By Rob Schmidt 

Soon after meeting the strange and exotic "redmen," Americans began staging shows about them. The efforts included Wild West exhibitions such as Buffalo Bill's and historical romances such as Ramona.  They were usually stereotypical, with savage braves, swooning maidens, and stoic chiefs.

Since then, playwrights have gotten serious about Indians. They've tackled subjects ranging from spirituality to substance abuse to suicide. The last few years have seen an explosion of genuine Native-themed dramas and comedies.

Perhaps because I live in Los Angeles, a lot of the activity seems to be centered here. Here are the latest doings in LA-based Native theater:

In June I posted a long article on the Native Voices theater program at the Autry National Center. Native Voices is probably the leading program in the country devoted to developing and producing Native plays. The article explained how the program works and what it has accomplished.

In March I attended the premiere of Drew Hayden Taylor's play The Berlin Blues.   In it, a band of Ojibways must deal with Germans seeking to open a theme park on their humble Canadian reserve. As my review noted, The Berlin Blues  is a "sprightly sitcom" of a play, "bright and entertaining," but "the cartoonish plot doesn't quite mesh with the realistic characters."

I missed the April run of Arigon Starr's Super Indian,  a series of five-minute radio plays. The comical stories feature a young man who gains amazing powers from eating tainted commodity cheese. Starr plans to release the plays on CD later this year.

March Madness

Besides The Berlin Blues,  three very different Native productions debuted around the country in March. Here's the scoop on them:

In Juneau, Alaska, the Perseverance Theatre performed Shakespeare's Macbeth  in the challenging Tlingit language. When the production played at the National Museum of the American Indian, a reviewer wrote, "It's nicely conceived but not very powerful. … You get the gist of the play, but not the juice" (Washington Post, 3/11/07).

In Colorado, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Theatre13, and Warrior Artists Productions "announced the world premiere of the staged adaptation of Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance,  written by imprisoned human rights activist Leonard Peltier with Harvey Arden.

"Peltier's play is a deeply moving account of one man's struggle to survive prison life while working for healing, forgiveness and fair treatment within an inherently flawed justice system" (Indian Country Today, 3/6/07).

In Nebraska, Opera Omaha presented the world premiere of Wakonda's Dream.  As the Des Moines Register reported (3/6/07), it tells the story of a family "underpinned by the dislocation of the Ponca Indians and the landmark civil-rights trial of Chief Standing Bear in 1879." The NY Times (3/9/07) gave Wakonda's Dream  a mostly positive review, saying it "emerges as Mr. Davis's most intimate, human-scaled opera."

More Native Shakespeare

A Tlingit Macbeth  isn't the only way Natives have addressed Shakespeare. James Lujan adapted Romeo and Juliet  to create Kino and Teresa,  a Native Voices production, set in the aftermath of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. And Oneida actor Graham Greene is taking a turn as Shylock in a Canadian version of The Merchant of Venice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more on Native theater, go to http://www.bluecorncomics.com/naplays.htm