in the past and are extremely excited to begin yet another journey with her. In addition, we held an in-house reading of yet another new play by Diane, The Catch, which she's creating in collaboration with long-time Native Voices' Costume Designer Christina Wright.

Needless to say, it was a busy, busy week for Native Voices. The script we began our Wednesday evening workshop with for Bird House was completely re-written for our Thursday afternoon rehearsal and the public reading of the play held later that night was actually only the second time it had been heard out loud in its entirety. Talk about first look!

On Friday, we had to place our Bird thoughts aside in order to explore the depths of The Catch, a play based on the ledger- book drawings of Bear's Heart who was imprisoned at Fort Marion, Florida during The Trail of Tears. We assembled an incredible group of artists to aid Diane and Chris as they continue their examination of voice, clothing, and Native education. Many thanks to Vincent Scott who joined us from the National Museum of the American Indian to direct the piece as well as Kim Walters from the Southwest Musuem of the American Indian who hosted the event. Of course, I have to mention our lovely cast of actors - Robert Greygrass, Kalani Queypo, Adeye Sahran, DeLanna Studi, and Noah Watts - for their creative energies and valuable insights.

Throughout the week, Diane was so gracious with everyone's comments and feedback - surprisingly, not every playwright is like that. But what Native Voices is able to do for its artists is create a safe place that inspires creativity; an open space where we can all be heard. And it is within these spaces that the magic of play development takes place.

Spotlight on THE BIRD HOUSE

2010-10-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of this Thursday's reading of Diane Glancy's The Bird House, I thought you'd like to meet the creative team and cast of the play. Since a few of them have been featured in our blog in the past, I decided to ask them a few personal questions so we can get to know them a bit better. I also asked them to share their favorite summer pictures with us so you're really in for a treat. ;-D

Diane Glancy, Playwright

In Texas with my grandson Ray

Carlenne: What inspires you?

Diane: Travel- because I pick up voices / ideas / images when I'm on the road by myself.

C: If you weren't a theatre artist, what would you be? Do you have a second calling?

D: My second calling- a minister. Or a writer of sermons. I like to think about Christianity.

C: Fill in the blank: It's not theatre if it's not _________.

D: ... sparked by language.

Stephan Wolfert, Director

In Santa Monica with Councilman Rosendahl and my wife Dawn before VCPA's presentation of Othello

Carlenne: What inspires you?
Stephan: A great idea!

C: If you weren't a theatre artist, what would you be? Do you have a second calling?

S: Theatre IS my second calling.

C: Fill in the blank: It's not theatre if it's not _________.

S: ... spontaneous.

Bryan Davidson, Dramaturg

In South Carolina with my wife Stacy

Carlenne: What inspires you?
Bryan: The unknown.

There's an old saying: "Write what you know." Which always seemed to me to be terrible advice. If I know something, then I know how I feel about it, and what I think about it... So what's the fun in that? Where is the discovery? Shakespeare's greatest plays aren't set in England; they're set in classical Rome, in Denmark, in Italy, on strange islands... I'm inspired by my own curiosity about people, about history and about the great sweep of human experience. As a playwright, my plays were about the Dust Bowl, about World War I, about post-partum depression... I was always intrigued about finding a way into a foreign land or different time, about finding those areas of common humanity.

This is what I love about working with Native Voices. As one of the whitest guys on the planet (I am from Orange County) I get to work with theater artists who may have a different cultural experience than I do. But the plays often deal with universal themes (Where did we come from? Where do we go when we die? And exactly what is it that happens in between?). The way different characters attempt to solve these unsolvable dilemmas of life may vary, but the dilemmas are the same.

We are alike, but different. But alike.

This is what I find fascinating and wonderful about human beings, and it brings me back to the theater over and over again.

C: If you weren't a theatre artist, what would you be?
B: When I was in high school, I took some sort of aptitude test that was supposed to help you identify a career. What would I be? I filled in the bubbles and awaited anxiously. The answer: Park Ranger.

I think I would be a pretty good park ranger, actually. I'd take people around, tell them stories. Encourage them to look at the stars and check out the different kinds of plants and the landscape, feel its history, really see the world around them, and wonder at it all.

Now that I think about it, isn't that what a theater artist does?

C: Do you have a second calling in life?
B: Teaching.

I guess it's in my blood. My mother taught grade school in Colorado, and her aunt taught three generations of kids in Ness City, Kansas. Once she started teaching the grand-kids of her first class, she knew it was time to quit.

Some of the best times and some of the hardest times in my life have come in trying to communicate something of meaning to a group of people.

C: Fill in the blank: It's not theatre if it's not _________.
B: ... telling me a story.

Telling a story may sound easy. It's not. But man - when it happens, you feel it.
One Sunday morning, my wife and I were driving home from the grocery store. We were listening to a story from "This American Life" on the radio. When we got home, we couldn't get out of the car. We were too engrossed in the radio program. The frozen foods were melting but we didn't care. We sat for twenty minutes in a sweltering car because we had to know what happened next.

That's the power of story!

Randy Reinholz, Actor

At the Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival accepting the Distinguished Institution Award for Excellence in the Arts with Tim Powell, Steven Crutchfield, Iris Caffin and Greg Durbin

Carlenne: What inspires you?
Randy: Great collaborators, smart writing and laughter in the process.

C: If you weren't a theatre artist, what would you be?
R: I have so many hats– this is like a trick question. I am a lover, a friend, a husband, a motivator, an administrator, a producer, a brother, a son, an uncle, a cousin and I love being with my dog.

C: Do you have a second calling in life?

R: Nope – this is what I am meant to do in life.

C: Fill in the blank: It's not theatre if it's not ______________.

R: A live event, an intimate act, that provokes, celebrates and examines the paradoxes that make us human.

Ellen Dostal, Actor

My two-year old niece at Palatki outside of Sedona

Carlenne: What inspires you?
Ellen: Passionate people who love what they do, watching the underdog succeed. Do you know the short film, The Butterfly Circus? Nick Vujicic plays a man without arms or legs in a side show during the Depression. How he finds his own self-worth is a very inspiring story.

C: If you weren't a theatre artist, what would you be? Do you have a second calling in life?
E: Even before I was an actor, I was a singer. That’s the earliest calling I can remember… making up songs while I was swinging on the swings. If I hadn’t gone into the arts, I would most likely have become a counselor. I like helping people succeed, and in many ways, that’s also part of what I do now.

C: Fill in the blank: It's not theatre if it doesn’t ____________.
E: ... move you in some way.

Carla-Rae, Actor

In San Diego at Native Voices 2010 Playwrights Retreat

Carlenne: What inspires you?
Carla-Rae: I am inspired by my FAITH in One Who is bigger than me. It is through that FAITH that I am inspired to keep pressing toward the goal of being all I can be in everything I put my hand to do. I am inspired by using the gifts and talents I have been given to help others believe "if Carla-Rae can do it, than I can do it." Whatever their personal "It" is. I am inspired when I see others reach there goals and I'm inspired by the support I receive from family, friends, and fans. I am inspired by the simple beauty in the little and the big things of life. Of course, I could go on and on, but simply put I am inspired to be a blessing and to bring joy to those whom my life touches. Certainly, all of this inspiration is applied to my work as an actor.

C: If you weren't a theatre artist, what would you be? Do you have a second calling in life?
CR: It is interesting that you ask this question. Just the other day my husband and I were having a discussion. We were remembering taking an aptitude test in high school which was to determine what career direction we would take. Mine determined I would be in the Performing Arts or in some form of Social work. I have a heart for people, so if I wasn't acting, I would probably be spearheading some cause to help mankind.

C: Fill in the blank: It's not theatre if it's not ______________.

FUN. Whether we are young or old, what we "do" has to bring enjoyment or "what's the point."

Be sure to make your reservations to see The Bird House, Thursday, October 7 at 7p. Click here for more info. We'll see you there!

A Playwright's Inspiration

2010-09-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

The Hotel Eden by Joseph Cornell

From the moment I met playwright Diane Glancy, I have been fascinated by what inspires her to write. From old photographs, to a heart-shaped rock, to a car ride down Highway 2, the stories behind her plays are just as interesting as the plays themselves. Next week, we will begin workshopping our fourth play by Diane, The Bird House, which features a role written specifically for Artistic Director Randy Reinholz.

So, we put our frybread-filled thoughts on pause for a week or two and turn our attention towards Ropesville, Texas where the heat consumes you, the poverty overwhelms you, and hopelessness is a way of life. It's a grim play but, at the heart of it, is the sense that we will be able to overcome anything that's thrown our way.

Below, in her own words, is what inspired Diane to write the play that will kick off our 2010 First Look Series and it's my hope that these words will inspire you to join us as we begin our journey into The Bird House.

My work usually comes in the process of travel. I was on my way from Kansas to San Diego in 2008. I stopped at my son’s in Texas. The landscape description comes from his place— the ground dried and cracked, the alkali traces, the short, brittle weeds. There’s always baggage to the land. If I stand in a place long enough, situations occur to me.

At the end of the play, I have the following:

Gratefulness to Native Voices at the Autry for the Naomi Iizuka workshop during the LMDA Conference from which the idea of two women living in a church came.

The idea for the eventual use of videography in the play came from the video work in Craig Wolf’s The Merry Chase, which I saw at the LMDA Conference in 2008. In fact, it was the genesis of the play along with a conversation with Randy Reinholz.

The title came from the actual bird houses on Jean and Randy’s back patio. It was where Randy and I talked one morning about aging, stroke, and puzzlements of the Christian faith— issues probably no one wants to look at.

At the moment, I’m interested in miniaturist theater, an invented term that means a play constricted in a small space. Nailed down. Distilled. For what purpose? Artistic exploration? The downturn of our economy? The way the term, cutback, continually is in the news? The way aging seems to hedge one’s life? (I can’t do what I used to).

I don’t mean miniaturist theater in terms of a short play. The Bird House is a regular one-act. But a miniaturistic play. Though not stated directly, its undercurrent is Native American heritage, a minority culture small in number in relationship to others. It also often is confined to a reservation.

For this play, I’ve been influence by Joseph Cornell, an American assemblage artist of small boxes with a proximity to Surrealism. He’s the author of contained worlds. I want to make a contained world of words.

I want large moments contained in smallness— I want to get as close as possible to the claustrophobic while maintaining a play with very large issues— abandonment, poverty, stroke, death.

I want a rowdy play. A small, quiet, rowdy play with huge, noisy, oversized issues.

I want it to seem the actors hardly can move. I want them hemmed with the smallest stitches by the sharpest needle.

Pierre Reverdy defined surrealism as “a juxtaposition of two more or less distant realities.” In this play, I want the distant realities to be not two but three characters who have enormous distances, yet live together on one small stage.

I want to see their restricted movements. (Even if this play grows with development, I hope it remains a minimalist piece on some level, meaning movement and action take place within a small space that is no space, to maintain the undercurrent of restriction in which the limitation and compression spark a dramatic friction).

I want it to seem like dialogue contained in small boxes of metaphor, with the largest issues held in the tiniest containments— as if the characters were tied together with very short ropes. I want to see the word, diminishment, as a lovely horizon.

In the end, as I travel, I try to catch the flocks of words that lift from passing fields.

The Bird House will be presented at the Autry National Center on Thursday, October 7 at 7p. It will be directed by Stephan Wolfert and feature dramaturgy by Bryan Davidson with a cast that includes Carla-Rae, Ellen Dostal, and Randy Reinholz. For more information, please click here.

On the Road with our Executive Director

2010-09-22T17:07:00.000-07:00

As you know, our beloved Frybread Queen began her reign at Montana Rep last weekend and, of course, our Artistic Director, Executive Director, and Managing Director (Randy, Jeannie, and David) all made the trip to Missoula to witness her debut. Caroline, Jenn, and I didn't want to be left out so we insisted that Jeannie send us a few pictures from the road (to the left you'll see one of the yummy lunches she made us drool over) and give us something we can share with all of you. Her entry is below. Enjoy the read!

What an opening!

First of all, Carolyn has written an extraordinary play – a love story, a ghost story, a story full of surprise twists and turns that kept the audience on the edge of their seats. The characters are deep, their relationships complex, and the secrets they keep – dark and powerful!

We’ve had such a wonderful time working with Carolyn over the past three years as she’s shaped and crafted her story (originally a novel) into this play. We’ve had numerous workshops and staged readings with exceptionally talented actresses, directors and dramaturges providing Carolyn with the opportunity to hear her words in workshops and with an audience. Getting the play up on its feet was the next step in our development process so we asked Carolyn to continue her work revising her play with Jere Hodgin as director and Robert Caisley as dramaturg.

One of the main things we wanted to explore was the presence of the dearly departed son, father, husband and lover – Paul – who we never see on stage, but who is there from the beginning. All four of the women feel him, see him or are possessed by him. This developmental co-production would give us the opportunity to fine tune the script and, for the set, lighting, and sound designers, to create those things that would make Paul real not only for the actresses but for the audience as well.

Jere cast the play with four superb actresses. Jane Lind gave a tour de force performance as Jessie, the tough Navajo grandmother who's left to pick up the pieces of her life while trying to protect her granddaughter Lily who was played with rebellious glee by Tiffany Miewald. Lily Gladstone as Carlisle, the good Cherokee auntie with the sweet façade, tries to console the devastated Lily and keep the peace while Arigon Starr as Annalee, the stepmom and outsider, clashes with Jessie over who’s to blame for Paul’s sorrows. Possessed by her own demons and regrets, Annalee, an Oklahoma Creek lawyer who is dying of lung cancer, desperately clings to life and her claim on Lily, determined to rid the family of its ghosts. Each of the performers was pitch perfect. Their interactions with each other were honest and truthful and their reactions to Paul’s presence made him all the more real to the audience.

Scenic designer Johanna Josephian gave us a realistic set complete with a creaky screen door, a comfy old rocker, a wobbly picnic table and an old fashioned two-seater glider that moved on its own whenever Paul wanted to make his presence felt. She was aided by lighting designer Mark Dean and sound designer Jayson L. Ferguson who continued to up the ante each time Paul was “on stage” with swirling lights, a flicker, an ominous glow and the sounds of breath, wind, thunder, a slamming screen door or subtle music. It all worked and it all made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Judging by the way the audience leaned forward in their seats whenever they felt Paul’s presence - Paul was definitely in the theater and on that stage!

I’d like to thank everyone involved with this production from its earliest readings to this wonderful production. I’d also like to congratulate Montana Rep and the University of Montana for their commitment to Native theater and the Native voice. We are proud to have had the encouragement and support of UM President George M. Dennison, Provost Royce C. Engstrom, Dean Stephen Kalm, and The College of Visual and Performing Arts.

We are especially thankful to The School of Theatre & Dance and its Director Mark Dean, and to Montana Rep and its Artistic Director Greg Johnson. We’ve had such a wonderful time collaborating with them this year and they did such a great job getting the word out and getting a Native American audience in to see the show – many of whom attended the invited preview performance and after party at the beautiful Payne Family Native American Center on campus. They had lots of help from the American Indian Student Services and its Director Fredrika Hunter, and The Department of Native American Studies. We were thrilled when a Native student commented during the talk back that this was the first play she’d ever been to and that she came because of the storyline and the chance to see four Native women on stage!

We look forward to the next steps on our way to the world premiere of The Frybread Queen next March at The Autry. Join us on our journey when we do our final workshop and readings of The Frybread Queen on November 4th and 7th during the American Indian Arts Marketplace at the Autry. Carolyn, Jere and Rob will work with a local cast to iron out the last few issues with the text. Check out the Autry Calendar for more information on our November readings and email NativeVoices@theautry.org to make your reservations today.

Insights from our Producing Artistic Director

2010-09-15T16:57:00.000-07:00

Remember back in July when I said we like to spend the end of our summers evaluating our year and dreaming up of what the next season will bring us? One of the exercises Executive Director Jean Bruce Scott gave us to get that conversation rolling was a writing assignment about what Native Voices' message should be. Needless to say, that's a pretty big assignment and, of course, it's an on-going discussion we have throughout the year. But, putting pen to paper is no easy task and we each procrastinated on our responses (sorry Jeannie!). But, I'm happy to say, eventually we were all able to cross "NV message" off our lists of "Things to Do" and have become a stronger team because of it (thanks Jeannie!). Today, I'd like to share what Artistic Director Randy Reinholz wrote for this assignment which I think perfectly synthesizes who we are as a company and is a great way to begin our 11th season at The Autry National Center:

Native Voices is a Native theater company with a national & international profile. We are a combination of community-centered artists practicing an art form with national significance. While other small arts organizations might call themselves community-centered, describing a geographical center; Native Voices’ community center is an intersection of ethnic identity, issues of National sovereignty for Native people, combining the self-representation of Native people in art, literature and history.

Native Voices provides a forum for Native playwrights to have access to the top talent in the US theatre in the development process for their scripts to tell Native stories from a Native perspective, showcasing exceptional Native and non-native theatre artists. It is a political act to put living contemporary Native people on stage to combat the once common perception in the US that Native people are vanishing or extinct. Theatre is the perfect art form to demonstrate that Native people are vital, contemporary, and that we have a complex unique story to tell.

Since 1994, we have been a text-based theatre company meaning that our work begins on the page. To assist the playwright, past development processes have included dramaturgical work; access to cultural advisors; stage readings; workshop stagings of scripts; improvisational rehearsals based on a written text; the addition of traditional and non- traditional music and dance added to text through improvisation and at other times based solely on the written text to expand the reach and depth of the story. All of these development processes are to support the playwright’s vision.

To date we have produced 14 professional theatre productions; the 15th show opening September 17, 2010 at Montana Rep. We always work at UNION standards of professionalism and compensation in an effort to place value on the work. We have produced a number of radio plays and given development workshop opportunities to over 80 scripts with playwrights from more than 25 different Native nations.

It is our goal that a Native Voices’ production be another step in the development process so that playwrights can experience an audience watching the show and continue the re-writing process. We hope to see subsequent productions and publication of scripts developed or produced at Native Voices.

As multiculturalism is no longer a fad in US art but a standard of inclusion and excellence for any performing arts organization that wants to be seen as credible, Native Voices has also taken on the role of matchmaker. We accept the responsibility of matching professional Native artists with culturally specific needs and opportunities to the greater professional theatre and entertainment industries. To that end, writers, performers and other collaborative theatre artists that have worked with Native Voices over the past 16 years are working more consistently in professional theatre and entertainment industries.

In summary we: develop plays, develop Native playwrights, develop collaborative theatre artists through on-going professional opportunities to hone the craft on stage and during artists’ workshops, develop and expand the cannon of Native American plays with more than 80 plays workshopped, provide a service to the greater professional theatre and entertainment industries by identifying possible collaborating artists for meritorious opportunities in the profession, and provide a nexus of information for professional Native theater artists and the contemporary issues that concern them

Prepping the Queen for Her Garden City Debut

2010-08-31T22:19:00.000-07:00

From the City of Angels to the Garden City of Missoula, Montana, The Frybread Queen is well on her way to a fantastic opening at the U of M. Before I take a week off from the blog-o-sphere, I wanted to acknowledge the team that's getting our queen ready for her grand debut.

Production Staff
Director: Jere Hodgin
Dramaturg: Robert Caisley
Costume Designer: Laura Alvarez
Lighting Designer: Mark Dean
Scenic Designer: Johanna Josephian
Sound Designer: Jayson Ferguson
Stage Manager: Deb Voss

Cast
Annalee Walker Hayne: Arigon Starr
Carlisle Emmanuel Burns: Lily Gladstone
Lily Savannah Santiago Burns: Tiffany Meiwald
Jessie Burns: Jane Lind

For those lucky enough to be in the area, the show opens on September 17th and runs until the 26th. For more information please visit www.umtheatredance.org.

And a special thanks to Carolyn Dunn and John Kenneth DeBoer (Assistant Professor of Acting/ Directing at the University of Montana) for their help in obtaining the info above and the images below.

In the words of Dr. Dunn...

2010-08-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

From Dr. Carolyn Dunn's dissertation Carrying the Fire Home: Performing Nation, Performing Identity, Indigenous Diaspora, and Home in the Poems, Songs, and Performances of Arigon Starr, Joy Harjo, and Gayle Ross:

What does it mean to be an Indian living far away from the place where they emerged? How can these words connect other American Indians living far away from home, from family, from community, to not only “home”, but the adopted “home” as well?

This project started as I asked myself questions of my own work as a poet, playwright, storyteller, and musician. My American Indian blood comes from the Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, and Tunica-Biloxi tribes of the southeast, from Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama. My creative work has focused on the myths, legends, and ceremonial life of the ancestors and of the contemporary tribal life of my family, relatives, and friends. I grew up listening to the family stories and the creation stories of how we came to be, and how we traced our lineage all the way back to the Old Country: the Old Country being the old national, tribal boundaries and into the new nations after Removal.

As I began my own journey as a poet, as a playwright, as a storyteller and a singer, learning from family and friends, I knew that as a second generation Californian, the Old Country to us was not another continent but a place that was just east of our modern homeland of Los Angeles, California. The stories of “home” became a lifeline for me, a connection to my immediate past and a connection to my ancestors who survived the unimaginable so that I could live. So, I began to write about what I knew of my family stories, with the knowledge that while I was an Indian from California, I wasn’t a California Indian. I came from somewhere else.

As I write this, our favorite Ph.D. is currently nestled in Missoula, Montana rehearsing for the developmental production of her play, The Frybread Queen, which is being co-produced by Native Voices and Montana Rep. Before she left, I had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about the play as a way of whetting your appetite for the deliciousness that is frybread! And if you'd like to hear more about her exploits in her own words, feel free to journey on over to her personal blog, Tales from a Hollywood Indian.

Carlenne Lacosta: What inspired the creation of Frybread Queen?

Carolyn Dunn: Well, I wanted to write a play about four women that was about their relationships with one another. I miss the old days of feminist theater, you know, in the vein of La Mama and Maria Fornes and Spiderwoman Theater, all of those folks out of New York. I had four very strong women in mind to play these roles, and basically this was a play written for four very strong actresses as women who were afraid to let go of their secrets.

CL: For us non-Natives out there, what is frybread and what is its significance in your play?

CD: Now that is such a loaded question, Carlenne! Frybread is not exactly the healthiest thing around but man is it yummy! It's basically bread dough that's fried in lard or grease until golden brown. You can eat it like a tostada, with beans, cheese, hamburger, mutton, deer meat, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and salsa, or as a dessert with honey or powdered sugar. Like with every recipe, there are many different ways to make frybread, usually varying by tribe or where one grew up, and I liked the idea of using frybread as a metaphor for cultural differences between families that are made up of differing tribes.

CL: How would you say the play has evolved since its first workshop with Native Voices?

CD: It has changed throughout the years, I think that it's gotten tighter and more suspenseful. It plays with the idea that secrets can destroy families and especially secrets in haunted houses. But at the basic core of the play is the idea that love and humor can heal us. And food too. Comfort food. I mean, a good piece of frybread can help you overcome anything. Except heart disease or diabetes. But I throw in a little twist, like adding whole wheat flour to the mix.

CL: What are you most looking forward to in regards to this upcoming production in Montana?

CD: I'm really looking forward to seeing how my vision of the play lines up with our director's. Jere Hodgin is so much fun to work with and this is the second piece I've worked with him on. Jere understands the generational issues that are dealt with in The Frybread Queen and he has championed the play since early on. I also am looking forward to seeing how audiences will react to humor in the face of overwhelming tragedy.

CL: If you could sum up your play in one word, what would it be?

CD: Greasy. (hey, you asked!)

CL: What would you say is your greatest achievement?

CD: Being a mom.

Check back next week for more on Frybread Queen's time in Montana. And, on a partially related note, Native Voices will be holding auditions the weekend of September 25th for our First Look Series, which Frybread Queen is a part of. Please click here or contact Caroline Chang for more information.

Till next time!

Our history with frybread

2010-08-17T23:38:00.000-07:00

(l-r) Arigon Starr, LaVonne Rae Andrews, Rayanna Zaragoza, Kateri Walker

Those familiar with Native Voices may also be familiar with The Frybread Queen as well as its creator Carolyn Dunn. Carolyn has been a long-time friend of Native Voices having participated in our past retreat and festivals as both a playwright and actor (most recently as an actor in Time Immemorial alongside Kalani Queypo) as well as in our collaborations with Native American Public Telecommunications as a director.

Now, if one were to glance at our 2010-2011 Season, it may seem like we've taken our friendship with Carolyn to the "Fatal Attraction" level; some may even say we should go ahead and nickname this season "The Carolyn Year." We are, after all, featuring not one, but three presentations of her latest play The Frybread Queen: once in Montana next month and twice at the Autry National Center in November and March. Why the redundancy, you ask? Doesn't Native Voices have other plays to choose from? Well, yes, we do have other plays on our list but our persistence with Frybread Queen has nothing to do with a lack of options. Our relentlessness with the play has to do with the fact that we are a development company committed to seeing Frybread Queen fully realized on stage.

Our journey with The Frybread Queen actually began back in 2007 when Carolyn was invited to participate in our Playwrights Retreat at the University of California, Los Angeles. After that, we featured the play during our 2008 First Look Series with the lovely ladies pictured above in the roles of Annalee, Jessie, Lily, and Carlisle. After hearing our audiences' feedback on the play, we decided to pursue the work further and gave Carolyn a slot during our 2009 Retreat and Festival which was held in San Diego and Los Angeles. It was there that Carolyn first teamed with Robert Caisley as a dramaturg. Rob, who has been with Native Voices since its inception, brought the play to his good friend, Jere Hodgin, the Head of Acting/ Directing at the University of Montana. Jere and Rob will spearhead The Frybread Queen's Developmental Production at Montana Rep with Native Voices as co-producers then the play will return to the Autry National Center for a presentation during November's American Indian Arts Marketplace all leading to its Equity production at the Wells Fargo Theatre in March of next year.

Needless to say, it takes a lot of workshops to prep a play for the stage and The Frybread Queen is no exception. But because we unwaveringly committed ourselves to Carolyn as an artist and because we dedicated ourselves to this play and to these characters, we're now thisclose to seeing this story that we've lived with for three years finally come to life. So, where some may view our upcoming season as one of redundancy, I actually see it as a mark of accomplishment. It's a testament to Native Voices' tenacity and success as a development company and, let's be honest, we couldn't do any less for a queen, now could we?

So many opportunities, so little time

2010-08-11T22:23:00.000-07:00

First off, apologies for being a day late on this post! Seems like I'm a bit behind the times but I'm here now and that's what's important, right? ;-D Since our last post, a few opportunities have come across my desk that I've been wanting to share with you.

Native Voices 2011 Call for Scripts
Please click on the link above for info regarding our 2011 developmental opportunities and our current submission guidelines and process. Although we accept scripts year round, all work received by September 15, 2010 will be considered for our 2011 Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays as well as our 2011 First Look Series. All work submitted after September 15th will be considered for our 2012 developmental opportunities. We accept completed full-length plays by Native American and First Nation playwrights. If you have any questions or concerns regarding our Call for Scripts, please feel free to email me directly.

The Loop
If you're a writer, I highly recommend that you join The Loop - a social network geared specifically towards "playwrights, librettists, composers and anyone else who is actively working on creating their life as a theatre artist." Think of it as a Facebook for writers. With The Loop, you'll be able to connect with an extraordinary amount of fellow writers and access countless submission opportunities. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you may remember me mentioning this very same network back in August - see, it's so great I'm giving it a second recommendation! Just visit the link above, click on "Social Network," create your profile, and start exploring! (and while you're at it, add me as your friend!)

Community
Writing can be a lonely game at times. Good thing playwright Adam Szymkowicz has taken it upon himself to interview 200+ playwrights and post the transcripts on his blog! I'd highly suggest bookmarking this remarkable resource and visiting it whenever you have a free moment. I find it incredibly helpful to hear from those who are in my shoes to see how they've overcome the difficulties they've had to face and what inspires them to push onward. Some of my favorite playwrights featured on Adam's blog are Luis Alfaro who directed Tombs of the Vanishing Indian during our 2009 First Look Series, Jacqueline Goldfinger who was one of our dramaturgs at our 2008 Playwrights Retreat, Lin-Manuel Miranda (aka my current crush) who I just saw in The Pantages production of In the Heights, and Caridad Svich who is just about one of the sweetest artists I have ever met.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival
OSF is one of the oldest professional non-profit theatres in the nation. Although the theatre is intrinsically linked to Shakespeare's cannon, the company is also dedicated to "the cultural richness of the United States" and boasts "the inclusion of a diversity of people, ideas and cultures." To that end, Oregon Shakes offers a variety of fellowships, apprenticeships, internships, and residencies that artists of color are strongly encouraged to apply for. Deemed the FAIR Experience, these programs are designed "to foster a collaborative exchange of knowledge, skills and perspectives between experiences professionals and the next generation of theatre practitioners." Take a look at what they have to offer and give it a try - you never know what's waiting for you around the bend.

Next week, I'll have some info about Frybread Queen and hopefully I'll be able to keep my days straight!

Till then!

The Planning Stages

2010-07-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

Image from Trak.in

Before I delve into this week's post, I just wanted to thank everyone who graciously provided me with feedback on last week's entry. I'm truly grateful for the time everyone took to jot down their ideas and look forward to creating this blog along with your help. Just like there's no "i' in team, there's no "i" in blog so please keep your suggestions coming! Feel free to post your comments below or send them to me directly (carlenne@gmail.com). Thanks in advance!

Now, on to the topic at hand. Some of you may have noticed that Native Voices is oddly quiet during this time of year. Why, it was just last month that we were seen at San Diego State University, La Jolla Playhouse, and the Autry National Center for our 2010 Festival of New Plays. Since then, there haven't been any posts about our plays, no contests for free tickets, not even a peep about an artist we're working with. Well, that's because at the end of every season, Native Voices likes to take a step back from our work to examine our successes, areas we can improve in, and strategies we'd like to adopt for the upcoming year. As Artistic Director Randy Reinholz puts it:

"Our goal remains clear - we want to serve the writers and collaborative artists in the process of developing new work - to that end we always review our processes at Native Voices looking for ways to be inclusive, clear, generous and evaluative of our process, and the new play development across the country."

To that end, July and August have been designated as Native Voices' planning months. We've spent the last few weeks discussing the company's mission and philosophy and have been thinking of new ways to increase our efficiency and effectiveness. In fact, the genesis of last week's post arose from those very conversations. Not only do we have a new look to our blog but we're also analyzing our website and social networks to ensure we're using each outlet effectively. We know you don't want to be bombarded with sales pitches at every turn so we're figuring out better ways to disseminate that information to you. We've also re-written our Call for Scripts to include a more detailed description of what our selected playwrights have to look forward to in regards to developmental opportunities and personnel support and have had numerous discussions regarding our play selection process.
I'm also very pleased to announce that we've confirmed the chair of our 2011 National Reading Panel, Julie Jensen, who recently served as a dramaturg during our Festival of New Plays.

We have a lot of exciting activity planned for our 2010-2011 Season including a development production of The Frybread Queen by Carolyn Dunn at Montana Repertory Theatre as well as two public presentations of the play during the American Indian Arts Marketplace at the Autry all leading to its Equity production in the spring of next year. We'll also feature Diane Glancy's new play, The Bird House, this fall for our First Look Series and will be selecting the plays for our 2011 Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays at the end of the year.

Needless to say, more information about each of these events will be posted as the date of their presentations near. If you have something specific you want to hear about or have a particular question you'd like to ask one of our artists, please let me know and I'd be more than happy to oblige. Remember, we're building this blog together, so I need all the help you can possibly provide!

Our next post will be in two weeks - hopefully I'll have more info about the Montana Rep production of Frybread Queen to share with you. If not, perhaps I can wrangle a frybread recipe out of Carolyn to post on here. ;-D

Till then!

"inspiring creativity"

2010-07-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, former NV Literary Associate (and now Production Assistant) Pamela Sevilla and I traveled to Alberta, Canada to attend the LMDA (Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas) Annual Conference at The Banff Centre. The LMDA is a consortium of theatre artists whose mission is to "affirm the role of dramaturg, to expand the possibilities of the field to other media and institutions, and to cultivate, develop and promote the function of dramaturgy and literary management." I've been a member of this organization for a number of years and have found that a lot of my work is informed by the conversations LMDA has generated and since Native Voices is devoted to new play development, the conference was the perfect place to reflect on our process and discover new ways of improving our work.

A few things about this particular conference:

1. It was located in one of the most breath-taking sites imaginable: The Banff Centre which is situated within the Canadian Rockies. The centre's mission is to inspire creativity and it certainly lives up to its promise! Every morning Pam and I would walk to the Vistas Dining Room for breakfast and marvel at how lucky we were to be surrounded by such a peaceful scene. Actually, the photo above was taken from our breakfast table. Can you imagine how hopeful your day would seem if you had that sight to wake up to every morning?

2. This year marked LMDA's 25th Anniversary and to celebrate, the conference committee decided on a retreat-style format that perfectly complemented our setting. Instead of having key note speakers or a group of panelists, conference delegates were able to pose session topics at the top of each day in an Open Space format facilitated by Misha Glouberman. Misha's approach to this "un-conference" allowed attendees to connect with one another on a more personal level as ideas and interests were constantly flowing throughout the rooms and constantly linking new people to each other. Everyone's ideas were valued and no opinions were taken for granted.

3. To represent the indigenous perspective on the topics at hand, LMDA invited First Nations playwright Tara Beagan (Ntlaka'pamux) to attend the conference as a guest. Tara was recently the playwright-in-residence at Native Earth Performing Arts and, as you may recall, Native Voices presented a scene from her play Miss Julie: Sheh'mah alongside Stone Soup Theatre this past May. To have an artist on-site who openly acknowledged the original caretakers of the land we were on and to be so open about such controversial issues as race and censorship was really refreshing. It seems as if Banff gave everyone the freedom to let their guards down in order to freely exchange ideas and concerns they would have otherwise been too wary to bring up.

So, all of this to say, I've returned from Canada with a renewed sense of purpose and mission not only for myself as an artist but for Native Voices as a company. My mantra for this upcoming season is one of transparency: as Gotthold Lessing (the father of dramaturgy) used to say, "For me the greatest beauty lies in the greatest clarity." I'm determined to return to my original purpose of this blog which was to "discover what makes NV tick" ... to pull "away the wizard's curtain and [expose] all the behind-the-scenes minutiae we've worked so hard to conceal."

In addition, I'd like to set up this blog as a forum for other artists to engage in a conversation about what interests them. What would you like to hear about? What questions do you have to ask? What answers do you have to offer? One of the things I learned from the LMDA Conference is that we learn best when we learn from each other and I'm incredibly eager to hear what you have to teach me. Of course, that only works if we're able to hear from each other so I encourage you to post your comments here without fear of judgement or anything else of the sort. This is an open forum led by you, our readers.

Lastly, I do not claim to be an expert in Native theatre or new play development. What I am is a theatre artist and an audience member with an insatiable curiosity and an open mind. Perhaps, together, we can discover new avenues of thought and journey towards a greater understanding of ourselves and of each other.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

More images from Banff...

Submissions for Native Earth's Weesageechak Festival: August 1

2010-07-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

"Native Earth Performing Arts is seeking submissions for its annual festival of new works by Native artists. Weesageechak Begins to Dance is a festival devoted to showcasing and developing new works of Aboriginal theatre and dance."

Please follow the links or click on the image above for more information.

Best of luck!

And the festival continues in the City of Angels!

2010-06-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

The 2010 Festival of New Plays wraps up this weekend, June 26 - 27, at the Autry National Center, Los Angeles. Join us as we conclude our 10th Anniversary Season with readings of two gritty urban dramas, one sweeping epic, plus a panel discussion hosted by the WGA and SAG diversity committees regarding the portrayal of Native in the media.

** If you purchase admission to two readings, you'll receive admission to the third for free! Simply email NativeVoices@theautry.org to purchase your tickets. **

Schedule of Events

Saturday, June 26 @ 1p

Tombs of the Vanishing Indian

By Marie Clements

Sunday, June 27 @ 1p

Time Immemorial

By Jack Dalton and Allison Warden

Sunday, June 27 @ 4p

On the Mangled Beam

By Dawn Jamieson

Sunday, June 27 @ 6p

Panel Discussion: Modern Natives in Media

Hosted by WGA and SAG diversity committees

General admission to the readings is $10 and $5 for students, seniors or military.

Admission to the panel discussion is free with a purchase to one of the readings.

Those attending Tombs on Saturday will also receive complimentary admission to the museum.

Autry, WGA, and SAG members receive complimentary admission the entire weekend.

Email NativeVoices@theautry.org for all your ticketing needs.

See you there!

The Dream Team

2010-06-11T18:16:00.000-07:00

(l-r) crystal mercado, ally zonsius, pamela sevilla

emily nuthall, carlenne lacosta, caroline chang, terri cao

Behind every successful Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays there is a team of highly motivated and accomplished stage managers and interns and this year, I do believe, we've assembled the team of our dreams.

First, we have our fearless Production Coordinator, Caroline Chang, who joined us earlier this year while we were in the midst of producing Tales of an Urban Indian. Caroline jumped head first into a flurry of activity and was able to seamlessly pick up right where former Production Manager, Rich Deely, left off and blaze her own trail of achievements behind her. Since Caroline's main responsibilities keep her tied to our Production Office at the Autry National Center, we were very lucky to be able to have her join us in San Diego for the retreat and festival.

Joining us for their third year as retreat stage managers are Crystal Mercado and Pamela Sevilla. In addition to serving as a stage manager, Pam also served as Native Voices Literary Associate helping evaluate and short-list scripts as well as our Retreat and Festival Assistant coordinating all of our catered lunches and receptions and helping me keep my sanity (a very important job). Our third stage manager, Ally Zonsius, has actually worked with Native Voices several times in the past but this was the first time we were fortunate enough to secure her for this event. Although they may not know it, Crystal, Pam, and Ally actually form the backbone of our Retreat and Festival. Once the events starts, they ensure that everything runs according to schedule, that everyone's where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there, and that any problems are addressed with grace and kindness. This event would not have functioned as smoothly as it did had it not been for these three ladies.

Completing our Dream Team are our two interns: Terri Cao and Emily Nuthall. Although Terri, a recent graduate of SDSU, and Emily, a student from High Tech High School, joined our circus fairly late (about a week prior to the start of the retreat), they were more than willing to fill in the gaps we couldn't fill and were absolute joys to be around.

Native Voices received a lot of compliments during the retreat - we were praised for our organizational prowess, for our ability to foresee possible complications and address them ahead of time, for our good humor, among other things. What I hope everyone realizes is that it takes a team to run this machine that we lovingly call our Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays and all compliments that are given to Native Voices should also be directed straight to Caroline, Crystal, Pam, Ally, Terri, and Emily. We can not do this alone and we were incredibly blessed to be able to work with such giving and tireless artists.

Life in Words

2010-06-01T17:11:00.000-07:00

There's something incredibly exciting about hearing a script come to life for the first time. After a year (or years) of reading a script to yourself, imagining how the characters would sound and act, there's just something magical about being able to hear a playwright's words finally fall from the mouths of talented actors and seeing how the audience reacts to those words that make theatre worth it.

After a year of planning, countless email messages, overtime charges on cell phone bills (on my part at least), and several cross-country meetings via several teleconference services, our entire company is finally assembled in San Diego for our 2010 Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays.

Before our teams begin their individual workshops, we've all had the opportunity to hear each of the plays read in their entirety. We've all heard where the plays are starting the week and will be able to hear where they'll end up at the end of the week when they're each presented at La Jolla Playhouse.

Tomorrow, each play will begin their workshops; each play will receive two workshops a day. It's a period of phenomenal creativity and tremendous activity - all leading to an invaluable experience.

I'll post more info as (or if) time permits. For more on how we develop our plays, take a look at the article below.

More soon!

Spotlight on ON THE MANGLED BEAM

2010-05-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

Written by Dawn Jamieson (Cayuga)

Directed by Stephen Metcalfe

Dramaturgy by Julie Jensen

@ La Jolla Playhouse on Sunday, June 6 from 4p - 6p

@ Autry National Center on Sunday, June 27 from 4p - 6p

Before and beyond the building of the World Trade Center, the contributions Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) ironworkers made to the building and rebuilding of New York City is legendary. This is the story of the heroic efforts they made in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy. Staged reading.

About the Playwright

Dawn Jamieson (Cayuga) is an educator, actor and playwright. Acting credits: Broadway shows Inherit the Wind (George C. Scott, Charles Durning) and The Price (Eli Wallach, Hector Elizondo). Film credits: The Reawakening (Michael Greyeyes, Gordon Tootoosis) and Ivory (Martin Landau, Peter Stormare). Plays written: Silent Quest (a drama about the hunt for a sexually abusive priest) and The Escape of the Potted Plant (a comedic adventure about an FBI undercover operation). BA: Psychology, Michigan State University. MA: Education, Columbia University. Proud member of American Indian Artists, Inc. (AMERINDA), Times Square Playwrights. AEA/ SAG/ AFTRA

About the Director

Stephen Metcalfe's stage plays include Loves & Hours, Vikings, Strange Snow, Sorrows and Sons, Pilgrims, Half a Lifetime, Emily, White Linen, The Incredibly Famous Willy Rivers, White Man Dancing, A World of Their Own, and The Gift Teller. He's been produced in New York and at regional theaters through the United States as well as in Europe and Japan. A new play, The Commons, will have its premier at San Diego's Cygnet Theatre this coming year. Screen credits include Half a Lifetime, Cousins, Jacknife, Roommates, and Beautiful Joe. He was a contributing writer on Pretty Woman, Arachnophobia, It Could Happen To You, and Mr. Holland's Opus. He's been a guest teacher in dramatic writing at University of California at San Diego, University of San Diego and San Diego State University.

About the Dramaturg

Julie Jensen is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Award for New American Plays for White Money, the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work for The Lost Vegas Series, and the LA Weekly Award for Best New Play for Two-Headed. She's received the McKnight National Playwriting Fellowship for Wait!, the TCG/NEA Playwriting Residency for Wait!, a major grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts for Dust Eaters, and the Edgerton Foundation Grant for Billion Dollar Baby. Her work has been produced in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as in New York and theatres nationwide. She's received numerous commissions and her work is published by Dramatic Publishing, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts, Inc. Her book Playwriting: Brief and Brilliant has just been published by Smith and Kraus. Her play She Was My Brother just finished a successful run at Borderlands Theatre and it will be produced by Plan-B Theatre next fall. She's currently the Resident Playwright at Salt Lake Acting Company.

Playing Greg Linden

Scott Andrew Amiotte (Omaha) is the founder and Executive Director of Triad Productions. Theatre credits in San Diego: Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Danny), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Satan), The Glory of Living (Clint), Someone Who'll Watch Over Me (Edward), Corpus Christi (James the Less), Troilus and Cressida (Hector/Diomedies), My Three Angles (Alfred), The Skulls Eye (Cpt Dreadbeard), Pirates of Point Loma (Cpt. Arbaez). Tours: Macbeth (Macduff), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Oberon). Film: The Laundromat (Armando), Streets (Ace), The Badlands (Ahsik), Derek (Branco) The American Dream (Latin Fever Rodriguez). Commercials: Table Mountain Casino (Adventure Mike). Voice Overs: Shawl Dancer (Arena Director), Treasure Falls & Splashbattle (Cpt Dreadbeard). Director: Red Light Winter, Diviners. Fight Choreography: The Lonesome West, Troilus and Cressida, MacBeth, Pirates of Point Loma, Skulls Eye.

Playing Becky Davis

Elena Finney (Mescalero Apache) has performed with several multi-ethnic theater companies and was awarded a 2006 "First Americans in the Arts" award for her outstanding performance as Teresa in the Native Voices production Kino and Teresa. She was also featured in the London debut of Diane Glancy's Salvage. Well versed in comedy, she has performed at the Second City and The Upright Citizen's Brigade in Los Angeles. She can also be heard as the voices of several characters in comedian Mike Hollingsworth's animated short films. TV credits include: Love Inc., Charmed, Mind of Mencia, Medical Investigation, and Popular. Film credits include: PowWow Dreams and Cantina. She developed her craft while earning her degree at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and TV. Represented by Tom Parziale, Visionary Talent Management. SAG/ AFTRA/ AEA

Playing Brad Martin

Gregory Zaragoza (Pima) most recently portrayed the leading role of Native Sheriff Gil Lujan in the movie Jordan. He was the Croupier in the final season of The Sopranos, the Abenaki Chief in The Last of the Mohicans, and Tanaghrisson in The War That Made America. He's been in many commercials and television shows including Law & Order, The Jury, North & South, and Grace and Glorie. On Broadway, he was Chief Sitting Bull in Annie Get Your Gun alongside Bernadette Peters and the Apparition in Macbeth alongside Christopher Plummer. A licensed lawyer in New York and California, he is the proud father of three talented children and is incredibly thankful to his wife Shiuga for her decades of support. He is most appreciative of Randy and Jean for their work and continued commitment with Native Voices.

Playing Dave Martin

Jason Grasl (Blackfeet) is a veteran of stage, film and commercial. His Native Voices acting credits include Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders and The Further Adventures of Super Indian, as well as an assistant director credit for Salvage. Other stage credits include The Blame of Love (which he also co-wrote), From Little Seeds, Be the Hunter, Boomtown 1925, Tony n Tina’s Wedding, and Smell of the Kill. Film credits include Fantasy Football: The Movie, The Seminarian, April’s Fools, and Banking. He voiced eight different characters, including the lead, in the Barcid Foundation stop-animation piece Crazy Ind’n: The Sequel. This spring he wrapped production for the soon to be released webseries End Result. Represented theatrically by Storm Talent. SAG/ AFTRA

Playing Jess Sharp

Zahn McClarnon (Hunkpapa Lakota) was raised in Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska and has been acting for over eighteen years. He's guest starred on multiple TV shows including Saving Grace, Life, The Shield, and NYPD Blue. He's also had the pleasure of a starring role in Spielberg's Into The West and has worked with award-winning directors John Irving, Bruce Beresford, Alex Cox, and Chris Eyre. He recently concluded a run of So Far From Scioto, wrapped the film Blood Line, and will begin filming I'm in Love with a Church Girl next month.

Playing the clerk and additional characters

Adam Parker graduated from San Diego State University with a BA in Theatre Arts with Special Distinction. He is the Artistic Director and a founder of Triad Productions. Directing credits: Shopping & Fucking (San Diego Premiere 2009), The Lonesome West (2009), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (2008), Kindertransport (2005), A Stye of the Eye (2005), Stop Kiss (2004), Lysistrata (2004). Acting credits: Debut (Native Voices); Troilus & Cressida (Compass Theatre); Macbeth (XMO Shakespeare); A Midsummer Nights Dream (Poor Players); Sideman, Othello, The Waiting Room, The Boundary (SDSU).

This team is completed by Stage Manager Pamela Sevilla who also serves as Native Voices Literary Associate and this year's Retreat and Festival Assistant.

We're cutting down to the wire! Keep your eyes on all of our social networks for special ticket give-aways!!

Spotlight on TIME IMMEMORIAL

2010-05-20T22:58:00.000-07:00

Written by Jack Dalton (Yup'ik Inuit) and Allison Warden (Iñupiaq Eskimo)

Directed by Jere Hodgin

Dramaturgy by Robert Caisley

@ La Jolla Playhouse on Sunday, June 6 from 1p - 3p

@ Autry National Center on Sunday, June 27 from 1p - 3p

Long, long ago, there was the light. And then there were Tulu and Miti. And then… history happened. A clever retelling of how the world was made. Staged reading.

About the playwrights

Jack Dalton (Yup'ik Inuit) has grown up an ambassador between two worlds - his Yup'ik Inuit and European heritages. A professional storyteller, actor, writer, and teacher, he received the first Expressive Arts Grant from the National Museum of the American Indian. He has created and produced five theatrical works of storytelling; written a book; co-wrote and starred in the play Raven’s Radio Hour; performed internationally in France, Denmark, and Australia; headlined the Scottish International Storytelling Festival; and has received grants to co-write and star in two plays, Time Immemorial and Cauyaqa Nauwa: Where Is My Drum? He is currently, writing his fourth play, Assimilation.

Allison Warden (Iñupiaq Eskimo) is a Performance Artist, who most recently developed a performance art piece in the show “virtual subsistence,” which she helped co-curate at the MTS Gallery in Anchorage. Her performance art piece "Wait, Let Me Finish Putting On My Armor" was also at MTS Gallery. As a playwright, she co-wrote and co-starred in Time Immemorial with Jack Dalton in the spring of 2009. She also is a rapper, under the name of AKU-MATU and is about to release an album, using her own beats that she creates, sampling her traditional music and sounds. Her one-woman show Ode to the Polar Bear, which explores climate change and the fate of Alaska's polar bear, has been touring for the past two years.

About the Director

Jere Hodgin has produced over 200 productions, many of which were new and premiere works, and his directing career includes more than 175 plays, operas, and musical. For 20 years he was the Producing Artistic Director of Mill Mountain Theatre; he served as Artistic Director and Co-Producer of Highlands Playhouse in NC and has directed at numerous theatres including Walnut Street Theatre, The Barter Theatre, The Phoenix Theatre, and Wayside Theatre. He's served as a NEA site visitor and has been a member of the NEA Creativity Panels multiple years. He's a past president of the Southeastern Theatre Conference where he also chaired the Playwriting Committee. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Actor’s Equity Association, Theatre Communications Group, and The National Theatre Conference.

About the Dramaturg

Robert Caisley is Associate Professor of Theatre & Film, and Head of the Dramatic Writing Program at the University of Idaho. He served as Idaho Repertory Theatre’s Artistic Director from 2001- 2004. His play The Lake received its Equity World Premiere at Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre and was subsequently produced at the Mill Mountain Theatre and at New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida. Other plays include: Kissing, The 22-Day Adagio, Good Clean Fun, and Front. His numerous short plays include Western Mentality, The Apology, and Santa Fe, which was a finalist for the 2004 Heideman Award from Actor’s Theatre of Louisville and originally produced by Stageworks/Hudson as part of the 2005 Play By Play Festival, Hudson, NY. His new play Push was commissioned by Penn State School of Theatre.

Playing Miti

Carolyn Dunn (Muskogee Creek, Seminole, Cherokee) is a poet, playwright and scholar whose poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Her poetry has been collected in Outfoxing Coyote and the forthcoming Echolocation; she is the editor of two anthologies: Hohzo — Walking in Beauty (with Paula Gunn Allen) and Through the Eye of the Deer (with Carol Comfort); and she is the author of a children's book, Coyote Speaks (with Ari Berk). She is the founding director of the American Indian Theatre Collective and her play Ghost Dance is currently in development with the Los Angeles Theatre Project. She is also a songwriter and member of the all–women Native drum group The Mankillers.

Playing Tulu

Kalani Queypo (Blackfeet/ Hawaiian) is a proud collaborator with Native Voices at the Autry where he serves on the Advisory Council. He's been seen in the Oscar-nominated film, The New World, and the Emmy Award-winning Into the West. He received the Directorial Discovery Award at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival for a short film he wrote and directed, Ancestor Eyes. Other awards from the film festival circuit include Best Short Film, Best Music Score, Audience Choice, and an Aloha Accolade Award. He works closely with the Young Native Voices: Theater Education Project and is currently producing a feature length film, Our Voices, Our Stories, which will explore the impact of this writing program on Native youth in the urban LA community.

This team will be joined by Ally Zonsius who will serve as the show's stage manager. More info on Ally to come soon!

Spotlight on TOMBS OF THE VANISHING INDIAN

2010-05-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

Written by Marie Clements (Metis)

Directed by Seema Sueko

Dramaturgy by Brian Quirt

@ La Jolla Playhouse on Saturday, June 5 from 4p - 6p

@ Autry National Center on Saturday, June 26 from 1p - 3p

This contemporary tragedy converges the dreams, blood, and tears of three separated Indian sisters against the backdrop of the political, cultural, and social currents of 1970s Los Angeles. Staged reading.

About the Playwright

Marie Clements (Metis) is an award-winning performer, playwright, director, screenwriter, producer, and co-director of Frog Girl Films and the newly formed Red Diva Projects. Her twelve plays, including Copper Thunderbird, Burning Vision, and The Unnatural and Accidental Women, have been presented on some of the most prestigious stages for Canadian and international work garnering numerous awards and publications including the 2004 Canada- Japan Literary Award and two short listed nominations for the Governor General’s Literary Award. As a director she is currently working on her feature film for Tombs and just premiered her performance work- The Road Forward commissioned by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

About the Director

Seema Sueko is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company. Directing credits: Since Africa (The Old Globe and Mo`olelo, Patté Award Outstanding Ensemble); Good Boys, Permanent Collection and The Adoption Project: Triad (Mo`olelo). Acting credits: The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Yale Rep and The Old Globe Patté Award and Craig Noel Award for acting); Rashomon (North Coast Rep); A Christmas Carol (San Diego Rep); and A Chorus Line (Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre), among others. She is a three-time recipient of Chicago's Jeff Award. Playwriting credits: remains (McDonald Playwriting Award); commission from Mixed Blood Theatre to co-write Messy Utopia (Ivey Award) and Hijab Tube. Seema developed Mo`olelo's greening initiative and led the Company through its selection as the Inaugural Resident Theatre Company at La Jolla Playhouse. She holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago and is a member of Actors' Equity Association.

About the Dramaturg

Brian Quirt is artistic director of Nightswimming (Toronto) and dramaturg for its City of Wine project, Ned Dickens’ seven-play cycle. His plays include Blue Note (with Martin Julien), The Death of General Wolfe and adaptations of Jane Urquhart’s The Whirlpool, Michael Redhill’s Lake Nora Arms (with Jane Miller) and the Iranian play Aurash (with Soheil Parsa). He directed the premiere of the Nightswimming commission, Such Creatures by Judith Thompson, at Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille in January and dramaturged recent works by Anosh Irani, Anita Majumdar, Kendra Fanconi, Andy Massingham, Don Druick and Richard Sanger. His freelance dramaturgy credits include Marie Clements' Tombs of the Vanishing Indian (Native Earth Performing Arts). He is the past-president of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and a two-time recipient of LMDA's Elliott Hayes Award for Dramaturgy.

Playing Jessie

Michelle St. John (Wampanoag) is a Dora nominated, two-time Gemini Award winning actor with more than 30 years of experience in film, television, theatre, voice, and music. Film credits: Where the Spirit Lives, Smoke Signals, Northern Exposure, Every Emotion Costs, and The Business of Fancydancing. Theatre credits: Trickster of 3rd Avenue East, Sucker Falls, Death of a Chief, Annie Mae’s Movement, and Marie Clements' plays – Unnatural and Accidental Women and Copper Thunderbird. Michelle is a Co-Founder of Turtle Gals Performance Ensemble, a Native women’s theatre company based in Toronto. She's currently a producing partner with Evan Adams and Marie Clements in Frog Girl Films and Artistic Producer of red diva projects, an innovative, inter-disciplinary, Indigenous performance company based in Toronto that recently produced the closing show in the Aboriginal Pavilion as part of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

Playing Miranda

Tamara Podemski (Anishnabe) is a multi-disciplinary artist from Toronto, Canada. She's a graduate of the Claude Watson School for the Performing Arts, where she studied theatre, dance and music throughout its 10-year program. For the past 18 years, Tamara’s career has spanned across theatre, television and film, most notably in the Broadway production of Rent and in Sterlin Harjo’s Four Sheets to the Wind, which garnered her a Special Jury Prize for Acting at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Most recently, Tamara starred in the World Premiere of Marie Clements’ The Edward Curtis Project, as part of the Cultural Olympiad in Vancouver. She is so happy to be making her debut with Native Voices at the Autry. Chi Meegwetch!

Playing Janey

Tonantzin Carmelo (Tongva, Kumeyaay) was previously seen in Native Voices at the Autry's world premiere production of Carbon Black, as well as Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders, Please Do Not Touch the Indians, and Jump Kiss. This year she played Victoria in the Denver Center's production of Eventide. Film credits: Thunder Heart Woman in Into the West; and the lead in the feature films Imprint, Unearthed, Shadow Heart and the recently shot Shouting Secret's. She is the voice and image of Kendra Daniels in the EA Game Dead Space and has guest starred on CSI: Miami, Dark Blue, and American Dad. SAG/ AFTRA/ AEA

Playing The Mother, The Lone Woman, Ruth, and Sarah

Carla-Rae (Seneca, Mohawk, French Canadian) has an acting career that spans 20+ years. She's acted in regional plays, local and regional commercials, industrial training videos, and print modeling. Over the last six years she has built a film and theatre resume that includes the Indie film Imprint (Best Supporting Actress), a supporting role in the pilot episode of FOX series New Amsterdam, HBO’s Taking Chance, PBS Docudrama We Shall Remain and, most recently, a guest star role in new ABC series Scoundrels airing in next month. Carla-Rae has continued to garner roles on stage and off-Broadway with leading roles in The House of Bernarda Alba directed by Lenny Delgado of Liguorian Players and Edith Stein by Arthur Giron. She also has a music CD called Glimpses.

Playing Dr. Hansen

Nick Mills is honored to be part of this year's Playwright's Retreat. He is the Artistic Director of VITALITY Productions in Los Angeles and received his MFA from the NYU Graduate Acting Program. In 2009, his original two man show, Egg Farm, which he co-wrote and performed, premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival. Other favorite roles include Adam in Itamar Moses' Back Back Back at The Old Globe (original cast) and Winston in The Credeaux Canvas directed by Carrie Preston. TV/ Film: True Blood, Nothing is Cool, The Appointment, The Receptionist, Deported. He is a proud member of Actors' Equity.

Playing Detective Fullen

Sean Simbro is a graduate of the A.R.T. Institute at Harvard University where his credits include: Dionysus (The Bacchae), Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment), and Fedotik (Three Sisters) which traveled to the Edinburgh International Festival. Recently, in LA, he has been on Greek (ABC Family), in several independent films, and created the internationally lauded hit internet mega-series Darren Disaronno’s Red Harbor. Sean holds a BA in Dramatic Arts from San Diego State University.

Playing Bob Stills

Stephan Wolfert left a career in the military for a life in the theatre after seeing Richard III. Since leaving the Army as an Infantry officer, he has received his MFA in Theatre from Trinity Rep Conservatory; created and directed the military segments for Twyla Tharp/ Billy Joel’s Tony-award winning Broadway musical Movin’ Out; created the largest touring Shakespeare Company in New England; and taught acting and Shakespeare at Cornell University. He currently teaches and directs at the Antelope Valley College, performs with three theatre companies in Los Angeles, and is the founding director of the Veterans Center for the Performing Arts. He was first seen in Native Voices at the Autry's Please Do Not Touch the Indians and is elated to be back. SAG/ AEA

The team for Tombs also includes Virginia Carmelo (Gabrielino/ Tongva Consultant), Jennifer Bobiwash (Assistant Director), and Crystal Mercado (Stage Manager).

Introducing our 2010 Retreat and Festival Participants

2010-05-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

The moment I know you've all been waiting for... it's time to meet our 2010 Retreat and Festival participants!! Check back on Thursday for even more details about our artists!

Playwrights

Marie Clements (Metis)

Jack Dalton (Yup'ik)

Dawn Jamieson (Cayuga)

Allison Warden (Inupiaq)

Directors

Jere Hodgin

Stephen Metcalfe

Seema Sueko

Dramaturgs
Robert Caisley
Julie Jensen
Brian Quirt

Actors
Scott Andrew Amiotte (Omaha)
Carla-Rae (Seneca, Mohawk, French Canadian)
Tonantzin Carmelo (Tongva, Kumeyaay)
Carolyn Dunn (Muskogee Creek, Seminole, Cherokee)
Elena Finney (Mescalero Apache)
Jason Grasl (Blackfoot)
Zahn McClarnon (Hunkpapa Lakota)
Nick Mills
Adam Parker
Tamara Podemski (Anishnabe)
Kalani Queypo (Blackfeet, Hawaiian)
Sean Simbro
Stephan Wolfert
Gregory Zaragoza (Pima)

Staff
Randy Reinholz (Choctaw)
Jean Bruce Scott
David Burton
Carlenne Lacosta
Caroline Chang
Jennifer Bobiwash (Ojibway)
Virginia Carmelo (Tongva, Gabrielino)
Crystal Mercado
Judy Oyos (Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians)
Susan Scharpf
Pamela Sevilla
Jonathan Tsang
Craig Wolf
Christina Wright
Ally Zonsius

And of course, our special guests, Joy Harjo (Mvskoke) and Larry Mitchell.

You have a few more days to take advantage of our special early bird discount. See all three festival readings and attend our benefit presentation of Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light for only $25 - a total savings of 50%!

Simply email us or call 323.667.2000 x354 to make your reservations today. Just mention the code EARLY to receive your discount. The code expires on Saturday, May 15th so act fast!

And remember, seating is extremely limited so buy your tickets today!

Early Birds Catch Worms (and they save quite a bit of money too)!

2010-05-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

And the countdown begins. May 5th, 2010. Exactly one month away from our Festival of New Plays at La Jolla Playhouse (and, yes, it's Cinco de Mayo too).

All of us here at Native Voices have been working overtime to ensure that this year's event is just as strong as last year's. As a reminder, this year's plays feature two gritty urban dramas, one sweeping epic, and the triumphant return of Joy Harjo's Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light.

Admission to each of the retreat plays is $10. Wings is $20 including a pre-show reception.

Early Bird Special
Act now and you can enjoy the entire festival for only $25 - a 50% savings! All you have to do is email us or call 323.667.2000 x354 and mention the code EARLY to receive your discount. But you have to hurry: this code will expire on May 15th and seating is limited. Buy your tickets today!

Schedule of Events
@ La Jolla Playhouse
Saturday, June 5 @ 4p. Tombs of the Vanishing Indian
Saturday, June 5 @ 8p. Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light
Sunday, June 6 @ 1p. Time Immemorial
Sunday, June 6 @ 4p. On the Mangled Beam

@ Autry National Center
Saturday, June 26 @ 1p. Tombs of the Vanishing Indian
Sunday, June 27 @ 1p. Time Immemorial
Sunday, June 27 @ 4p. On the Mangled Beam

Of course, you can also purchase single tickets by visiting TicketWeb.

Check back next week as we begin to spotlight our retreat participants. If you have specific questions you'd like to ask our artists, post a comment here and I'll be sure to get it answered. ;-D

More soon!

Tick - Tock - Tick - Tock

2010-04-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Wow. Has it really been three weeks since our last post? Well, that must mean it's retreat planning time! With the festival a mere four-and-a-half weeks away, we've been working around the clock to ensure this year's event is even more fabulous than last year's. In addition to our three retreat plays, this year's festival will also feature a one-time-benefit performance of Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light by the incomparable Joy Harjo accompanied by Grammy-award-winning producer and guitarist, Larry Mitchell. Keep a look out for ticket specials and more details about each of our artists - as I always say, you won't want to miss a thing!

If you're itching to see us sooner rather than later, make plans to catch us in Solana Beach next Tuesday, May 4th at 7:30p. We will be teaming with Stone Soup Theatre to present a scene from Ntlaka'pamux playwright Tara Beagan's Miss Julie: Sheh'mah, a Native adaptation of classic play of the same name.

The evening will begin with Stone Soup's own production of Miss Julie. Then, Native Voices' artists Jennifer Bobiwash and Jason Grasl will take to the stage along with Stone Soup's very own Rebecca Johannsen to present a scene from Tara's script. It's sure to be a night of great fun.

Native Voices patrons receive $20 admission with the discount code JULIESAVE$5. Call 858.481.1055 or click here to buy your tickets today.

A Goddess Workshop for Playwrights

2010-04-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

Please note: This event is a fundraiser for Los Angeles Women's Theatre Project. All proceeds support LAWTP. Please forward this to anyone who might be interested. Thank you.

A GODDESS WORKSHOP FOR PLAYWRIGHTS, with Laura Shamas, Ph.D.
Saturday, May 22, 1-4 p.m.
Los Angeles Women's Theatre Project

This 3-hour playwriting workshop explores goddess identity and the “archetypal feminine” for playwrights. We’ll examine the power of myth, and sample ancient depictions of divine feminine deities from Aristophanes, Sophocles, Euripides and Sappho. We'll discuss if/how these relate to our understanding of the “active female” in today’s theater. We’ll move next to exercises, and brainstorm about how playwrights can use goddess myths as springboards for new plays, new adaptations and new approaches. Each participant will leave with a list of references and exercises for future exploration. (No previous myth experience necessary.)

Bio: Laura Shamas, Ph.D., has taught myth adaptation for dramatic writers at several universities, most recently in Hollins University's MFA Screenwriting program (2009). She's written 30 plays. Website: laurashamas.com.

Cost: $65

Note from LAWTP: "This workshop will fill up quickly. Space is limited. Enroll now -www.LAWomensTheatreProject.com or call 818/471-9100. The Los Angeles Women's Theatre Project is a 501c3 Nonprofit Organization. All monies from this workshop will be used to support our performances and programs."

Currently seeking new talent in San Diego...

2010-03-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

Only four performances left!

2010-03-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

March 25 - 28, 2010
Thursday, Friday, Saturday @ 8p
Sunday @ 2p

Here's what critics and audience members have been saying:

"Dennis has a wondrous ear and his transitions are mesmerizing. His relaxed, almost self-effacing demeanor ingratiates him with his audience, allowing him to make dangerous and heart-wrenching revelations which are unmistakenably true."
- Penny Orloff, Culture Spot LA

"To hear an individual's truth is always relevant, to face the truth, cathartic for all present."
- Audience member

"Dennis, who depicts all roles, is an animated and insightful storyteller."
- Deborah Klugman, LA Weekly

"All worth watching and more so, a fine one-man show."
- Roscoe Pond, Associated Content

Buy your tickets now (check our our "Box Office" to the right).

Don't miss this laugh riot!

2010-03-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

Tales of an Urban Indian

Don't miss what audiences are calling a "fabulous," "amazing" show!

"The perfect blend of humor and tragedy. Superbly told."

"Darrell Dennis is the consummate storyteller for this generation."

"A story we can all relate to. I would highly recommend this to family and friends."

Only two weekends left!

March 18 - 28, 2010
Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays @ 8p
Saturdays and Sundays @ 2p

Sunday, March 21. Discussion about solo performances follows the show
Saturday, March 27. Sold out

General admission $20 / Autry members $12
Students, seniors 55+, members of WGA, SAG, AFTRA, and AEA $10

Reservations or more info: NativeVoices@theautry.org
To purchase tickets: Visit TicketWeb or call 866.468.3399

Groups of 10 or more save 40%
Call Christi at 323.466.5830 or e-mail Christi@FLAGMarketing.com

Produced in association with The Public Theater

TALES in American Theatre's March 2010 issue

2010-03-16T15:20:00.001-07:00

Click the image to enlarge.

Who Doesn't Want Free Tickets?

2010-03-11T16:47:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Deanna Brady, Mary Armitage, and Telford Elliott - the latest winners in our social networking give-aways! There's still one more opportunity floating around in cyberspace so keep checking our sites for your chance in win now!

Myspace
Facebook
Twitter

Good luck!

TALES OF AN URBAN INDIAN (read carefully for a chance to win free tickets)

2010-03-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

click on the image to enlarge

WEST COAST PREMIERE OF TALES OF AN URBAN INDIAN
PRESENTED BY NATIVE VOICES AT THE AUTRY
DURING 10th ANNIVERSARY SEASON

One-Man Show, Written and Performed by Darrell Dennis (Shuswap)
Premiered in 2009 at New York's The Public Theater

Saturday, March 13 - Sunday, March 28, 2010
(Previews begin Thursday, March 11)

Native Voices at the Autry, America's leading Native American theater company, continues its 10th Anniversary Season with the West Coast premiere of the critically applauded one-man show Tales of an Urban Indian by noted Canadian playwright/actor Darrell Dennis (Shuswap). Dennis, a veteran of the noted comedy school Second City, stars in the dark comedy directed by Herbie Barnes (Ojibway), which opens Saturday, March 13 and plays through Sunday, March 28, 2010 (previews begin Thursday, March 11).

Two special post-performance “Talk Back” programs, featuring an opportunity for the audience to talk with the playwright, are slated for Sunday, March 14 and Sunday, March 21. On March 14, Dennis will be joined by special guests Micah Ian Wright (Muscogee Creek) and Jason Gavin (Blackfeet), members of the American Indian Writers Committee for the Writers Guild of America, West.

Tales of an Urban Indian is produced by Native Voices at the Autry in association with New York's The Public Theater, which premiered the play last spring. The play is also the basis of a hit Canadian television show of the same name. Of the New York production, a New York Post critic proclaimed, "This semi-autobiographical tale of a young man's transition from reservation to the city amusingly counters our stereotypical notions of Indian life.” Village Voice's critic wrote, “Dennis has a lovely theatrical presence - charming, high-spirited, a little dorky, and a little anguished.” Backstage called Tales of an Urban Indian, "a searing blend of anger, pride, and resolution."

Tales of an Urban Indian portrays a life observed through the lens of a contemporary urban Indian making his way from the reservation to the city and experiencing his own unique (and often devastatingly hilarious) brand of culture shock. Dennis creates a sad, funny and always entertaining world where overcoming the odds is just the beginning.

Single tickets are $20 for general admission, $12 for Autry members and half price for previews, students, seniors 55+, and members of WGA, AFTRA, SAG, and AEA. Groups (10 or more), save 40%.

NATIVE VOICES is located at the Autry National Center of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA 90027-1462.
To purchase tickets, call (866) 468-3399 or visit www.NativeVoicesattheAutry.org.

~~TRIVIA QUESTION (answer correctly for a chance to win!)~~

~~Playwright Darrell Dennis is a veteran of which noted comedy school?~~

~~The first person to email the correct answer to carlenne@gmail.com will win two free tickets to a performance of his/ her choice to TALES OF AN URBAN INDIAN - act now!~~

SORRY! Deanna Brady and Mary Armitage are the winners of our blog give-away! Please check our other sites for more chances to win!

Keep on Searching!

2010-03-09T13:06:00.000-08:00

Just posted a new opportunity to win free tickets! Search our networks for your chance to win now!

Myspace
Facebook
Twitter

Good luck!

Our First Winner!

2010-03-08T18:24:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Laura Harjo, the first winner of our social networking ticket give-aways for Tales of an Urban Indian! Keep checking our sites for your chance to win next!

Ticket Specials and All Out Give-Aways for TALES OF AN URBAN INDIAN!

2010-03-05T11:33:00.000-08:00

Don't miss this hilarious show of self-discovery!
Acclaimed writer and performer Darrell Dennis plays over 40 characters in this semi-autobiographical tale of a young Indian man, Simon Douglas.

From living life on the “Rez” to navigating the mean streets of Vancouver’s east side, Dennis weaves a funny and stirring story of identity, discovery, choice, and self-respect. This one-man show makes its West Coast premiere following a Canadian tour, two nominations for the Dora Mavor Award (the highest theatrical honor in Canada) and its US premiere at The Public Theater last spring.

All Students, Seniors 55+, and members of WGA, SAG, AFTRA and AEA Half Price!
That's just $10 with a valid ID or membership card!
Two ways to get your tickets:
1. Held at Will Call - please RSVP to nativevoices@theautry.org
2. Day of Show: Rush Tickets at the box office
*Student ID Required for Will Call & Rush tickets

Social Networking Give-Aways!
Keep your eyes on our various social networks for chances to win free tickets to any of our performances! If you're following us on Myspace, Facebook or Twitter, you're about to get rewarded! Trivia questions roll out next week - you won't know where and you won't know when so be sure to keep checking our sites for your chance to win!

Buy Tickets Now!

If you just can't wait, you can always make your ticket reservations by emailing NativeVoices@theautry.org or going directly to TicketWeb to buy your tickets now.

We'll see you at the theater!

March 13 - 28, 2010 @ the Autry
Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays @ 8p
Saturdays and Sundays @ 2p
Previews March 11 - 12 @ 8p & March 13 @ 2p
Discussions held on March 14 & 21

Introducing our Creative Teams for our Retreat and Festival

2010-02-26T18:05:00.000-08:00

Creative Team = playwright, director, dramaturg

Of course, the whole lot of us are creative in some way, shape or form but we need some short-hand way to refer to our groups of artists. ;-D

We are very pleased to announce our three teams for our upcoming Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays!

Tombs of the Vanishing Indian

Written by Marie Clements (Metis)
Directed by Yvette Nolan (Algonquin)
Dramaturgy by Brian Quirt

Time Immemorial

Written by Jack Dalton (Yup'ik) and Allison Warden (Inupiaq)
Directed by Jere Hodgin
Dramaturgy by Robert Caisley

On the Mangled Beam

Written by Dawn Jamieson (Cayuga)
Directed by Stephen Metcalfe
Dramaturgy by Julie Jensen

We're very fortunate to be surrounded by such talented and gifted artists. Although some of these names may look familiar (Marie joined us in LA last September for our First Look Series; Yvette enjoyed the San Diego sun during last year's retreat; Rob and Jack were mentors during the Alaska Native Playwrights Project; and Jere and Julie both participated in the 2010 National Reading Panel), we also have some new friends we'll be working with:

Brian Quirt, Artistic Director of Nightswimming
Allison Warden, Inupiaq Eskimo performance artist
Dawn Jamieson, playwright from New York
Stephen Metcalfe, who may be best known for his work on the film Pretty Woman

More information regarding each of these artists will be released as the date of the retreat nears so be sure to check back here often!

Till then!

Auditions, auditions, auditions

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Our Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays are coming up which means we have auditions to look forward to! We're constantly on the hunt for new talent and hope that our upcoming set of auditions will not only re-connect us with old friends but introduce us to some new ones too.

San Diego Auditions
Tuesday, February 23 from 5:30p - 8:30p
Actors Alliance San Diego
2650 Truxton Road, Suite 203 San Diego 92106

Los Angeles Auditions
Saturday, March 13 from 10a - 1p
Wells Fargo Theatre, Autry National Center
4700 Western Heritage Way Los Angeles 90027

To schedule an audition appointment, please email carlenne@gmail.com or call 619-994-0121. Please include your name, tribal affiliation (if applicable), email address, and phone number.

A detailed description of the plays and available roles appear below. Please note that these auditions also serve as general auditions for the company itself so if you don't find a role that suits you, come on down anyways - you never know what can happen!

Break a leg!

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The 2010 Playwrights Retreat will be held from Monday, May 31 through Monday, June 7 at San Diego State University with performances at the La Jolla Playhouse on Saturday, June 5 and Sunday, June 6 and at the Autry National Center on Saturday, June 26 and Sunday, June 27. This year’s plays feature works by Marie Clements, Jack Dalton, Allison Warden, and Dawn Jamieson.

Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, by Marie Clements (Métis), directed by Yvette Nolan (Algonquin)
A contemporary tragedy that converges the dreams, blood, and tears of three separated Indian sisters against the political, cultural, and social currents of 1970's Los Angeles.

JANEY, female, Native, early 20s, a delicately beautiful street woman, fragile but tough
MIRANDA, female, Native, mid 20s, a Hollywood star wanna-be, naïve but strong-willed
JESSIE, female, Native, late 20s, a striking looking woman, smart and capable but bound
DR. HANSEN, male, non-Native, late 30s, good looking and logical, in control of his room
BOB STILLS, male, non-Native, mid 40s, stereotypical director, once golden, he’s seen better days
DETECTIVE FULLEN, male, non-Native, late 40s, quirky but intelligent and compassionate
THE MOTHER, female, Native, also plays THE LONE WOMAN (a 50-something Gabrielino Woman from the 1800s), RUTH (a Jewish/ Indian patient in her mid 40s), and SARAH (an 18-year old Indian patient)

Time Immemorial, by Jack Dalton (Yup'ik) and Allison Warden (Inupiaq), directed by Jere Hodgin
Long, long ago, there was the light. And then there were Tulu and Miti. And then… history happened. A dramatic play portraying the entire history of an Inupiaq village on the North Slope of Alaska.

There are two cast members in this play (TULU and MITI), each portraying several characters, switching genders. There is one male and one female though it doesn’t matter which gender plays which of the two roles.

On the Mangled Beam, by Dawn Jamieson (Cayuga), directed by Stephen Metcalfe
Before and beyond the building of the World Trade Center, the contributions Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) ironworkers made to the building and rebuilding of New York City is legendary. This is the story of the heroic efforts they achieved in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy and of the women who courageously stood beside them.

GREG LINDEN, male, Native, mid-20s, bright and ambitious politician, wants to get ahead no matter what
BECKY DAVIS, female, Native, mid 20s, ready to spread her wings, not totally innocent
DAVE MARTIN, male, Native, late 20s, hot-headed bad boy, estranged from his family
BRAD MARTIN, male, Native, early 40s, mentor to young iron workers, trying to kick alcohol addiction
JESS SHARP, male, Native, early 40s, cynical ne’er do well, iron worker by day, smuggler by night
FERN MARTIN, female, Native, early to mid 40s, involved in tribal politics though not a politician
SAL PETRINO, male, non-Native, early to mid 40s, perennially unlucky crane cable operator
JOE LINDEN, male, Native, mid 50s, smuggler with a deadpan sense of humor

Native Theatre Festival @ Alaska Native Heritage Center

2010-01-19T10:01:00.000-08:00

Making Our Way Towards the Playwrights Retreat

2010-01-15T13:04:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of stumayhew

There's a saying that goes: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Well, at Native Voices, the journey towards production begins with our National Reading Panel.

Each year we assemble a panel of readers comprised of nationally recognized theatre artists to help us select the array of plays we will develop at our Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays as well as our First Look Series. We are indebted to this group of incredibly talented artists for the careful consideration they give each of our scripts, for the insightful comments they provide us with, and the support they offer our artists.

This year's panel was chaired by Jere Hodgin, the Head of Acting and Directing at the University of Montana. His fellow panelists included Robert Caisley, Head of the Dramatic Writing Program at the University of Idaho; Terry Gomez, playwright; Julie Jensen, playwright; Alan Kilpatrick, Professor of American Indian Studies at San Diego State University; Douglas Langworthy, Literary Manager and Dramaturg at the Denver Center Theatre Company; Brian Quirt, Artistic Director of Nightswimming; Shawn Termin, Cultural Arts Manager and Program Producer of the National Museum of the American Indian; and Sheila Tousey, director. Their full bios appear below.

After much deliberation, we selected the three plays that will be featured at this year's retreat and festival. If you missed it in our last post, the selected plays (and their playwrights) are:

Tombs of the Vanishing Indian by Marie Clements (Metis)
Time Immemorial by Jack Dalton (Yup'ik) and Allison Warden (Inupiaq)
On the Mangled Beam by Dawn Jamieson

Check out our last blog post for a short description of the three plays. You'll remember Marie Clements from our August post on our First Look Series which also featured Tombs of the Vanishing Indian. Jack Dalton's name should also look familiar as half of the writing team for Raven's Radio Hour, a radio play we produced last summer. He will also be joining Jean this month at the Alaska Native Playwrights Project as a mentor.

The next step in this process is to match each of our playwrights with a professional director and dramaturg and to create a development calendar for each of these scripts. We have a long road ahead of us but we're excited for the steps we have left to take and we hope you'll check back often to take the journey with us.

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2010 National Reading Panel

Jere Hodgin (Chair) has produced over 200 productions, many of which were new and premiere works, and his directing career includes more than 175 plays, operas, and musical. For 20 years he was the Producing Artistic Director of Mill Mountain Theatre where he founded the nationally recognized Norfolk Southern New Play Festival. He served as Artistic Director and Co-Producer of Highlands Playhouse in NC and has directed at numerous theatres including Walnut Street Theatre, The Barter Theatre, The Phoenix Theatre, and Wayside Theatre. He has directed new works at Shenandoah Playwright’s Retreat, Missoula Writer’s Colony, and The Phoenix Theatre New Play Festival. He has served as a National Endowment for the Arts site visitor and has been a member of the NEA Creativity Panels multiple years. He has also been a regional panelist for the Virginia Commission for the Arts, as well as theatre panelist for the ID, SC, and NC Arts Commissions. He is a past president of the Southeastern Theatre Conference where he also chaired the Playwriting Committee. He served as Vice-President of the board of The National Alliance for Musical Theatre for which he has been co-chair of New Works and a member of the Festival of New Works committee. He has been a reader and judge for numerous national new play contests and competitions. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Actor’s Equity Association, Theatre Communications Group, and The National Theatre Conference.

Robert Caisley is Associate Professor of Theatre and Film, and Head of the Dramatic Writing Program at the University of Idaho. He served as Idaho Repertory Theatre’s Artistic Director from 2001- 2004. His play The Lake received its Equity World Premiere at Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre and was subsequently produced at the Mill Mountain Theatre as part of the 2005 Norfolk Southern Festival of New Works. The Lake is next slated for production at New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida. Other plays include: Kissing (New Theatre, January 2009, previously produced at the Theatre Artists Studio in 2008 and Phoenix Theatre’s 2007 Festival of New Works), The 22-Day Adagio (Mill Mountain Theatre 2004 Norfolk Southern Festival of New Works), Good Clean Fun (developed at the 2008 Great Plains Theatre Conference), and Front (winner of the 1996 Fourth Freedom Forum Peace Play Award; developed at Sundance Writer’s Lab). His numerous short plays include Western Mentality (recently published in Mizna: Journal of Arab-American Literature), The Apology (2009 Northwest Drama Review), and Santa Fe, which was a finalist for the 2004 Heideman Award from Actor’s Theatre of Louisville and originally produced by Stageworks/Hudson as part of the 2005 Play By Play Festival, Hudson, NY. His new play Push was commissioned by Penn State School of Theatre. He has been a long-time friend of Native Voices since its inception and served as the chair of its National Reading Panel in 2009.

Terry Gomez (Comanche) is a published and produced playwright, writer, director, actor, educator, and painter. Her play Inter-Tribal has been produced at The Public Theater, New York City. Other produced work includes: Tobacco Leaves, Numunu Waiipunu: The Comanche Women, Antigone, A Day at the Nighthawk, Rain Dance, Melanin, Acedia, Reunion, and The Woman with a Mustache. She has been a director for the Two Worlds Native Theater Festival and the Cool Side of Hell Theater Troupe, Institute of American Indian Arts. She is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Native Theater Festival at The Public Theater. Her play, Carbon Black received its world premiere with Native Voices last fall.

Julie Jensen is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Award for New American Plays for White Money, the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work for The Lost Vegas Series, and the LA Weekly Award for Best New Play for Two-Headed. She has received the McKnight National Playwriting Fellowship for Wait!, the TCG/NEA Playwriting Residency for Wait!, a major grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts for Dust Eaters, and the Edgerton Foundation Grant for Billion Dollar Baby. Her work has been produced in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as in this country in New York and theatres nationwide. She has been commissioned by Mark Taper Forum, ASK Theatre Projects, Kennedy Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Salt Lake Acting Company, Geva Theatre, and Philadelphia Theatre Company, Penn State University, and Dramatic Publishing. Her work is published by Dramatic Publishing, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts, Inc. Her book on playwriting Playwriting: Brief and Brilliant has just been published by Smith and Kraus. Her play She Was My Brother just finished a successful run in Tucson, AZ, at Borderlands Theatre, and it will be produced by Plan-B Theatre in Salt Lake City next fall. She is currently the Resident Playwright at Salt Lake Acting Company.

Alan Kilpatrick (Cherokee) is a Professor of American Indian Studies at San Diego State University. As a scholar, he has won many academic awards such as a Bienecke Fellowship (Yale University), an Irvine Teaching Fellowship (Stanford University), and two Fulbrights. His writing credits include screenplays, television documentaries, the non-fiction book The Night Has a Naked Soul, as well as several plays. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Douglas Langworthy is currently the Literary Manager and Dramaturg at the Denver Center Theatre Company. Prior to Denver, he served as Dramaturg and Director of Play Development at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ for two years and Director of Literary Development and Dramaturgy at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) for seven. While at OSF he developed a new adaptation of Dumas’ The Three Musketeers with Linda Alper and Penny Metropulos and a new translation of Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechuan, both for the 1999 season. In 2007 he collaborated with Penny Metropulos and Linda Alper to write the lyrics and book for the new musical Tracy’s Tiger, based on the novella by William Saroyan, with music by Sterling Tinsley. He has translated 15 plays from the German, which include Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind and The Prince of Homburg, Penthesilea, and Amphitryon. His translation of Goethe’s Faust was produced in New York City by Target Margin Theatre.

Brian Quirt is artistic director of Nightswimming (Toronto) and dramaturg for its City of Wine project, Ned Dickens’ seven-play cycle. His plays include Blue Note (with Martin Julien), The Death of General Wolfe and adaptations of Jane Urquhart’s The Whirlpool, Michael Redhill’s Lake Nora Arms (with Jane Miller) and the Iranian play Aurash (with Soheil Parsa). He is directing the premiere of the Nightswimming commission, Such Creatures by Judith Thompson, at Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille in January and dramaturged recent works by Anosh Irani, Anita Majumdar, Kendra Fanconi, Andy Massingham, Don Druick and Richard Sanger. His freelance dramaturgy credits include Marie Clements' Tombs of the Vanishing Indian (Native Earth Performing Arts). He is the past-president of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and a two-time recipient of LMDA's Elliott Hayes Award for Dramaturgy.

Shawn Termin (Oglala Lakota) has been with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Heye Center in New York City for over 10 years as Cultural Arts Manager and Program Producer. She co-authored, Remembering Others: Making Invisible Histories Visible and wrote the first Native produced curriculum by the NMAI, To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions. For four years, she wrote the children’s column for the NMAI’s American Indian magazine. She has provided consulting services for various publications including Cobblestone and National Geographic. She recently was selected as a Cultural Diplomacy Fellow by The Aspen Institute at the 2009 Cultural Diplomacy Forum in Aviles, Spain, served as a consultant for the Planet Indigenous Festival in Toronto, Canada and was a panelist for the New York State Council for the Arts.

Sheila Tousey (Menominee, Stockbridge Munsee) has acted in film, television, Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theaters across the country. Some of her favorite directors she has worked with include: Michael Apted, Sam Shepard, Joe Chaikin, Dan Sackheim, Lisa Peterson, David Esbjornson, Betsy Theobald, Livieu Ciulei, Tony Taccone, Maria Vail, JoAnn Akalitis, and Robert Woodruff. She was Artist-in-Residence at The Public Theater in NYC in 2006 and 2007 where she, along with Maria Vail, and in collaboration with Sam Shepard, adapted The Bottle House, a play based on the short stories and poetry of Sam Shepard. She was most recently seen in Native Voices production of Carbon Black at the Autry National Center. Training: MFA NYU Graduate Acting Program.

Welcome 2010!

2010-01-15T11:04:00.000-08:00

Long time, no blog! It's been awhile hasn't it? Well, I do apologize for our absence but I have a lot of exciting news to share with you so sit back and enjoy the read.

First up is our upcoming production of Tales of an Urban Indian written and starring Darrell Dennis (Shuswap), produced in association with The Public Theater. Tales is the semi-autobiographical story of Simon Douglas who moves from the rez to the city. Although it may sound like a simple tale, the path Simon takes is anything but.

Tales of an Urban Indian makes its West Coast premiere at Native Voices after enjoying a successful run in 2009 at The Public Theater, its World Premiere with Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto, Canada, and garnering two Dora Mavor Award nominations (the highest theatrical honor in Canada).

More information will be released in the coming weeks but, for now, you'll want to mark your calendars for what the New York Post calls an "evening filled with insightful observations about the Indian experience [that] amusingly counters our stereotypical notions of Indian life” and what Backstage called “a searing blend of anger, pride and resolution [storytelling] laced with abundant and welcome humor.”

Tales of an Urban Indian opens on March 13th and runs until the 28th. Performances are on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8pm and Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm. Half-price previews occur on March 11 and 12 at 8pm and March 13 at 2pm. Advanced reservations can be made by emailing nativevoices@autrynationalcenter.org.

Next, I'm very pleased to announce our playwrights for our 2010 Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays! This year we have selected three exciting scripts that experiment with the notion of time:

Marie Clements (Mètis) for Tombs of the Vanishing Indian
A contemporary tragedy that converges the dreams, blood, and tears of three separated Indian sisters against the political, cultural, and social currents of 1970's Los Angeles.

Jack Dalton (Yup'ik) and Allison Warden (Inupiaq) for Time Immemorial
Long, long ago, there was the light. And then, there were Tulu and Miti. And then... history happened.

Dawn Jamieson (Cayuga) for On the Mangled Beam
Giving light to the contributions Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) ironworkers made in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy.

The 2010 Playwrights Retreat will take place in San Diego from May 31 - June 7, 2010. The Festival of New Plays will be held on June 5 - 6 at La Jolla Playhouse and June 25 - 26 at the Autry National Center. Please e-mail us to receive more information or to be placed on our mailing list.

Third is the Alaska Native Heritage Project (January 25 - 29, 2010). You may recall from one of our previous posts that this year-long project is designed to identify, train, and nurture Alaska Native writers. But what was not announced in that post was that Native Voices Executive Director, Jean Bruce Scott, is actually serving as a consultant and one of the mentors on this project! We're very excited to lend our support to the ten writers who were selected for this project and can't wait to see where the year will lead us.

For information about the selected playwrights as well as the teaching artists who will be joining Jean in Alaska, please click here to view their press release.

Our next post will feature more information regarding our retreat playwrights and our reading panel. It's going to be a busy, busy year so keep checking back for the latest info!

Till next time!

Don't miss your chance to catch CARBON in LA!

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Photo courtesy of Tony Dontscheff

There are only five more performances left and we surely hope to see you in our audience! Use the coupon code YELLOWTREE while making your reservation to receive two tickets for the price of one! $20 for two people to catch the world premiere of a spectacular new play - now that's a deal!

Select from one of the performances below and call 323-667-2000, ext. 354 or email us today!*

Thursday, Nov 19 @ 8:00 p.m.
Friday, Nov 20 @ 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, Nov 21 @ 2:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, Nov 22 @ 2:00 p.m.

* Be sure to use the coupon code and tell us the number of tickets you need as well as the date and time of the performance you'd like to attend.

And here's a bit more of what our critics have had to say:

"We can ignore violence, let it paralyze us with fear, or we can do something about it."
-LA Stage Blog

"Tousey and Drummond... are standouts..."
-LA Times

"The play certainly delivers drama and suspense in a succession of disturbing scenes that tear at the heart and quicken the pulse."
-California Chronicle

And if you catch Sunday's performance on November 22nd, feel free to stick around for LA SkinsFest's celebration of Native American cinema and theater at 7 p.m. honoring Native Voices Tenth Anniversary. Admission is FREE! Reception, live music, and films from local Native filmmakers will be featured. Please visit LASkinsFest.com for more information. The event will be held at the Autry National Center.

We hope to see you soon!