Project HOOP: Honoring Our Origins and Peoples through Native American Theater

Hello from Hanay Geiogamah and Project HOOP in Los Angeles. I am sending you the attached announcement of a new American Indian play which will be opening next week at the NEW Los Angeles Theater Center in downtown Los Angeles. The accompanying article about the show, WHAT'S AN INDIAN WOMAN TO DO?, will provide you with a full description of the play, its cast, artistic staff, performance dates, ticket information, etc.

This is a limited engagement, June 28 to July14, four shows each week, Thursday and Friday evenings and a Saturday matinee and Saturday evening performance. Seventy seats are available for each performance, and we cordially invite you and your family members and friends to come downtown and check this out. Please share this announcement with others. I hope to see you at LATC beginning next week. WHAT'S AN INDIAN WOMAN TO DO? is the first in a series of American Indian theatre, dance and musical productions that will be presented at the new Los Angeles Theater Center, now transforming as the home of a group of outstanding multi-cultural performing companies offering exciting, innovative work for 21st Century audiences. Thank you all.

SHOW INFORMATION: "WHAT'S AN INDIAN WOMAN TO DO?" HAS WEST COAST PREMIERE ON JUNE 28 AT LOS ANGELES THEATRE CENTER

WHAT: "What's an Indian Woman to Do?" West Coast Premiere of a new play.
WHO: Written by Mark Anthony Rolo. Inspired by a poem by Marcie Rendon. Directed by Kenneth Martines. Starring DeLanna Studi. Presented by HOOP Theatricals/Project HOOP. Artistic director: Hanay Geiogamah.
WHERE: Los Angeles Theatre Center, Theatre 4, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013. Enter in rear of building. Parking immediately adjacent (fee).
WHEN: June 30- July 14, 2007. Opens Saturday, June 30 at 8 p.m. Thereafter, Thurs. & Fri. at 8, Sat. at 2 and 8.

ADMISSION: $20. Seniors and students, $15. Groups of ten or more, $12.
RESERVATIONS: (213) 489-3281.

"What's an Indian Woman to Do?" is a solo play specifically written to be performed by a Native American actress who plays all the piece's characters.

Belle, the daughter of an Ojibwe father and a white mother, identifies herself exclusively with her Native American heritage. Her former best friend, the blonde and blue-eyed Katrina, wounds Belle doubly, first stealing Belle's lover Kyle, and then violating cultural boundaries when Katrina learns to speak the Ojibwe language and adopts an Indian name and otherwise immersing herself in tribal lore.

But Belle will see to it that Katrina gets her comeuppance. For one thing, Katrina has a new Indian lover named Moose. And Belle catches his eye.

Part of the narrative is concerned with Belle's complex relationship with the aunt after whom she is named. Aging Auntie Belle has been forcibly removed by the Feds from her ancestral Indian land and moved onto a reservation. Auntie calls her niece City Girl, forcing Belle to confront her future as a modern urban Indian who nonetheless feels a deep spiritual connection to her traditional culture.

DeLanna Studi stars. The busy Cherokee actress has toured Southern California schools with "KICK," a solo piece which addresses the negative aspects of the use of Indian mascots at schools and sporting events. She portrayed Sacagawea in "Beautiful in the Extreme" at the Colony. She appeared in "A Long Bridge Over Deep Waters" for Cornerstone Theatre Company. For Native Voices at the Autry, Delanna appeared in "The Berlin Blues," "On The Showroom Floor," "Jump Kiss," and "Buz'gem Blues." Her film and TV credits include "Pow Wow Dreams," "Skins," "Pennyman," "Edge of America," and "Dreamkeeper," winning major awards for the latter two films. She twice made the list of 10 Most Beautiful Native American Women.

Kenneth Martines directs for HOOP Theatricals/Project HOOP. His previous directing credits include "Kino & Teresa" (for Native Voices at the Autry), Pulitzer winner N. Scott Momaday's play "The Indolent Boys" at Southwest Repertory Theatre in Santa Fe and on tour, and productions of "Guys & Dolls," "Macbeth," "The Trojan Women," "MVP- The Jackie Robinson Story," and "The Wizard of Oz." Also an actor, he has numerous credits on stage ("Black Elk Speaks," "Beautiful in the Extreme," "The Sacred Hoop," screen ("American Graffiti," "Car Wash," "Patty Heast"), and television ("Dynasty," "Hunter," "Port Charles", much more).

HOOP is an abbreviation of Honoring Our Origins and Peoples. Project HOOP is one of two Indian arts organizations operating from space at Los Angeles Theatre Center. The other is American Indian Dance Theatre. Artistic director for both groups is Hanay Geiogamah.

Hanay Geiogamah, of the Kiowa-Delaware Tribes of Oklahoma, is a professor of theater in the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA. He is also the director of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center. Professor Geigomah was senior producer on the PBS documentary series "Indian Country Diaries." His own plays include "49," "Body Indian," "Foghorn," and "Coons Con Coyote."

Mark Anthony Rolo is the playwright of "What's an Indian Woman to Do?," which had its World Premiere at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in Minneapolis in 2005. An earlier play, "Mama Earth Loves Lace," premiered in 2002. A member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, he is the former executive director of the Native American Journalists Association and served as editor of The Circle and as Washington, D.C. correspondent for Indian Country Today. His first novel, "The Wonder Bull," was published in 2006.

HOOP Theatricals/Project HOOP and American Indian Dance Theater are part of the Cultural Roundtable, an ethnically diverse group of arts organizations sharing administrative and performance space at Los Angeles Theatre Center. Other groups participating in the Roundtable include Robey Theatre Company; Culture Clash; Cedar Grove Productions on Stage; Playwrights Arena; UCLA School of Film, Theater and Television; and Latino Theater Company, whose artistic director, Jose Luis Valenzuela, convened the Roundtable.

"What's an Indian Woman to Do?" is part of the Cultural Re-Construction Series, a series of programs scheduled during the literal re-construction of portions of the historic edifice of the Los Angeles Theatre Center as the Roundtable continues its participation in the cultural revitalization of Downtown Los Angeles.

Stage manager: Les Miller. Production manager: Adam Shive. The Los Angeles Theatre Center is operated by the Latino Theater Company and is a facility of the City of Los Angeles.

Greetings, Native American performing artists - actors, writers, composers, dancers, designers, educators, directors, and producers, froma ll parts of Indian Country. It's August 2006, the peak of one of the warmest summers on record, and all around us, everywhere one looks, change is happening. Big changes, very real changes, some changes for the better, some not. It is a time in Indian peoples' journey when keeping the faith, staying the course, and renewing one's commitment to the goals many Indians share are all more important than ever.

We at Project HOOP believe that, despite the current pessimism and strife in the world, the period in the forward thrust of Native people in America. The arts, especially the theater and performing arts, provide an ideal outlet in which to animate this creative fervor. Indeed, the presence of Native theaters and other performance venues within many tribal communities offers a forum for exploring and examining our many problems and for suggesting and creating solutions these challenges.

This work will be the focus of this convening Project HOOP National Gathering 2006: The Second Half, August 23-26 at UCLA. Model structures and strategies for five different artists-in-residence teams have been devised to assist tribes and other Native organizations in developing a range of projects and activities in their communities. The Second Half will present and demonstrate three of these models: for tribal youth theater, for acting/production workshops, and for company start-up and new production. (The models for developing playwriting workshops and tribal dance theater productions were presented at the First Half sessions.) The August conference attendees will hear reports and view working demonstrations of Project HOOP-sponsored performing arts projects that have been conducted at the Viejas Reservation community in southern California, in the public schools system in Billings, Montana, and at the Eastern Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina.

Many of those attending the Second Half gathering are representing tribes that responded to the national performing arts needs survey which Project HOOP conducted in 2004-05. An estimated 98 percent to those surveyed conveyed strong interest in and need for the Project HOOP artists-in-residence workshops in their communities. The national survey and the program to develop responsive working models for tribal communities are part of a five-year initiative by Project HOOP to promote and develop Native American theater and performing arts in tribal communities. Funding for this initiative, and for this conference, has been generously provided by the Fort Foundation.

Hanay Geiogamah
Project HOOP Principal Investigator

I am grateful to be able to welcome all of you to this fourth national convening of Native American theater and performing artists—the Project HOOP National Gathering 2006: The First Half. It’s the First Half because this year’s conference will be held in two different sessions: The First Half, March 23–26, and The Second Half is set for June 2006.

First I wish to convey my deepest gratitude to the Ford Foundation for its generous support of Project HOOP, and especially for its funding of this conference. The Project HOOP grant from Ford is part of an important initiative developed at the foundation by Ms. Betsy Theobald Richards, Cherokee tribal member and the only Native American program officer on the foundation’s staff. Ms. Richards is one of the most energetic and committed champions of Native American arts and her numerous accomplishments have created a lasting legacy. Project HOOP is one of a dozen Native American arts organizations that are receiving support from the Ford initiative. This is a major step forward for Native American arts, and we are proud to acknowledge our friend and colleague, Betsy Richards, for her contributions. Aho!

Currently, Project HOOP is in the midst of a four-year initiative to promote the development of Native American theater and performing arts in tribal communities, an ongoing goal since Project HOOP’s inception in 1996. With all of Indian Country as the target area, we are convinced that American Indian tribes and communities, both on reservations and in American cities, can benefit and thrive by working with innovative professional Native artists in their communities.

In the summer and fall of 2005, Project HOOP conducted a national performing arts needs survey. We surveyed hundreds of tribes and communities and asked a series of questions regarding the possibility of building an Indian theater in their community; What are the tribes artistic resources? Who could lead and participate? What benefits would the tribe or community receive from this work? The results were greatly encouraging: 105 tribes and numerous individiuals replied to our survey questions, and 98% of them indicated a strong interest in and need for programming that will help them develop tribal youth theaters, theater productions, new plays, dance theaters, acting classes, and playwriting workshops.

We at Project HOOP are now devising model structures and strategies for five different artists-in-residence teams that will work with communities onsite in developing a range of projects and activities of, by, and for their individual communities. In the First Half of the conference, March 23–26, we will develop the first two of these models, for dance and playwriting. The other three models, for tribal youth theater, acting workshops, and theatrical production and company start-up, will be presented at the Second Half in June. Project HOOP is currently sponsoring three pilot projects related to these team models in Billings, Montana, at Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico, and at the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina. These models will be presented at the Second Half in June.

We are excited by this work, and we hope that many Native American artists will join us in this initiative. There is a lot of great work lying just ahead for all of us!

Hanay Geiogamah
Project HOOP Principal Investigator

Mid-Summer 2005

It's July, 2005 -- half way through the year. We at Project HOOP are smack in the middle of our national performing arts needs assessment survey for tribal communities across Indian Country. It's a formidable undertaking, but the replies we have received thus far contain data and information that are very, very encouraging. We are excited!

I share with you, at this mid-term point in the year, the following exchange that I shared late last year with a young Native woman who is majoring in theater at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence , Kansas . Hopefully, you will read it as a kind of respectful pep talk, an encouragement, as we move ahead with the good work of creating Native American theater and performing arts. Aho, and have a wonderful summer.

Best, Hanay Geiogamah, Principal Investigator, Project HOOP

Dear Ms. Pushetonequa: Here are some brief responses to your list of questions:

1. How is Native theatre important in mainstream society?

I think most of mainstream American society is not aware that we have and are developing a theater movement in our tribal communities. But, really, how could they know? We don't have any playwrights who have made it to Broadway with an Indian drama. We don't have a large contingent of recognizable Indian actors -- stars, if you will. I think the first thing that needs to happen, before a larger presence and importance in the mainstream, is that we have to make Native theater very important in our communities, very important, very needed, very functional and synergistic, and very, very active. lt is possible to gain respect in the national American theater community for Native theater. I believe that there is a basic supportive attitude for all ethnic theaters in the theater community, but this support has to be directed toward something more tangible than what we Indians have now. We have to focus our efforts on the tangible, the real, however first or early stage it might be, and keep adding to the larger body with each step taken. There is no question that we have the creative ability, the creative energy required to do this. We must move forward sensibly and with confidence.

2. Can Native American theatre help change stereotypes? How?

Absolutely, our theatre can help us change stereotypes. A wonderful play which unravels a lot of Indian stereotypes is EVENING AT THE WARBONNET, by the leading Native playwright Bruce King. These are stereotypes which Indians have employed against one another. When a Native playwright succeeds in creating an original, honest, and dramatically effective character, he or she is helping to create new images of Indian people, new role models, new performances of life, and this kind of creativity is definitely anti-stereotypes. I think we have a lot of work to do to start the process of renewing our storytelling traditions and identifying and eliminating a massive collection of stereotypes, not just images but attitudes, beliefs, and misconceptions. This is a challenge for all Native playwrights, novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, all of our creative writers.

3. Similarities and differences between Native theatre and feminist theatre?

The work of many of the playwrights in ethnic theater communities centers quite a bit on issues of identity, the sources and validity of identity, on the rights and privileges and special characteristics of members of these communities, on the struggle to achieve and maintain acceptance and understanding in the larger mainstream community. There are numerous crossover issues and characteristics of style and performance in many of these diverse theaters, and this applies as well to the Native theater and the feminist theater: many common goals, many shared experiences, many of the same needs and conflicts.

4. Could Native theater be financially beneficial to their communities, and in what ways?

Definitely, no question about it. Example: In 1996, when we started Project HOOP, we conferred with Lionel Bordeaux, President of Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota . Lionel said that it had been a dream of his for some years for the Lakota people of South Dakota to create, stage and present an annual outdoor drama about the journey, struggles and triumphs of the Lakota people

in the Black Hills region, a production similar to UNTO THESE HILLS in Cherokee, N.C., and THE TRAIL OF TEARS at Tsa-La-Gi in Tahlequah, Oklahoma . Hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world visit the Black Hills every year, especially in the summer, and thousands of them attend the annual Passion Play production which is presented there. A Lakota-themed production on this scale could be a fantastic undertaking and could employ several hundred people, all Lakota, for as long as three months a year, which is a lot of performance time. And a lot of money could be made, a lot. There is really nothing to stop this from happening, somebody simply needs to organize planning, get it underway, get some funding, and move on from there.

On a smaller scale, a tribal community with a small theater facility could attract a lot of interested non-Indians with an exciting Indian theater production. This is not to say that a lot of money could be made here, but certainly some revenue could be generated, maybe if the performing arts production is connected to a nice tribal restaurant, gift shop/crafts center.

And many tribes have the talent to organize and present their own tribal dance theaters and to present the show in their performance venue and charge admission.

5. What's important to running a successful theater long-term?

A vision, of what the theater gives to the community, what it does to help the community live, grow, evolve, improve, and the upgrading and revising of that vision as it grows and matures.

A governing plan that will keep all selfish individuals, despots, self-seekers, egotists, unstables away from the decision-making process, including liars, swindlers, deluded dreamers, and phonies.

Faith in the creative artists who make the product, trust in their visions, support for their views, and a willingness to try new things, to be creatively adventurous, and not tied down to the strictly traditional and iron-clad adherence to the "old ways."

Keeping a constant, healthy, and responsible flow of financial support, ideally first and foremost from the tribe itself, available to the enterprise.

6. Where would a community theater receive its funding?

The tribes themselves much start supporting their creative artists. We have some financial resources now, especially the casino tribes. It really is galling to read that a gaming tribe in Southern California gives money to the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and not one penny to a Native American artistic project. This is not happening now, but we should unite and make sure that it will be happening real soon. The tribes have gotten away with not supporting their creative artists for long enough. An incredibly important resource is in need of support--now!

And there is always the NEA, though with not as much funding available as it once had, as well as state, county, city arts councils, various foundations, corporations that are willing to support something genuinely innovative and fresh.

7. Where does one hope Native theater will be in the future?

In every tribal community in the United States , and right now we are counting 540 tribes. All of them, regardless of how small, should have a tribal theater. One's imagination runs away here: There could be a circuit of hundreds of fabulous, funky Indian theater buildings/complexes/centers all over Indian Country. I think of the time in the early '70s when I walked all over New York looking for dozens of off-off Broadway theaters, all over the city. It was so cool, theaters in some of the most unexpected places, in converted storefronts and parking garages, lofts, many of them housing "hits".

I knew right then that this could and had to be duplicated in Indian Country. And, each one of these theaters will have a name. This can absolutely happen over the next 10 years, and if it doesn't, we Indian people will be failing ourselves.

9. Additional comments?

We all must keep the faith, and we all have to work very closely to make progress. We have to support one another, share, help out, volunteer, work for no pay, keep our imaginations in high gear, be thankful for our creative gifts, learn, acquire, study, rehearse, practice, be patient, and then add even more patience to that. The rewards will be fabulous: all kinds of shows, all over Indian Country, with Indians on those stages.

Aho, Hanay Geiogamah
Project HOOP Principal Investigator

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