Native Voices at the Autry

I'd like to meet:

Artistic & Administrative Staff

Randy Reinholz, Artistic Director
Jean Bruce Scott, Executive Director
Steve Aron, Director of the Institute for the Study of the American West
David Burton, Director, Government Affairs and Special Projects
Donna Tuggle Dickerson, Managing Director
Rose-Yvonne Colletta, Production Manager
Carlenne Lacosta, Production Assistant

Young Native Voices: Theater Education Project

For the past five years, Young Native Voices: Theater Education Project has provided workshops and residencies for Native American youths at the Southern California Indian Center and the American Indian Clubhouse. Playwrights are paired with professional mentors for an intensive playwriting or theater workshop culminating in public staged readings of their plays. To date, forty-five new plays have been written as part of the project.

In 2005, Young Native Voices expanded to include reservation outreach. That year, Native Voices theater artists and mentors were in residence at the Coeur d’Alene Schitsu’umsh Reservation in Idaho, working with students to create and perform ten 10-minute plays at six different venues, including the University of Idaho, the Coeur d’Alene Reservation, North Idaho College, and the Museum of Arts and Culture. In 2006, they were in residence for a month at the Sycuan Reservation in San Diego County, where they worked with thirty-seven students from the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation. Students participated in daily theater workshops and created a full production of three traditional Kumeyaay stories featuring Kumeyaay language, song, and dance.

On November 11, 2005, Native American Stewardship Council (NASC) member Jeanne Givens sat down to talk about the students' experiences at Coeur d'Alene. To read the full transcript of that conversation click here .

Playwrights' Retreat

Each year five established and emerging Native American playwrights are selected for a weeklong new-play development process. Playwrights attend a number of workshops and are mentored by Los Angeles-based theater professionals.

New Play Commission
Chosen from among a distinguished group of Native American playwrights, the commissioned playwright will visit the collections of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of the American West for inspiration.

Marie Clements - 2004 play commission, Tombs of the Vanishing Indian Rhiana Yazzie - 2005 play commission, Wild Horses

Music:

News Flash!

Dances with Teen Angst by Rob Schmidt
The cast is uniformly good, but Carmelo stands out as the awkward, shy Amanda. With her big glasses, pink backpack, and limbs akimbo, she's convincing. It's hard to believe this gawky girl was the fierce Thunder Heart Woman in the Into the West mini-series and the cool, urbane prosecutor in the supernatural thriller Imprint.
Read the entire article at Blue Corn Comics

Tender truths set to do-si-do disco by Daryl H. Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
A bit more homework awaits the writer, but she's headed toward an ace project with this demonstration that life is something we're destined to live together, so we'd better work as a team to make the best of whatever comes. Read the full LA Times review here .

Larissa FastHorse's 'Teaching Disco' The fledgling playwright focuses on Native American teen issues. by Lynne Heffley, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Larissa FastHorse still looks like a ballet dancer: long-limbed and graceful, delicate face framed by dark curls. But after injuries ended her 10-year ballet career -- "It's a brutal world, there's a lot of blood involved," she says -- FastHorse turned to TV and film writing.Now, she's "coming home" to the theater, gaining notice as a fledgling playwright.
Read the entire LA Times article here .

Nurturing the next crop of Native artists by Eva Thomas
Creating a space for young artists to find their voices, Native Voices at the Autry is doing brilliant work with the Young Native Voices: Theater Education Workshops. Now in its seventh year, Young Native Voices has provided workshops and residencies for American Indian youth.
Read the entire article at Indian Country Today .

Q&A with diva Arigon Starr by Patti Jo King
Kickapoo entertainer Arigon Starr is not content with two NAMMY's, a successful one-woman stage production and a popular radio theater show. She's branching out again - this time into graphic novels, fashioning imaginative characters comic-book style.
Read the entire Q&A at Indian Country Today .

"Our Voices... Our Stories" Mini-Documentary by Visible Film
VISIBLE FILM PRODUCTIONS is an all Native producing team with a mission to create original works that offer an honest and accurate portrayal of our collective communities today. "Our Voices... Our Stories" will be the first full length Documentary Film they will produce, bringing the mentoring process of Young Native Voices: Theater Education Project to a national audience.
(10/24/07) Native Voices at the Autry boosts indigenous playwrights by Eva Thomas
Over the last decade, a virtual who's who of American Indian theater artists has worked with Native Voices at the Autry. From Canadian playwright Drew Hayden Taylor, Ojibway, to up-and-coming playwright Larissa Fast Horse, Sicangu Nation, Native playwrights are finding a home to develop works for the stage. Click here to read the full article at Indian Country Today

(06/03/07) A Native version of Romeo and Juliet. Lewis and Clark from Sacagawea’s point of view. A commodity cheese-based superhero with a talking-dog sidekick by Rob Schmidt
Not only is Native Voices developing plays, it’s developing careers. "Native Voices helped put me on the map," says James Lujan, who wrote Kino & Teresa. "It brought me a newfound sense of respect for my creative efforts from friends, family, and colleagues which continues to this day and for that I’ll always be grateful." Click here for the complete article on NatieVue.com

Movies:

Images from the 2007 Playwrights Retreat
2007 Playwrights Retreat
.. Production Images
Images of Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders: A Class Presentation by Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Nation) COMING SOON!
Audience Review from the production
What a great night. Had kids in front of me and it was fun to see them enjoy it!
Energetic performance, important values, good music!
It had everything, fun, depth, pathos, dancing. It touched all my emotions. I loved it.
Audience Reviews from the November Festival of New Plays
DISCO is good clean fun!
I haven’t laughed so much in years!
I laughed heartily and found myself in tears by the end (indeed, ‘I laughed, I cried’).
Images from Super Indian by Arigon Starr (Creek, Kickapoo)
..
Photos by Abel Gutierrez
Audience Reviews
I enjoy any production which includes Arigon Starr. Her imagination and sense of humor are so entertaining. The Red Road was like a trip back to my childhood. I enjoy watching Gil Birmingham, DeLanna Studi, and Robert Vestal. They make the characters seem real, and they seem to genuinely enjoy performing for the audience. Thank you for allowing us to share in your fun.
Keep the shows coming, very enjoyable.
Lots of fun. Really enjoyed it.
Sound effects super! Actors did a marvelous job of playing multiple roles with necessary voice changes.
Excellent actors and sound effects!
Images from
The Berlin Blues by Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibway)
View cast bios and pics in our BLOG
Audience Reviews
Truly loved it!
Trailor!
Enjoyed it all.
Great performance! Entertaining.
Thank you for providing this space for Native American Theatre performances.

Books:

Native Voices at the Autry Previous Years' Plays1999
Full Production and World Premiere
February 25-March 6, 1999: Urban Tattoo by Marie Clements (Métis)2000
Workshop and Staged Reading
August 20, 2000: Darlin' by Charlotte Samples (Choctaw)
November 19, 2000: Gatherings of the People by James Luna (Luiseño/Diegueño)2001
Festival of New Plays, Workshops, and Staged Readings
March 9, 2001: On the Showroom Floor by Judy Lee Oliva (Chickasaw/Cherokee)
March 10, 2001: Jump Kiss by Diane Glancy (Cherokee)
March 11, 2001: Please Do Not Touch the Indians by Joseph A. Dandurand (Kwantlen)
August 19, 2001: U da naa by Gina Kallock (Athabascan)
November 4, 2001: Jump Kiss by Diane Glancy (Cherokee)2002
Equity Production-World Premiere:
June 5-23, 2002: Jump Kiss by Diane Glancy (Cherokee)
Festival of New Plays, Workshops, and Staged Readings
March 8, 2002: Confessions of an Indian Cowboy by Margo Kane (Métis-Cree/Saulteaux)
March 9, 2002: The Buz'Gem Blues by Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibway)
March 10, 2002: Seagulls by Greg Sarris (Coast Miwok)
August 2002: The Duel by Rhiana Yazzie (Dine')2003
Equity Production-World Premiere
March 6-23, 2003: The Buz'Gem Blues by Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibway)
Workshop and Staged Reading
January 9, 2003: Moose River Crossing by Shirley Cheechoo (Cree)
June 2003: Lewis & Clark: The Musical; book by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by Donald Siegal
Festival of New Plays, Workshops, and Staged Readings
November 14, 2003: Standing Up Stories by Julie Pearson-Little Thunder (Creek)
November 15, 2003: Kino and Teresa by James Lujan (Taos Pueblo)
November 16, 2003: Please Do Not Touch the Indians by Joseph A. Dandurand (Kwantlen)2004
Full Production and World Premiere
March 19- April 4, 2004: Please Do Not Touch the Indians by Joseph A. Dandurand (Kwantlen)
Workshop and Staged Readings
November 12, 2004: Asdzani Shash: The Woman Who Turned Into a Bear by Rhiana Yazzie (Navajo)
November 13, 2004: Stone Heart: Everyone Loves a Journey West by Diane Glancy (Cherokee)
November 14, 2004: Kino and Teresa by James Lujan (Taos Pueblo)2005
Full Production and World Premiere
March 4–20, 2005: Kino and Teresa by James Lujan (Taos Pueblo)
Workshop and Staged Readings
November 18: The Red Road by Arigon Starr (Kickapoo, Creek)
November 19: Tombs of the Vanishing Indian by Marie Clements (Métis)
November 20: Stone Heart: Everyone Loves a Journey West by Diane Glancy (Cherokee)2006
Full Production and World Premiere
February 17- March 12, 2006: Stone Heart: Everyone Loves a Journey West by Diane Glancy (Cherokee)
March 30- April 30: The Red Road by Arigon Starr (Creek, Kickapoo)
Workshop and Staged Readings
November 3: The Berlin Blues by Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibway)
November 4: Super Indian by Arigon Starr (Kickapoo, Creek)
November 5: Plymouth Dodge DeSoto by Diane Glancy (Cherokee)
2007
Full Production and World Premiere
March 1- 25, 2007: The Berlin Blues by Drew Hayden Taylor(Ojibway)
April 13-14, 2007: Super Indian by Arigon Starr (Creek, Kickapoo)
Workshop and Staged Readings
July 28, 2007: A new dance theater production, Weksu'ya: Stories My Grandfather Told Me To Remember
Written, Directed, and Choreographed by Vincent Whipple (Oglala Lakota, Navajo)
November 2: Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders: A Class Presentation by Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Nation)
November 16: Salvage by Diane Glancy (Cherokee)
November 17: Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders: A Class Presentation by Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Nation)
November 17: Native Skin by Bret Jones (Muscogee/Creek)
November 18: The Further Adventures of Super Indian, a radio play by Arigon Starr (Kickapoo/Creek)

Heroes:

Native Voices at the Autry is made possible in part by grants from:

Wells Fargo

Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles

Los Angeles County Arts Commission

National Endowment for the Arts

JPMorgan Chase

James Irvine Foundation

Sidney Stern Memorial Trust

Actors' Equity Association

Multi-Arts Production Fund