Theater at the National Museum of the American Indian:
A New Venue for Indigenous Performing Artists from the Americas
by Vincent P. Scott
 THE MISSION OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM of the American Indian (NMAI) is to celebrate the lifeways, languages, literature, history, and art of Native Americans. Through its exhibitions, programs, and publications, the museum presents the extraordinary achievements of the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
Theater and the performing arts are universal mediums for sharing perspectives of Native artists who speak with their own voices to visitors of the Elmer and Mary Louise Rasmuson Theater, the most formal of five distinct performance spaces at the museum. The NMAI aims to become the Nation’s premiere institution for showcasing Native American performing arts. I invite all Native performing artists to consider NMAI as a new venue for indigenous performing arts throughout the Americas. This year, the NMAI hopes to further the public’s awareness of Native performances at the museum, build relationships with Native theater artists, and reach out to new partners.
Cultural Arts, a unit of the Museum Programs Department, serves as the presenter and producer of American Indian dramatic arts (including plays, music, dance, opera, and storytelling). In the realm of theater, the NMAI’s paramount concern is seeking plays that speak with a Native voice. Whenever non-Native artists bring work to our theater, it is imperative that they work closely with Native collaborators so that cultural integrity is preserved and promoted.
The first theater season in 2005-2006, at NMAI presented:
“Pamuri Mahse,” a “mythical mask ceremonial dance drama” by Viento Teatro from Bogotá, Colombia, celebrating creation stories of the Uitoto tribe; “Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers,” by William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. (Assiniboine), co-produced by Providence’s Trinity Repertory Company and St. Paul’s Penumbra Theater; “Voicing Tribal Women: Plays, Poetry, and Speech,” written and performed by Diane E. Benson (Tlingit) – the piece included “When My Spirit Raised Its Hands: The Story of Elizabeth Peratrovich and Alaskan Civil Rights,” “Poetry Manifesto,” “River Woman,” “The Glamour Girls of Ruby,” and “Closing: Native Woman; Stone Heart,” written by Diane Glancy (Cherokee), directed by Randy Reinholz (Choctaw), and “The Red Road,” a one-woman show by Arigon Starr (Kickapoo/Creek), directed by Randy Reinholz.
Last year The NMAI’s season included an opera and “The Captivation of Eunice Williams,” music by Paula Kimper, libretto by Harley Erdman, and directed/produced by Linda McInerney; “Gunakadeit: An Alaskan Sea Monster Story,” a family-friendly musical for young audiences by Ishmael Hope (Tlingit), with music composed by Stefan Hakenberg; Perseverance Theatre’s Tlingit-inspired production of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” directed by Anita Maynard-Losch; “Sacajawea’s Sisters,” featuring Thirza Defoe (Ojibwe/Oneida); “The Berlin Blues,” a new play by Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibwe), directed by Randy Reinholz.
My travels in Indian country have taught me that the Native world and the theatrical world share a common value: the importance of community. I learned the value of community while attending DeSales University in Center Valley, PA. At this small liberal arts college in the cornfields of Pennsylvania, students worked on every production mounted, serving on a tech crew or in the cast or in some other way that contributed to the success of the production. In graduate school, where I received an MFA in Directing for the theater, the Hilberry Repertory Company of Wayne State University worked in classic repertory. This was another invaluable training for learning how to work collaboratively in community.
After working professionally in theater and opera and musical theater for several seasons after graduate school, my interests broadened and I began working with Native cultures. I first taught at the Fort Peck Community College on the reservation home of the Fort Peck Sioux and Assiniboine in northeastern Montana. Later I worked with the Cup’ik and Yup’ik peoples of southwestern Alaska and then with all of the tribes of Alaska in Anchorage. These experiences of warm invitation to live and work with other cultures further strengthened my interests in Native performing arts. All of these experiences helped prepare me to develop a theater program here at the NMAI.
In addition to presenting plays here in Washington, DC, I have had the pleasure of traveling to various parts of the United States to hear the voices of playwrights spoken through talented Native actors. I’ve witnessed JudyLee Oliva’s epic play chronicling the life of Te Ata Fisher, “Te Ata,” performed in Chickasaw, OK. I had the honor of seeing James Lujan’s “Kino and Teresa,” an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” ably performed by VSA Arts of Albuquerque, NM. I was fortunate to be able to direct Drew Hayden Taylor’s “Someday” for the Thunder Road Theater Company of Tulsa, OK.
Audiences both at the museum and on the road hear Native voices. Such voices are claiming identity, chanting ancient songs, and bearing important stories. Audiences wish to hear more voices, both established and new ones: Hanay Geiogamah, Tomson Highway, JudyLee Oliva, Diane E. Benson, Arigon Starr, or Rhiana Yazzie.
Native voices should be heard in the American theater. The theater is blessed to at last be hearing voices of other cultures: Asian, Latino, African American. When have any of us last seen or read a play by an indigenous American? •2007
www.nmai.si.edu, Vincent P. Scott, Cultural Arts Program Specialist, Rasmuson Theater Manager (202) 633-6653, scottv@si.edu, Howard Bass, Cultural Arts Manager (202) 633-6628, bassh@si.edu.
Written exclusively for “The Soul of the American Actor”
VINCENT SCOTT is a Cultural Arts program specialist and a producer of Native theater and performing arts at the Rasmuson Theater of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. He has been a producer, program director, teacher, director and stage manager for over twenty years. His theater work includes the opening/closing ceremonies for international sporting events, community theater, university theater, Native theater, opera, musical theater, regional and international tours, classical repertory companies, and summer stock. As a director, he most recently directed a reading of “The Reason for Crows” by Diane Glancy, and a production of Drew Hayden Taylor’s “Someday” at Thunder Road Theater, Tulsa, Oklahoma. |
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