Making Waves: Readings of Plays by Native and Indigenous Playwrights

Monthly readings in this year-long series
Seattle Center Theatre

Readings by Indigenous Playwrights

Jan 28

March 18
Next Date TBD

This year-long program of monthly readings of plays by Native and Indigenous Playwrights will include local plays, scripts that have been produced in other regions and plays by Native women.

Throughout 2019 Sound Theatre will also present Native and Indigenous centered plays that intersect with race, gender and disability, and devised work based on indigenous storytelling and performance practices.

Location

Center Theatre: Seattle Center Armory

305 Harrison St, Seattle, WA 98109

See Below for Accessibility Information

Dates

Next Reading TBD

Free, (Donations Accepted)

Inclusive Accessible Seating

Seating for our patrons with disabilities is FRONT ROW Center for all performances.

Patrons who cannot traverse stairs are also welcome to take a seat in the front row. Please note when you purchase your tickets if you would like to use Front Row seating.

Monthly readings in this year-long series will begin January 21

January Reading:

CHANGER

The Creation Story for the NW Coastal Salish

CHANGER, by Bruce Subiyay Miller (Skokomish) is the first in a year-long reading series of plays by Native and Indigenous Playwrights, curated by Fern Naomi Renville and presented by Sound Theatre Company

CHANGER is the Creation story for the NW coastal Salish. The story is told by many tribes around this area, and each tribe has its own version. In the tradition of the Salish tribe, when The Change comes, all of our hearts will be the same, and all cultures will respect each other and develop a commonality. This performance will be presented in reader’s theatre form with drumming and singing. We invite you to attend this special evening to celebrate the launch of the 2019 Sound Theatre Season UN-ERASABLE.

Changer will be performed by Fern Naomi Renville (Dakota, Sisseton-Wahpeton) and Frieda Kirk (Kalamath).

March Readings:

WHEN MY SPIRIT RAISED ITS HANDS

by Diane Benson (Tlingit)

When My Spirit Raised Its Hands dramatizes the true story of Elizabeth Peratrovich (Tlingit), the civil rights heroine who successfully fought against the discrimination of Alaska Natives. Every February 16 in Alaska is celebrated as (the day in 1945 on which the Anti-Discrimination Act was signed) as “

Elizabeth Peratrovich Day“, to honor the day in order to honor her contributions: “for her courageous, unceasing efforts to eliminate discrimination and bring about equal rights in Alaska”

ADY

by Rhiana Yazzie (Navajo)

Ady is the story of a Navajo woman, Adrienne, who finds a 1937 photograph of a Caribbean dancer that is her mirror image. This opens the door to a moment before WWII when the surrealist movement was blooming. Characters like Pablo Picasso and his lover, Dora Marr, surrealist photographers Man Ray and Lee Miller guide Adrienne through her mother’s suicide back home on the reservation. As it tells the story of a surrealist muse, the play shows how easy it is to be lost to history, especially if you were a little brown woman.

Show and Season Sponsors + Partners

Creative Team

Fern Naomi Renville - 2019 Reading Series Curator

Fern Naomi Renville (2019 Reading Series Curator)is a Dakota, originally from Sisseton-Wahpeton Reservation, led the way and opened doors of opportunity for hundreds of Native Youth Theatre participants of Red Eagle Soaring (RES) from 2009 to 2017. Renville now serves as a theatre teaching artist in several Puget Sound Schools like Sand Point Elementary, where, in Fall 2017, Renville led the school community in learning the Indigenous Knowledge of “Salmon Boy.” Renville says of her teaching experience, “To witness an entire elementary school become fluent in a foundational story of Coast Salish culture and show respect for the theatres of the Salmon People is to witness a tectonic cultural shift towards an understanding of Native people and sovereignty as contemporary, intersectional and vital to an American education; this gives me such faith!”