Native Playwrights Alpha Listing
Shamas, Laura
Talking Leaves
History play set in 1845. Tells the story of Sequoyah and the development of the Cherokee alphabet. Casting: 4 W 6 M. 1980 submission to the Five Civilized Tribes Museum: Playwriting Contest. Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Shephard, William H
Coyote Tales
Join Coyote on a journey of fact and folklore in tales that combine Native American mythology with a factual account of the effects of Manifest Destiny.
Shropshire, Lola (Cherokee)
Autumn Come Softly: Ehole Ahericet Vlakes
Drama in three acts. Casting 19 characters. A history play set in 1907. Submitted to the
Five Civilized Tribes Playwriting Contest.
Shorty, Robert (Dine)
Na-Haaz Zaan
Co-written with Geraldine Keams (Dine). The retelling of the Navajo creation story (1972).
Shorty, Sharon (Tlingit/Northern Tuchone)
Trickster Visits the Old Folks Home
Comedic Drama in one act. Casting 2.
Tells the story of Anna, an elderly Tlingit woman who must leave her life in the bush and move to a non-native old folks home. First produced by the Nakai Theatre, Whitehorse, Yukon, 1996.
Silverman, Jeffry Lloyd
Hands of Fire
Winner of the 1995 Alaska Native Plays competition.
Smith, Chad
The Gift Song
Modern character play. Casting: 7 players. Submission to the Five Civilized Tribes Museum: Playwriting Contest. Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Smith, Maureen
Cricket: A Romance in Three Acts
1978 submission to the Five Civilized Tribes Museum: Playwriting Contest. Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Spiderwoman Theatre
- Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel, Muriel Miguel
Power Pipes
Rever-Ber-berations
Sun, Moon, and Feather
Winnetous Snake Oil Show from Wig-Wam City
Spitler, Thomas, Jr. (Aleut-Qawalangin Tribe)
Shotridge
1992, winner of the UAA Alaska Native Plays Competition.
Staggs, Barbara Masterson
An Example
History play with a bibliography set in 1831-1833 Georgia. Casting 7 players. 1974 submission
To the Five Civilized Tribes Museum: Playwriting Contest. Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Tapahonso, Lori
Reservations
Drama in one act set specifically for high school aged students. This play explores the hidden realities behind the transition from the security of home on the reservation to the new world beyond the city limits and college life. Following Tonya, fresh out of boarding school, we find reservation life has done little to prepare her for the move urban life.
Taylor, Drew Hayden (Ojibway)
AlterNatives
Comedy in two acts. Casting 3 w 3 M.
First produced at Bluewater Summer Playhouse in Kincardine, Ontario, 1999.
Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth
Comedic Drama in two acts. Casting: 2 W 2 M.
Janice Wirth, a Native woman adopted and raised in the city, must come to grips with the death of her birth mother when her blood sister shows up at her condo with her boyfriend and her brother.
First produced in 1996 by Native Earth Performing Arts, Toronto.
Girl Who Loved Her Horses
Drama in one act. Casting: 2 W 2 M and 1 male dancer.
This play lures us deep into the imagination of shy little Danielle, a girl no one seems to know except for the magical horse she draws on the Everything Wall. Through art, dance, and the efforts of an unlikely trio who try to adopt her, Danielles imagination is unleashed for the briefest of moments.
The Baby Blues
Comedy in two acts. Casting 3 W 3 M.
Noble, an aging fancy dancer, finds himself at a powwow where the sins of his youth catch up with him and force him to re-evaluate his life.
A Contemporary Gothic Indian Vampire Story
Someday
Comedy Drama in two acts. Casting 3 W 1 M.
Anne Wabungs daughter was taken away by childrens aid workers when the girl was only a toddler. It is Christmastime 35 years later, and Annes yearning to see her now-grown daughter is stronger than ever. When the family is finally reunited, however the dreams of neither woman is fulfilled.
Education is Our Right
Bowwows from Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, in this version the spirits of education past, present and future attempt to show the Minister of Indian Affairs the error of his ways.
Pictures on the Wall
The Bootlegger Blues
Comedy/Farce in two acts. Casting 3 W 3 M.
Martha, a 58 year old church going woman who finds herself in possession of 143 cases of beer she must bootleg to raise money for the church. She also has to contend with the romantic activities of her tow children.
Tortonto at Dreamers Rock
One act. Casting 3 M.
A teenage boys magical encounters with two members of his tribe, one from four hundred years in the past and one from four hundred years in the future, make him aware of how little he has thought about what it means to be an Indian.
Agent: Aurora Artist, Janice Cheeseman, Toronto.
Thorsen, Dorothy
Timmons, Alice (Cherokee)
Nanyehi, A Beloved Woman
History play taking place 1740-1822, concerns the conflict caused by the encroachment of white settlers onto Cherokee homelands. 1974 Submission to the Five Civilized Tribes Museum: Playwriting Contest. Musakogee, Oklahoma
Tisdale, Dorothy-Jean
Be Something
Modern history play set in the 1930s and 1940s in a Northeastern Oklahoma college town.
1974 submission to the Five Civilized Tribes Museum: Playwriting Contest.
Tucker, Wallace Hampton (Choctaw)
At the Sweet Gum Bridge: A Play About Pushamataha
First place winner at the 1976 Five Civilized Tribes Museum: Playwriting Contest. Musakogee, Oklahoma.
Fire on Bending Mountain
Set in Muskogee at the turn of the century telling of the attempts to for their own state.
First place winner at the 1992 Five Civilized Tribes Museum: Playwriting Contest. Musakogee, Oklahoma.
Miccos War
1974 submission to the Five Civilized Tribes Museum: Playwriting Contest. Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Where Echo Calls
Modern setting. A conflict arises between a Choctaw and his boyhood friend who wants to use sacred land for a lakeside home development.
Tuhro, Melvin
Hear Me, My Ancestors
History play about the John Ross story. Casting 9 characters plus
Two-River, Donald E. (Ojibwa)
I believe that for non-Natives to perform a Native American play, they would first have to undergo a certain level of sensitivity training. In fact, I would require it for any of my plays.
- E. Donald Two Rivers
Chili Corn
Two acts. Casting: 4 characters, 1 setting.
Depicts the abuse directed against women
Coyote Sits In Judgement
One act. Casting: 3 characters, 1 setting.
Forked Tongues
Two acts. Casting: 9 characters, multiple settings.
A tale about three Native Americans from Chicago, who embark on a cross country trek to sell turquoise. Until Things go wrong and they are left trying to find a way home.
I Aint Tonto
No Honors Today
Old Indian Trick
Two acts. Casting: 6 characters, multiple settings.
Peeking Out Of Ameriks Museums
One act. One man show. Poetic play currently in production.
Pow-Wow Posse
Two acts. Casting: 7 characters, multiple settings.
Red Requiem-Political Intrigue On City Streets
Screenplay
Shattered Dream
Two acts. Casting: 10 characters, multiple settings.
Sunka Cheslie (The Urban Pile)
Survivors Medicine
Whats Buzzin Cousin
Two acts. Casting: 6 characters, 2 settings.
Production set for winter 2000, by Red Road Theatre, Chicago, Illinois.
Winter Summit
One act. Casting: 7 characters, multiple settings.
Velarde, David Jr.
Rez Mutts
Once act. First presented at the IAIA Second Annual Playwriting Festival, April 7-8, 1995 in
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Vizenor, Gerald
Ishi and the Wood Ducks
Post modern tale based on the life and death of Ishi, the last of his tribe.
First preformed by Red Path Theatre, Chicago, Illinois in 1995 at the Chicago Third World Convention. Directed by E. Donald Two Rivers.
Waller, Freida Ellaine
Hok-te-es-te Cate, Red Woman
Poetic drama, dialog. Twenty-two pages.
1974 submission to the Five Civilized Tribes Museum: Playwriting Contest. Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Watkins, Sherrin
Ceremonial Ground
1990 submission to the the Five Civilized Tribes Museum: Playwriting Contest. Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Way, Diane (Lakota/Cheyenne)
Tiospe
Weber, Marion Lynch (Cherokee)
The Rabbit Steals the Otters Coat
The First Fire
Webster, Teri
Williams, Wende O. (Dine)
The Indian Game Show
Satire. Casting: 3 W 7 M plus. Setting present day at the KREZ TV channel 23 soundstage in Gallup, New Mexico. First presented at the IAIA Third Annual Student Playwriting Celebration, April 11-14, 1996, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Woods, Nancy Paul (Ojibway)
I Hate White Girls
Worn, Staff, Sadie (Chiricahua Apache)
The Tribes of Dawn
Winter Moon Majic
Shadow Warrior
Yazzie, Rhiana (Dine)
Sunshine Superman
Staged reading by Wakiknabe Theatre Company, 1999. Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Yellowrobe, William S. Jr. (Assinibone-Sioux)
Playwriting, and all other art forms, are political when People of Color do it because we empower ourselves; we take control of our past and present and future. - William S. Yellowrobe
Wakiknabe Intertribal Theatre Company
The Breaking of Another Circle
A Christmas Story On The Res
The Uncles of Christmas
The New Forest Order
Mommas Song
Something To Do
A Coyotes Tale
The People
A Great Thing
The Pendleton Blanket
Taking Aunty to the Wake
My Walks With Grandma
The Council
A Broken Bottle, A Broken Family
Wink-Dah
The Star Quilter
The Body Guards
The Independence of Eddie Rose
A Stray Dog
Sneaky
Zitkala-Sa (Yankton Sioux)
A.K.A. Gertude Simmons Bonnin
The Sun Dance
Opera
