News: Theater Resources Unlimited Presents Live Town Hall, Barely Visible: Native American Theater Artists, on June 27th

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU), a nonprofit organization and the leading network for developing theater professionals, has announced Barely Visible: Native American Theater Artists, a live town hall on June 27, 2024. The town hall will be co-hosted by actor-writer Shaun Taylor Corbett, a mixed-race artist of Amskapi Pikunni (Blackfeet), Scandinavian, and Black heritage and a member of the Kaa Nux Im mii Taaks (Blackfoot Crazy Dog Society); Danielle Jagelski (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe), a composer, music director and creative producer; John Scott Richardson (enrolled Haliwa-Saponi (Tutelo)/Tuscarora lineage), actor, public speaker and cultural educator; Julia Keefe (Nez Perce), internationally acclaimed actor, recording artist, educator, jazz singer and band leader for the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band. Barely Visible will be co-facilitated by Nicolette Blount (enrolled Chickasaw with Seminole ancestry), writer, composer, lyricist, performer, and producer at Take My Shot Productions, and TRU executive director Bob Ost.

TRU monthly conversations continue about issues of current cultural significance, with a particular focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. This month TRU considers the uncomfortable irony that theater's least visible representation of the American population is Native Americans. For theater (and all of the arts) to truly reflect the human experience and represent our populations fully, it is just common sense that we need to open the doors and let First American artists have their voice and tell their stories. A step forward was made last season when Larissa FastHorse (enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Lakota Nation) saw her play The Thanksgiving Play finally make it to Broadway, although this may have been the first work of a Native American to be welcomed into the commercial theater since Lynn Riggs (part Cherokee) back in the 1930's; and it is definitely the first play by an indigenous woman. And though it did not find a Broadway audience to keep it running, it is now one of the most produced plays in the United States. Fine. Now how about all the other Native artists in our country? Where in our business are they being overlooked, and where are they being welcomed? And most importantly, can they tell their stories authentically, or is there pressure for them to conform to traditional theater norms?

Doors open at 6:30pm for networking and roundtable introductions of everyone in the room – come prepared with your best 20-second summary of who you are and what you need. The Open Forum will start at 7:00pm. The event is free for TRU members and not-for-profit theater companies and $15 for non-members. To register, visit https://truonline.org/events/town-hall-native-american-artists/.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Immersive "American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams" Takes Audiences on a Marvelously Crafted Journey

Image
American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams Written by Tennessee Williams Directed by Jim Niesen Presented by the Irondale Ensemble Project at The Space at Irondale 85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NYC October 27-November 26, 2023 Shadenia Savid in Moony's Kids Don't Cry . Photo by Natasha Rotondaro In 1948, Tennessee Williams published American Blues , a collection of five one-act plays, and a remarkable new production of this collection by Brooklyn's Irondale shows that these works have lost none of their power to both entertain and challenge audiences in the intervening three-quarters of a century. Comprising plays written in the decade between 1936 and 1946 - Moony's Kids Don't Cry (1936); The Dark Room (1939); The Case of the Crushed Petunias (1941); The Long Stay Cut Short, or, the Unsatisfactory Supper (1946); and Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (1946) - American Blues represents the second part of Irondale's American Century, the first install
Read more

Review: "How To Eat an Orange" Cuts into the Life of an Argentine Artist and Activist

Image
How To Eat an Orange Written by Catherine Filloux Based on the writing of Claudia Bernardi Directed by Elena Araoz Presented by La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club at The Downstairs at La MaMa 66 E 4th St., Manhattan, NYC May 30-June 16, 2024 Paula Pizzi. Photo by Steven Pisano How To Eat an Orange , making its world premiere at La MaMa, does in fact include a real orange as a prop, and its multifarious symbolizations–evoking at different points cultural specificity, family history, matriarchal inheritance, and even a skull–are representative of the play's boundary-blurring, non-linear presentation of memory. The memories in question belong to visual artist, educator, and activist Claudia Bernardi , who lived through several years of her native Argentina's military junta, which held power from 1976 to 1983, before departing her country and eventually settling in the United States. How To Eat an Orange , from Catherine Filloux, a French Algerian American award-winning playwright,
Read more

Review: From Child Pose to Stand(ing) Up: "Yoga with Jillian" and "Penguin in Your Ear" at the Women in Theatre Festival

Image
Yoga with Jillian Written by Lia Romeo Directed by Andrew W. Smith Presented by Project Y Theatre and Richard Jordan Productions in association with The Pleasance June 2-17, 2023 Penguin in Your Ear Written and performed by Eliza Bent Directed by Jess Barbagallo June 10, 2023 Part of the Women in Theatre Festival , presented by Project Y Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres Michole Biancosino. Photo courtesy of Project Y Theatre This June, Project Y Theatre Company presents the eighth annual installment of its Women in Theatre Festival (WIT), which showcases new work by women and maintains "more than 50% female representation of all artists involved." This year, the festival includes a lobby installation project, titled In the Betweens , from scenic designer Chen-Wei Liao, through which audience members pass on their way into the theater proper. One first chooses first between "light" and "dark" rooms and then moves into "the gardens" before re
Read more