Native Theater: Spinning New Worlds

This course is co-taught with Elder Residence, Marta Lu Clifford (Cree, Chinook, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde), an actress and educator, and my dear friend. She will be a valued resource for this journey through the course, offering her insight and personal experience to help the class put these plays in context.

In this course we apply Indigenous methodologies and frameworks to contemporary North American Indigenous drama and theatre to discern how contemporary Indigenous dramatists engage the project of decolonization. The course includes reading and analysis of plays and productions, secondary critical/theoretical articles, guest speakers from regional Native tribes, and a final public-facing project. Central questions include, How do these artists expose and resist the legacies of colonialism; heal, reclaim and renew connections to culture, community, and lands; celebrate survivance and thriving cultures, traditions and languages; intervene in institutional systems of racism, sexism, and speciesism; legitimate emotions, relations, and knowledges of Native peoples; assert sovereignty, and envision Native futures?

We study plays and productions written, performed and produced by contemporary Native American, First Nations, Hawai’ian, and Canadian Metís playwrights, as well as articles that illuminate author’s aims, production histories, and critical analyses. All of the plays we read take place in the context of settler colonialism; and the articles we will read will help us understand the power and potential of Native theatre in light of current presence of settler colonialism, its history and legacies. These contemporary Indigenous playwrights and theorists are engaged in the project of decolonization, for themselves, their communities, for North American Indigenous networks, and for settler society. In some way, each of the plays and their productions aim to: expose and resist the legacies of colonialism; heal, reclaim and renew connections to culture, community, and lands; celebrate survivance and thriving cultures, traditions and languages; intervene in institutional systems of racism, sexism, and speciesism; legitimate emotions, relations, and knowledges of Native peoples; assert sovereignty, and envision Native futures. You are expected to actively engage with the goals and spirit of decolonization in your critical analysis, and to reflect on your own relationship to these plays and articles, the ideas they express and the feelings they may inspire or provoke. Prepare to actively engage in envisioning the art of theatre — as the Native artists that we will study do — as a decolonizing force, one that helps move society toward social and environmental justice and healing. To that end, the course asks that you learn to think/feel/work reflexively. This means that you are willing to learn, reflect, and change your own world view — sometimes in the moment of a conversation.