blake kathryn
🩵 avery cochrane 🩵
No title available
PR's Tumblrdome
NASA
izzy's playlists!
Claire Keane
art blog(derogatory)
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
cherry valley forever
No title available
No title available
The Stonewall Inn
Cosimo Galluzzi
★
wallacepolsom
ellievsbear
Today's Document
noise dept.
gracie abrams
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
@amerinda
AMERINDA ArtMarket
AMERINDA ArtMarket is now open and we are excited to share this website with you. We have created a site where our contributing artists not only educate and illumine understanding of Native art but where one can also purchase select pieces. The limited edition prints are numbered and signed, the originals are one of a kind, and the installation art will put your mind to work. The contributing…
View On WordPress
About
Amerinda Talking Stick is modeled from a traditional medium of language and shared ideas that affect the Native American Indian artist throughout North America. The Op Ed pieces that appear on this blog have been approved for public release by our organization and we welcome the opinions of those who have a worthwhile contribution that does not denigrate the spirit in which deliver these…
View On WordPress
Summer Update and Success
Summer Update and Success
Now with the beginning of the summer season, we would like to take the time to acknowledge some successes and offer our thanks to the New York community for supporting American Indian Artists, Inc. (AMERINDA) and helping make our most recent events successful. First, congratulations are due to the five ladies – Melissa Staiger, Maria Hupfield, Nadema Agard, Athena LaTocha and Pena Bonita of “How…
View On WordPress
The Wooster Group's Humiliating "Redface" Practice Continues...
The production of ‘Cry Trojans’, based on Shakespeare’s play ‘Trolius and Cressida’, produced by the Wooster Group is a blight on the New York stage and reinforces the worst in Native American stereotypes known as ‘Redface’. After touring the production internationally since 2012, Diane Fraher, Executive Director of AMERINDA, and I discussed this matter with Elizabeth LeCompte, Founder and…
View On WordPress
Site Settings ‹ Amerinda - Talking Stick — WordPress.com
Site Settings ‹ Amerinda – Talking Stick — WordPress.com
Site Settings ‹ Amerinda – Talking Stick — WordPress.com.
View On WordPress
NO MORE REDFACE I hope you can join us for an important event on Monday about something that effects all Native artists regardless of their respective discipline…
Selling, Sell Outs, and Marketing of Contemporary Native Tribal Dramas and Comedies (Everything they didn’t teach me in theater, but learned a little from Buffalo Bill.) by William S. Yellow Robe, Jr.
Native Tribal Theater in America is at a very beginning stage as it moves into the realms of non-profit and profit theaters. There is a legacy of a lot of Native Drama written by Non-Natives and that were quite successful, Arthur Kopit’s “Indians” is an example. For the first time Native Tribal playwright there is a new ground that has to be broached that makes the young Native Tribal theater artist ask the question: “If I do this? Am I being disrespectful? Am I being insincere? Or am I being just another sell out?”
The other half of this reality are the non-profit and profit Non-Native Tribal theaters that are producing the work for their audience (which will mingle with the new attending Native Tribal audiences) must find the means to market the play in order to generate interest of grants, paying audience members, and subscribers. Herein lays the conflict.
Buffalo Bill Cody had tremendous success with his chat aqua shows when he introduced “Indians” in his shows, but real Indians. To put them on display and to make them part of his show he found success. The Native Tribal people he included were great leaders for many different Tribal Nations. Sadly, exploitation has a legacy in this country regarding Native Tribal peoples.
So how does one market this Native Tribal play to audiences, both Native Tribal and Non-Native Tribal people? Do you offer a smudging ceremony for the first fifty tickets holders? A wacipi for the season ticket holders? Do you do a naming ceremony for the Theater staff and Executive officers? This is a bit ridiculous, but it is in some ways what has been considered. I've heard discussion of such events being discussed.
Native Tribal theater, as does the communities it comes from, is based and related to one of the more older and sacred practices known and recognized by all Native Tribal people, Prayer. The former Red Earth Theater company would hold a ‘prayer circle’ for its company members before a show. The national tour of my play, “Grandchildren of Buffalo Soldiers” we, the cast allowed me, to do a prayer to begin the rehearsal process and even some of the performances. If you were invited to be a part of that prayer circle, again, it was an invitation to be a part of something that is very civil, honest, sincere, and intimate, but there is never a fee, nor was it advertised on any public flyers or announcements.
In past productions I have had invited guests to do a post show discussion of a production, but I would never advertise the membership of the panel. There have been some theaters that have done this, but that was their decision, and something I didn't agree with. The post-shows discussion is not an event of having those who are supposedly experts of theater to dominate and control the discussion. A post show discussion allows the Native Tribal community an opportunity to express their views, ideas, and feelings concerning the themes and issues of the play. It isn't about having a well trained ‘talking head’ to spout off and pontificate about what they know or to name drop their contacts. It is a chance to have a grandmother stand and say she is very moved by the play, or how proud she is to be a member of her Nation and this play reminds her of that fact (A true mark of success when the grandmother is not related to you or knows you).
In the relationship with grandparents, who are sometimes Elders, it is a wonderful happening to have an elder, or elders, attend your reading and performance and to have them participate is an extraordinary moment. Elders will help you if you request it of them because it is one of their responsibilities to ensure the well-being of the community. They should be given recognition and respected. Remember, they are not for public display or a marketing tool to promote your play. If you can humble yourself and discover that having an elder, or elders, at your event is unique because an elder, or elders, will spend the majority of their focus with their community but the fact they took the time to come to your event is a breathe of humility. Again, they are to be recognized and respected, not put in a display window, or parading to give ‘cultural posturing points’. In the post show discussion do give them a chance to share their voice. They might say what you might not want to hear which could be the very thing you need to hear.
There is no real entitlement with being a Native Tribal theater artist in America. You are very fortunate to be considered for a production, which are far and few between. There is a tremendous amount of responsibility. You have to balance career and community, but I have always chosen community. That’s why I’m always broke (aye!). I have never regretted my decision.
What should be marketed about the play? Well, for one, the fact it is being produced. For some theaters and community this is the first time. It is compatible to the first moon landing, or E.T. sighting (not the movie). This is where entitlement fools all of us. We assume we always had this process, or it has been waiting for us. This isn't true. A lot of times it is the first time. Failure is there, but success, and how you as an artist determine what success is, will help the outcome of the production. One element I've always had as a standard in my work is simply this: the work. I let the work stand for itself.
I've walked away from organizations and institutions when it seemed very underhanded, or as trickster says; “they want us to close our eyes and dance on the tips of our toes.’ A friend once told me about Native Tribal organization and I've used this statement as a rule to follow; “I never want to belong to an organization that uses its resources to attack other Native artists.” I've kept to that rule all my life. When it comes down to the bottom rung, or the first step of the path, you, as a Native Tribal theater artist, must take responsibility as to how your work, your play, is to be presented and how it is being marketed. It amazes me that at the Institute of American Indian Arts they offered a course in marketing and management. We need this in Native American Tribal theater as well.
The lines between being a sellout, selling, or expressing your voice with a tremendous amount of sincerity are very thin. It is like a good contest dance. When the drum stops, can you stop and hold your ground, or will you waiver and slip? There is something good about failure-you can learn from it.
For your time, Pinamaya.