Photo Flash: Portland Center Stage Presents CROSSING MNISOSE

Mary Kathryn Nagle's world premiere play Crossing Mnisose weaves together Sacajawea's story with that of the contemporary fight to protect the Mnisose (what Europeans named the Missouri River) from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

As in her celebrated plays Manahatta and Sovereignty, Nagle draws a clear, urgent line between the past and the present. Nagle's frequent collaborator Molly Smith (Sovereignty at Arena Stage) will direct.

"We've heard the Sacajawea story through the diaries of Meriwether Lewis and some heroic statues. Thankfully, thrilling writers like Mary Kathryn Nagle are telling Sacajawea's story from a Native American point of view," Smith said. "The fight for the Missouri River (Mnisose) is past and present in our play Crossing Mnisose. In both 1805 and 2016, the fight is visceral; the present story is informed by the bloo

Photo by Patrick Weishampel/blankeye.tv/Courtesy of Portland Center Stage at The Armory