Public Theater Announces Native Theater Festival 11/12

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) is proud to announce the return of the Native Theater Festival, a four day festival dedicated to presenting extraordinary theatrical work by Native theater artists from the U.S. and Canada. Now in its second year, the Native Theater Festival will run November 12 to November 15 at The Public Theater and will feature three free readings of new works by Native playwrights followed by post-show discussions; a concert by Native and African-American singer Martha Redbone; topical field discussions on issues of particular concern to artists in the Native theater community; and a conversation with Oskar Eustis and other artists on politics and performance that will be open to the general public.

 All events (with the exclusion of Martha Redbone’s concert at Joe’s Pub, which requires advance tickets) will be completely free and open to the public, though advance reservations are strongly encouraged. Tickets can be reserved beginning on Friday, October 24 at The Public box office or by calling (212) 967-7555.

Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis first conceived of the idea of a native theater festival when he was Artistic Director at Trinity Repertory Company in Rhode Island.  Called Theater from the Four Directions, the groundbreaking festival explored the talent and artistry of the Native community and resulted in two full productions being staged at Trinity Rep. This initiative was so successful and such a vital and rare forum for Native artists that Eustis launched the Native Theater Festival at The Public Theater last fall where it played to packed houses and received an enthusiastic response from the Native community and the New York theater community. Since then, two 2007 Native Theater Festival plays, Joy Harjo’s Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light and Diane Glancy’s Salvage, have been selected for full productions in the 2008-2009 season of Los Angeles’s Native Voices at the Autry theater company.

“The Native Theater community in the U.S. and Canada is full of brilliant artists, unique visions and an outstanding variety of esthetics,” said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis.  “With this festival we hope to both showcase some amazing talent for a broader public and bring Native artists together to chart a path for the future.”

The second Native Theater Festival is made possible through the generous support of the Ford Foundation.

"The Public Theater's ongoing commitment to Native theater is exciting not only for the great benefit to the artists themselves, but for the way it promises to advance the way we talk about the American theater,” said Betsy Theobald Richards, Program Officer, Media, Arts & Culture, at the Ford Foundation.

During the four day festival, each play reading will be FREE and will be followed by a panel discussion featuring noted artists from the Native theater community. Working closely with The Public’s artistic staff, this year’s festival is curated by Native Theater Festival Consultant Sheila Tousey (Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee) and an advisory committee consisting of Hanay Geiogamah (Kiowa-Delaware), Terry Gomez (Comanche Nation – Numunu), Alanis King (Odawa Nation), Daniel David Moses (Delaware from the Six Nations Reserve), Yvette Nolan (Algonquin from Kitiganzibi), Jennifer Podemski (Saulteux/Israeili), Randy Reinholz (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) and Edward Wemytewa (Zuni).

The Public Theater is honored to partner with the following organizations: Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts, American Indian Community House, Amerinda, The Hemispheric Institute, and The National Museum of the American Indian.

 
FULL SCHEDULE OF NATIVE THEATER FESTIVAL 2008 EVENTS

 
Wednesday, November 12 at 9:30 p.m.

MARTHA REDBONE (Choctaw/Shawnee/Cherokee/Blackfeet) at Joe’s Pub

Singer/Soulwriter Martha Redbone's songs carry the torch for love from the romantic to the universal and are infused in an "ingenious aural tapestry" (Music Connection) that pays homage to her Native and African American heritage.

Tickets are $18.  Please note that Joe’s Pub has a $12 food or 2 drink minimum per person.  For table reservations, call 212-539-8778.

 
Thursday, November 13 at 8 p.m.

THE CONVERSION OF KA’AHUMANU

By Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl (Native Hawaiian/Samoan)

Set in Hawaii during the early 19th Century, this poignant piece explores the complex relationships amongst Christian missionaries and indigenous women forty years after the islands’ first contact with the West.  Honolulu-based writer Victoria Kneubuhl is a recipient of the prestigious Hawai`i Award for Literature. Admission is FREE.

Post-Show Discussion: “Writing About Early Cultural Contact”

Special Guests:  Diane Glancy (playwright), Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl (playwright), and Betsy Theobald Richards (director/ Program Officer, Media, Arts & Culture, at The Ford Foundation).

Friday, November 14 at 8 p.m.

CHASING HONEY

By Laura Shamas (Chickasaw)

Directed by Alanis King (Odawa Nation)

With her loving father serving in Afghanistan and her drug-addicted mother coming back into her life, Sandy turns to Len, keeper of a struggling bee colony and new member of her college’s Native American Studies Club.  CHASING HONEY has received workshops at Native Earth in Toronto and Native Voices at The Autry in Los Angeles. Admission is FREE.

Post-Show Discussion: “Contemporary Native Playwriting”

Special Guests: Native playwrights Eric Gansworth, Diane Glancy, Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl, Laura Shamas, Drew Hayden Taylor, and William S. Yellow Robe, Jr.

Saturday, November 15 at 4 p.m.

PANEL DISCUSSION: “Politics and Performance”

Moderated by Oskar Eustis (Public Theater Artistic Director) and Sheila Tousey (actor, director, and Native Theater Festival Consultant).  Panelists will include Terry Gomez (playwright, director, actor and educator), Alanis King (Artistic Director, Saskatchewan Native Theater Company), Yvette Nolan (Artistic Director, Native Earth Performing Arts), Jennifer Podemski (CEO and Executive Producer, Redcloud Studios), and Randy Reinholz (Artistic Director, Native Voices at the Autry and Director of the School of Theatre, Television and Film at SDSU). Admission is FREE.

Saturday, November 15 at 8 p.m.

RE-CREATION STORY

By Eric Gansworth (Onendauga)

Directed by Leigh Silverman

Novelist, poet, essayist and visual artist Eric Gansworth, winner of the PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles National Literary Award for Fiction, brings us his personal exploration of the Haudenosaunee creation narrative. He playfully alters the oral tradition’s fluid nature to reflect issues relevant to contemporary Haudenosaunee life. Admission is FREE.

Post-Show Discussion: “Bringing Oral Tradition to the Stage”

Special Guests: Eric Gansworth (playwright), Daniel David Moses (playwright), Leigh Silverman (director), and Edward Wemytewa (playwright/performer).

 

PARTNER EVENTS

For further information about partner events, please visit individual organizations’ web sites.

 
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian’s

Indigenous Style and Design Event
Saturday, November 15 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Featuring a lecture by Dexter Cirillo on Southwestern Indian jewelry at noon and beadwork demonstrations from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
National Museum of the American Indian, Rotunda
One Bowling Green
www.AmericanIndian.si.edu

American Indian Community House: Drums Along 42nd Street!!
Monday, November 10
2 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Learn about AICH’s programs, enjoy Native drumming, get a free gift and win prizes.
6:30 p.m.
AICH presents its annual Native American Actors’ Showcase.
Kirk Theatre on Theater Row (410 West 42nd Street)
www.aich.org

TICKET INFORMATION

NATIVE THEATER FESTIVAL runs November 12-15 at The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street. All theater events are free (excluding Martha Redbone at Joe's Pub on November 12) and open to the public but reservations are required. Two reservations per person, per reading. Tickets must be picked up 15 minutes prior to each curtain or they will be released. All readings will take place in the Anspacher Theater; seating is general admission and subject to availability. Tickets will be available beginning Friday, October 24.

Please call (212) 967-7555 or visit The Public Theater Box Office.

For more information, visit www.publictheater.org.

BIOS OF NATIVE THEATER FESTIVAL ARTISTS

ERIC GANSWORTH (Onondaga) is a professor of English and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. His books include Mending Skins (PEN Oakland Award), and A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function, (National Book Critics Circle's "Good Reads" List). His work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Boston Review, Shenandoah, Cold Mountain Review, Poetry International, New York Quarterly, Yellow Medicine Review, American Indian Quarterly, Stone Canoe, UCLA American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Many Mountains Moving, and Studies in American Indian Literature, among other journals.

ALANIS KING (Odawa Nation). Alanis King's playwriting credits include: Bye Bye Beneshe, Song of Hiawatha: An Anishnaabec Adaptation, Order of Good Cheer, Gegwah, Lovechild, Artshow, Heartdwellers, Manitoulin Incident, Tommy Prince Story, When Jesus Met Nanabush, Storyteller and Step by Step. King was Playwright in Residence at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre in Toronto from 2005 to 2007 and at Nightwood Theatre. She was a past Artistic Director of her home theatre company - Debajehmujig Theatre Group and Native Earth Performing Arts. She has also produced, toured, directed and developed numerous plays on many First Nation communities, a highlight was Lupi the Great White Wolf for the children's tour to the Brooklyn Academy Of Music.

LAURA SHAMAS (Chickasaw). Laura Shamas's plays have been produced by Golden Thread Productions, Victory Theater (L.A.), Philadelphia Theater Company, Denver Center Theater Company, Walnut Street Theater, Studio Arena, West Coast Ensemble and The Glines (NYC), among others. Her work has been read/developed/presented at many theaters, including Native Voices at the Autry (L.A., Festival of New Plays, '08); Native Earth Performing Arts (Toronto, "Weesagechak Learns to Dance XX," '07); "Playwrights Week at the Lark," (New York, '07); Soho Theatre (London, '06 & '07); Williamstown Theatre Festival (Guest Artist '06); The Old Globe; The Geva Theater; and The Utah Shakespearean Festival. Shamas has several published plays, including Re-Sourcing, Moliere In Love, Pistachio Stories, Up To Date, Lady-Like, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Portrait of a Nude, and The Other Shakespeare. She has been honored with a number of playwriting awards, including the 2008 Garrard Best Play Award from the Five Civilized Tribes Museum for her show Talking Leaves, a Fringe First Award for Outstanding New Drama (Edinburgh), a Drama-Logue Award, and a 2006-2007 Aurand Harris Fellowship from the Children's Theater Foundation of America.

Leigh Silverman (Director) most recently directed David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face at The Public Theater. Her Broadway credits include Lisa Kron's Well. Her off-Broadway credits include Liz Flahive's From Up Here (world premiere, MTC; Drama Desk nom.); Beebo Brinker Chronicles (world premiere, Hourglass Group and 37 Arts); Brooke Berman's Hunting and Gathering (world premiere, Primary Stages); Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Second Stage Theatre); Tanya Barfield's Blue Door (Playwrights Horizons and Seattle Repertory Theater); The Five Lesbian Brothers' Oedipus At Palm Springs (world premiere, NYTW); Eve Ensler's The Treatment (world premiere, The Culture Project); Neena Beber's Jump/Cut (world premiere, Woolly Mammoth Theatre/Theater J and Women's Project); and Big Times (world premiere, W.E.T.). She directed Wit in the West End at the Vaudeville Theatre.

VICTORIA NALANI KNEUBUHL (Native Hawaiian/Samoan) is a Honolulu playwright and author. Her many plays have been performed in Hawai`i and the continental United States and have toured to Britain, Asia, and the Pacific. An anthology of her work, Hawai`i Nei: Island Plays, is available from the University of Hawai`i Press. Ms. Kneubuhl's first mystery novel Murder Casts a Shadow, was recently published by the University of Hawaii Press. She is currently the writer and co-producer for the television series Biography Hawaii. In 1994, she was the recipient of the prestigious Hawai`i Award for Literature and in 2006 received the Eliot Cades Award for Literature.

MARTHA REDBONE (Choctaw/Shawnee/Cherokee/Blackfeet) is a leading voice in both soul and contemporary Native music. She has been recognized with awards for both of her albums - Skintalk and Home of the Brave, including the 2006 Independent Music Awards Best R&B album; Best Debut Artist at the 2002 Native American Music Awards; and two consecutive Indian Summer Music Awards for Best R&B Album of 2004 and 2005. Also in 2005, Martha received the National HIV/Aids Partnership Red Ribbon Award at the UN for her community work. Currently the Brooklyn native and daughter of a Choctaw/Shawnee/Cherokee/Blackfeet mother and African-American father is working on her third album.

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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