KCRep Announces Staged Reading Of REPRESENTATIVES FOR THOSE AT PEACE By Inaugural Playwright Madeline Easley

Kansas City Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Stuart Carden and Director of Artistic Development Laley Lippard have announced the cast and creative team of the OriginKC staged reading of Representatives for Those at Peace, by Madeline Easley and directed by Tara Moses. 

The staged reading is the culminating work of the inaugural Four Directions Playwright Residency for Native and Indigenous Playwrights which is a partnership with The Great Plains Theatre Commons, Tofte Lake Center, Tulsa Artist Fellowship, and Kansas City Repertory Theatre. 

In collaboration, each organization created a weeklong residency for Easley, over a one-year timeframe. Each week of development occurred in a different part of the country, providing a different focus for the work of the play, Representatives for Those at Peace. Easley will be mentored by Mary Kathryn Nagle, the inaugural recipient of KCRep's American Crossroads Residency, part of KCRep's OriginKC: New Works Program.

"Madeline Easley is one of the most exciting new voices in the American theater,” Nagle stated. “Her exploration of the intersections of Wyandot culture, family, and identity with the American legal system, all through the perspective of Lyda Conley--a Native woman who broke down incredible barriers-- is exciting and exhilarating. I am honored to be able to witness Madeline's incredible new work."

MADELINE EASLEY (Playwright) (she/her) is a Wyandotte artist whose work as a writer and performer converges at the intersection of magical realism and elevation of Tribal Sovereignty, the inherent right of Tribal Nations to govern themselves. Born in Kansas City, MO, Madeline is a proud citizen of the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma and seeks to position her cultural inheritance within community-centric narratives to challenge the colonial status quo that denies Indigenous history and futurisms. Her film The Feathered Girl was a 2022 LA SKINS FEST featured selection and made its west-coast premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. She is a 2022 Greenhouse Playwriting Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm and a 2021 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellow. Her work has appeared at The John F. Kennedy Center, Rattlestick Theater, North American Indigenous Center of New York, and the American Indian Community House. 

Easley shared, “The significance of telling this uniquely Kansas City story with the support of KCREP and Four Directions cannot be understated and marks a new benchmark for investment in Native American theatre. With the generosity of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas's collaboration, we all stand together in a great circle, at the center of which lies the formidable story of the Conley sisters and their lasting care for the past, present, and futures of Native people under the law. ”

TARA MOSES (Director) KCRep: debut. Affiliations: Associate Member, Stage Directors, and Choreographers Society; Member, Dramatists Guild. Education: MFA Candidate in Directing, Brown University/Trinity Rep.; BA in Theatre Performance, Directing, and Stage Management; Musical Theatre Performance, University of Tulsa, OK, Cum Laude.

The cast for Representatives for Those at Peace includes Jennifer Bobiwash (Ida), JASON CHANOS (Ensemble), Jen Olivares (Helena), Vanessa Severo (Ensemble), NICHOLAS STAUFFER (Ensemble), and DeLanna Studi (Lyda). 

The development team includes MADELINE EASLEY (Playwright), MACKENZIE GOODWIN TRAN (Stage Manager), LALEY LIPPARD (Dramaturgy), and TARA MOSES (Director). 

Representatives for Those at Peace

Dec. 2, 2023, 5 p.m. | Copaken Stage

Written by Madeline Easley

Directed by Tara Moses

Tickets are FREE but RSVPs are required. 

A full-length play, this tells the story of Lyda Conley, the first Native American woman and second woman ever to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court. It illuminates the story of the Kansas City Wyandot Conley sisters who saved the historic Wyandot National Burying Ground in Kansas City from urban development and erasure. Their decades-long activism and legal arguments preserved this sacred land and contributed to preservation and tribal sovereignty movements.

The culminating workshop and reading will take place Dec. 2, at 5 p.m. at Copaken Stage. RSVP at https://kcrep.org/event/representatives-for-those-at-peace/. 

The artwork featured on the poster and program is “Winona” by Iris Cliff, Assiniboine, and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

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