I'm a Blackfeet Indian from Browning, Montana! I was once a collegiate athlete, and when those days were over I found performing arts ... as athletes are apt to do ... the need/neurosis for attention. I received a scholarship to a performing arts school in New York City and thought I'd be an actor, but skin color and race are still important, sensitive, and volatile issues here in the good old U.S. of A., so acting hasn't panned out as I thought it might, damn it. I decided to go to the best damn film school in the world (USC - Go Trojans!!!) to learn how to make my own films and television shows, by God. Then I learned that money and social status are even bigger issues here in "The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave", so I haven't directed too many films. Now I'm in graduate school again at New York University learning that the best part of our country is that no one can shut you up as long as you're smart about it.
Most importantly, however, I do believe in God ... so kiss my butt ... and I do believe that we're supposed to be good and help each other, even when being good and helping each other means pissing off some people!
Thank you to all who came and saw "CARLISLE"! It was an amazing experience. Here are some of the wonderful reactions we've received ...
CARLISLE - REVIEWS
· I thought "Carlisle" was a stimulating adaptation of [Chekhov's] "Three Sisters" to the Native American experience. The personal story lines were seen through the lens of the very particular cultural situation … I would like to see a full production with the additional dances, music, and other materials … I wonder if those "realities" could be more forcefully brought in; not as introduction or at the tail end but as some kind of disruption, an explosion of "Indian" into "Chekhovian" – something that the characters might simply stop and watch, as if from another dimension.
Onwards,
Richard Schechner, Ph.D.
NYU-Tisch Professor of Performance Studies
Editor, "The Drama Review"
Founder, The Performance Group at the Garage Theatre
· My NYU colleague, his wife, and I saw 'Carlisle' last evening and we recommend it highly. It wasn't initially obvious to me how [Anton] Chekhov's 'Three Sisters' could tell the complex story of the Indian Schools, but Myrton Running Wolf's script ingeniously creates a compellingly and disturbingly plausible account of how that period might have played against the universal vulnerabilities of family and the psyche in general. It is a work-in-progress, some lines still read, but the actors reflect New York's always astonishing talent pool, and the staging, with a touch of 'Our Town', deftly defies the spare facilities. It is a story told with wit and intelligence by a Native author whose voice, as he points out, is one we should be listening to.
Enthusiastically,
T. James Matthews, Ph.D.
NYU Assoc. Dean, Grad. School of Arts & Science
Coordinator of the Native People's Forum at NYU
Professor of Psychology and Neural Science
· Dear Myrton,
It was a pleasure to meet you and to see your wonderful production … We would be honored to have you as our guest speaker at our upcoming Salon as part of our production of Adam Hunault's The Ghost Dancers, which is part of our current season about occupation at the Sanford Meisner Theater.
Maria Schirmer
Education Director
Stone Soup Theatre Arts, NYC
· Congratulations on Carlisle! I saw it Saturday at La MaMa and was impressed with all the work … Please convey my congratulations to all involved for their great work.
Karen Oughtred
Artistic Director
Australian Aboriginal Theatre Initiative
· Congratulations! Terrific job on adapting the play; I loved the visuals and music. The director had a real understanding of the script and staged it well … let me not forget the actors. Excellent job on their part. I am very impressed with it all. You are in a position to be heard and quit frankly, its very time appropriate … Venetia Reese, [one-time] casting director at the Public [Theatre, NYC] attended with me and really liked the show.
Kim Snyder
New York based Lakota playwright
Documentary filmmaker
· Congratulations, Myrton. It's a hit!
Steve Elm
Editor, "Talking Stick: Native Arts Quarterly"
The American Indian Community House, NYC, Performing Arts Department
· I was honored to attend Myrton Running Wolf's play "Carlisle" at La MaMa ETC. Myrton's multi-media performance shared how the First Nations students at Carlisle struggled to see their indigenous past and how they were tortured by the assimilationist ways dreamt up by Army Lt. [Richard Henry] Pratt who said: "Kill the Indian and save the MAN."
Matthew Bessell, LCSW
Extended Care Social Worker
EEO LGBT Group Chairperson
