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Native Voices at the Autry
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Public Readings of New Works
June 1 and 2, 2012
Every year, Native Voices presents new or in-progress plays by Native playwrights with staged readings at the Autry in Los Angeles. This year we present three unique plays with fresh voices and dynamic stories. Join us at the Autry for these great plays and dazzling performances, featuring staged readings of The Hummingbirds, a new play with music written and performed by first-time collaborators (and the stars of last year’s hit production of The Frybread Queen) Elizabeth Frances (Cherokee), Kimberly Norris Guerrero (Colville, Salish-Kootenai, Cherokee), and Shyla Marlin (Choctaw); The Bird House by critically acclaimed playwright Diane Glancy (Cherokee); and Distant Thunder: A Native American Musical, book by Broadway actor Shaun Taylor-Corbett (Blackfoot, one of the stars of In The Heights, winner of four 2008 Tony Awards) and his mother, Tony-nominated Broadway choreographer and director Lynne Taylor-Corbett (Swing, Titanic, Footloose!); music and lyrics by Shaun Taylor-Corbett and Chris Wiseman.
All plays are appropriate for ages 14 and older.
Staged readings are free; reservations are recommended.
Box Office: 323.667.2000, ext. 354
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
The Hummingbirds
by Elizabeth Frances (Cherokee), Kimberly Norris Guerrero (Colville, Salish-Kootenai, Cherokee), and Shyla Marlin (Choctaw)
Friday, June 1, 7:30 p.m.
The Hummingbirds is a multimedia experience in storytelling that follows the lives of Kat, Willow, and Adosha, three Indigenous sisters from Santa Fe who work at odd jobs during the day and play the local music circuit at night. A competition for a major recording deal launches the sisters into an all-out race for fame and fortune that forces them to walk the precarious tightrope between art and commerce, social networking and exhibitionism, their family and the band.
The Bird House
by Diane Glancy (Cherokee)
Saturday, June 2, 2:00 p.m.
Diane Glancy, author of the hit play Salvage, creates a world brought to its knees by the continuing economic downturn, corporate greed, religious righteousness, and Big Oil’s determined march to continue hydraulic fracking no matter the cost to the environment or small-town America. Set in the back room of a failing church, The Bird House examines the lives of Reverend Hawk, an evangelical minister, and his two sisters as they sort through the snarls of their past and face an uncertain future. Questions about family, faith, community, and the very soil we live on collide in this small West Texas town.
Distant Thunder
A Native American Musical
Book by Shaun Taylor-Corbett (Blackfoot) and Lynne Taylor-Corbett
Music and Lyrics by Shaun Taylor-Corbett (Blackfoot) and Chris Wiseman
Saturday, June 2, 7:30 p.m.
When attorney Darrell Waters, a young half-Native–half-White outsider raised in Chicago, returns to his tribe seeking reconciliation with his estranged father, he finds himself in the middle of a tribal crisis and unwittingly ignites a burning desire in his people to answer a heretofore dormant question: “How can the Blackfeet claim their empowerment in an ever-changing America without sacrificing their past?” There is a need in all of us to return “home,” whether it is a physical place or a cultural identity.
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