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ABORIGINAL PLAYWRIGHTS TAKE NEW YORK:
The Australian Aboriginal Theatre Initiative:
New Indigenous Voices Series
By Karen Oughtred, Artistic Director
[ Originally posted at http://www.carclew.com.au ]
For the past two years New York City's Off-Broadway scene has been enlivened by the voices of Australian Aboriginal playwrights and actors in a unique series entitled www.aboriginaltheatre.com and 2005. The Australian Aboriginal Theatre Initiative (AATI), based in New York, in collaboration with Australian and American theatres has hosted this innovative Staged Reading Series of new plays by Australian Aboriginal and Native American playwrights. Initiated as a vehicle for the sharing of expertise and an opportunity for Aboriginal and Native American artists to speak with their own voice, the AATI was founded in 2003 by Karen Oughtred. Its impetus was the desire to develop a theatrical dialogue between the indigenous peoples of Australia and the Americas and to expose American audiences to the high quality and rich diversity of contemporary Aboriginal theatre. A corollary is the raising of awareness of indigenous issues and the creation of a forum for discussion of Aboriginal theatre in the Australian context. Dedicated to non-traditional or blind casting, AATI also focuses on giving opportunities to talented Native American actors and directors to work with professional Aboriginal artists in order to strengthen global networks and foster international cross-cultural and intercultural exchanges.
Each year 4 - 5 plays by indigenous Australian and Native American writers are selected for the Series. To date all plays selected have already been extensively workshopped and had a performance run, however this does not preclude AATI considering plays by emerging artists. Funding is sought to allow each writer, accompanied by an Aboriginal actor, to come to New York for 8-10 days for rehearsals, educational workshops and performance. Off-Broadway venues including, New Dramatists, New Group, Culture Project, Drama Book Shop and the American Indian Community House are booked and the Series culminates at United Nations Headquarters during the annual Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The Series generally runs for 3 - 4 months, from March to May/June, with a single Staged Reading of each play.
In 2004, AATI collaborated with Immigrants’ Theatre Project (New York) (2003 Obie winner), Playbox Theatre (Melbourne) and Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Cooperative (Melbourne). This inaugural groundbreaking Series opened with a symposium at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian-Global Voices: A Cultural Exchange designed to facilitate a discussion on the commonality of experiences of indigenous peoples in the Americas and Australia, focusing on the issues of denial of land claims, forced removal of children from their families, inequalities in the prison system, and the loss of identity and culture. These issues were dramatized in the plays selected. Indigenous experts from both Australia and America, including Jadah Milroy (Palku), playwright Crowfire, Cochise Anderson (Chickasaw/Choctaw), playwright The Education of Benjamin Franklin, Russ Tall Chief (Osage), theatre scholar, John Scott (Iningai), Officer-in-Charge UN Secretariat to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues spoke on the issues that have affected and still affect the indigenous populations of both countries. The Reading Series, which followed the symposium, included 5 plays, each selected because it focused on a particular sociopolitical and cultural concern of contemporary Aboriginal people; Crowfire by Jadah Milroy (Palku) with Bryan Andy (Yorta Yorta), directed by Kaipo Schwab (Native Hawaiian descent) Yanagai! Yanagai! by Andrea James (Yorta Yorta) with Louise Bennett (Yorta Yorta), directed by Marcy Arlin, Artistic Director Immigrants’ Theatre Project, Box The Pony by Leah Purcell (Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka), Stolen by Jane Harrison (Muruwari) with Kylie Belling (Yorta Yorta), directed by Karen Oughtred and Conversations With The Dead by Richard Frankland (Gunditjmara) with Aaron Pederson (Arrernte), directed by Muriel Miguel (Kuna/Rappahannock) founder Spiderwoman Theater.
The Escape of the Potted Plant by Dawn Jamieson (Cayuga) directed by Henry Akona opened the 2005 program as the first play by a Native American writer included in the Series which also featured; Enuff by John Harding (Ku Ku, Meriam) with Lisa Maza (Meriam, Yingingi), directed by Karen Oughtred, Black Medea by Wesley Enoch (Noonuccal Nuggi, Quandamooka) with Rachael Maza (Meriam, Yingingi), directed by Harold Dean James and Casting Doubts by Maryanne Sam (Erub) with Isaac Drandich (Noongar), directed by Kaipo Schwab (Native Hawaiian descent). AATI collaborated again with Malthouse (formerly Playbox Theatre) and Ilbijerri to produce the Series.
Each Staged Reading is followed by a Post-Show Discussion with the writer, Aboriginal actor and invited indigenous panelists who included; John Scott (Iningai) who worked on the Indigenous Deaths in Custody 1991-96 and The Stolen Generation Reports, Fiona Foley (Badtjala/Fraser Island) renowned international visual artist and indigenous women’s activists Vera and Hortensia Colorado (Chichimec Otomi), Stephanie Betancourt (Seneca) from the Resource Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and contribute their own perspectives, via research and personal anecdotes, on the issues raised in the plays from Native American and Aboriginal points of view. The most positive outcome of this part of the program is the opportunity afforded indigenous people to speak with their own voice and initiate a formal international discussion on historical and social issues affecting their communities.
Once settled in New York, each writer and actor visit New York City public schools, universities and colleges to conduct workshops with Literature and Theatre classes about the styles, themes, and issues of their plays. Workshops generally involve a short dramatization of the play, followed by drama activities and discussions about writing, acting and social issues. These students (20-50 per play) are then required to attend the Staged Readings and write summaries of their experiences, applied to their own cultural contexts. Meetings are arranged with theatre professionals working in the field, university scholars and professors teaching theatre arts to share ideas and gain insights into the similarities and differences between the theatre scene in New York and Australia including; Alfred Priesser, Artistic Director, Classic Theater of Harlem, Ellen Stewart, Artistic Director, La Mama ETC, Neil Pepe, Artistic Director, Atlantic Theatre Company, Christian Parker, Director of New Play Development-New Dramatists, the Native American theater company members of Coatlicue and Spiderwoman Theater, university scholars and professors at New York University, C.W. Post College-Long Island University and La Guardia Community College. Other venues where the visiting artists presented were the Graduate Center-CUNY, the Australian American Literary Symposium and the Princeton Club-Inaugural Launch of the American Friends of NIDA.
New Indigenous Voices 2004 and 2005 have been extremely well received drawing large houses at each event. Audiences include theatre practitioners, secondary and college students, indigenous activists as well as main stream theatre goers who are looking for something different on the New York theatre scene. The program attracts a wide cross section of the public encompassing those with interests in the arts, anthropology, society, human rights, indigenous issues and Australia in general. Particularly pleasing is our reach to a large multicultural population from the outer New York City boroughs where many of the workshops are held.
AATI intends to continue its collaboration with Ilbijerri while forging new links with other indigenous theatre companies both in Australia and the Americas, while simultaneously developing and expanding its contacts with individual artists. AATI is seeking plays by new and emerging indigenous playwrights for its next season, March - May, 2006, and welcomes submissions of interest by emailing: koughtred @ aol.com. For further information please check out our website at: www.aboriginaltheatre.com
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