NATIVE VOICES AT THE AUTRY PRESENTS: INDIANS IN A BOX
Indians in a Box: Stories From the Indian Boarding School
Keisha Raines
323.495.4370
[email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Native Voices at the Autry Presents: Indians in a Box
Featuring three original plays at the Hollywood Fringe Festival
Performances on select dates June 6–28
Lounge Theatre, Hollywood
Los Angeles, CA (June 4, 2015)— Native Voices at the Autry, America’s leading Native American theatre company, presents Indians in a Box at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. The annual, open-access, community-derived event celebrates freedom of expression and collaboration in the performing arts community.
Participation in the Hollywood Fringe is completely open and uncensored. This free-for-all approach underlines the festival’s mission to be a platform for artists without the barrier of a curative body. By opening the gates to anyone with a vision, the festival is able to exhibit the most diverse and cutting-edge points-of-view the world has to offer. Additionally, by creating an environment where artists must self-produce their work, the Fringe motivates its participants to cultivate a spirit of entrepreneurialism in the arts.
Tickets for Indians in a Box performances are $12 and can be purchased online at http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/ or by calling 323.469.9988. Lounge Theatre is located at 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles 90038.
Featured Plays
(1) Stories From the Indian Boarding School by Native Voices Artists Ensemble
Based on first person narratives, videos and historical documents, this collection of stories depicts the reality and repercussions of the American Indian Boarding School system from the late 1800s to the present, the effects of which can still be felt today.
Native Voices Artists Ensemble (Creator and performers)
For the 2014-2015 season, Native Voices at the Autry established the Native Voices Artists Ensemble to further advance the extraordinary talents of its community of Native actors, writers, musicians, and directors. The Ensemble is devoted to developing new work in a collaborative process and supporting Native Voices’ ongoing focus on the work of individual playwrights. The Ensemble also facilitates reservation outreach and allows Native Voices to make a unique contribution to the fast-growing ensemble theatre form.
Robert Vestal (Cherokee) (Director) graduated from the University of Chicago and has been an actor for almost 20 years. He co-founded the Native American comedy troupe The Mayflower Welcoming Committee. His writing/directing credits include The Bullfrog Lover, an audio play produced by Native Radio Theater at Cherokee High School on the Qualla Boundary, The Key to the Fourth Wall, Reservoir Logs, Jerry, and I Know What You Did Last Spring Break. He also directed Wondering in Aliceland, Holding, and Serra Springs at Native Voices. Rob is a Lead Artist in the Native Voices Artists Ensemble and has been a part of Native Voices since 2002. His TV/film credits include ER, It’s All Relative, and the award winning film, No Turning Back.
Performances:
Saturday, June 6, Noon
Sunday, June 7, 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 13, Noon
Sunday, June 28, Noon
Tickets: HollywoodFringe.org
(2) There Is No “I” in NDN by Jennifer Bobiwash (Ojibway)
Wanda must reconcile her life, heritage and the legacy of her father and chief, to discover just what it means to be a modern NDN in this hilarious and personal show.
Cast and Creative Team
Jennifer Bobiwash (Ojibway) (Actor and playwright) a First Nations actress, writer and producer, hails from “a tiny tipi in Canada,” and came to Los Angeles to act in local theater and film. She created the YouTube channel Welcome to the Tipi, on which she and her co-host, Geraldine Chases-her-Tail, share their stories about being NDN in today’s society. A technophile, Bobiwash jumped at the chance to make her own content in the infancy of YouTube and has since produced more than 300 episodes of online content for her channel. She has also guest starred in APTN’s (Canada) Mohawk Girls. Bobiwash currently resides in Burbank.
Robert Vestal (Director) see bio above.
Performances:
Sunday, June 7, Noon
Saturday, June 13, 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, June 17, 2:00 p.m.
Tickets: HollywoodFringe.org
(3) Little Big Joe the Bug Squasher by Joseph Valdez (Navajo)
A little boy with a superhero imagination, Little Big Joe takes us on his quest to find love in his run-down apartment complex. All seems right until he encounters his nemesis—stinky, slimy bugs! The boy’s imaginative powers fail him as he discovers a darkness deep within his apartment walls. Can he save the world? Can he save himself? Or will the bugs conquer the day?
Cast and Creative Team
Joseph Valdez (Navajo) (Playwright and performer) received the Presidential and National Hispanic Scholarships to study theatre at the University of Southern California. He has written three plays: Little Big Joe the Bug Squasher, Swimming to China in My Birthday Suit, and Timestop. Little Big Joe and Swimming to China both premiered at the Powerhouse Theatre as part of the first two What’s the Story? festivals. Timestop was workshopped by Theatricum Botanicum’s Seedlings playwriting development series and during the Native Voices 17th Festival of New Plays at The Autry and La Jolla Playhouse. Valdez is also an actor and starred as Allessandro in Ramona, California’s Official Outdoor Play.
Elizabeth Frances (Cherokee) (Director) received her BFA from CalArts. Her recent projects include Off the Rails (Native Voices World Premiere), Drunktown’s Finest (2014 Sundance Official Selection), The Frybread Queen (Native Voices World Premiere), The Lunacy Commission (Kirk Douglas Theater), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), Julius Caesar (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), Detained in the Desert (Casa 0101), Tombs of the Vanishing Indian (reading with Native Voices at the Autry), Hamlet (Directed by Lenka Udovicki), Songs and Dances of Imaginary Lands (Directed by Olan Jones), and the Soltanoff/Findlay Project (Center Theater Group).
Performances:
Saturday, June 6, 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, June 17, Noon
Sunday, June 28, 2:00 p.m.
Tickets: HollywoodFringe.org
About Native Voices at the Autry
Native Voices at the Autry is America’s only Equity theatre company devoted exclusively to developing and producing new works for the stage by Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nations playwrights. Founded in 1994 by Producing Artistic Director Randy Reinholz (Choctaw) and Producing Executive Director Jean Bruce Scott, Native Voices became the resident theatre company at the Autry National Center of the American West in 1999. The 2014–2015 season celebrates the company’s 15th year at the Autry and its 20th anniversary advancing Native theatre. This season the company established the Native Voices Artists Ensemble to advance and engage the extraordinary talents of its Native actors, writers, musicians, and directors. The Ensemble is devoted to developing new work in a collaborative process as well as supporting Native Voices’ ongoing focus on the work of individual playwrights. Native Voices at the Autry is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, LA Stage Alliance, and the Dramatists Guild, and is a Constituent Theatre of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre. Visit TheAutry.org/NativeVoices for more information.
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EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE: CALENDAR LISTING
WHO: Native Voices at the Autry, America’s leading Native American theatre company
WHAT: Indians in a Box at the Hollywood Fringe Festival
WHEN: Select dates June 6–28
PERFORMANCES:
Stories From the Indian Boarding School
Saturday, June 6, Noon
Sunday, June 7, 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 13, Noon
Sunday, June 28, Noon
There Is No “I” in NDN
Sunday, June 7, Noon
Saturday, June 13, 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, June 17, 2:00 p.m.
Little Big Joe the Bug Squasher
Saturday, June 6, 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, June 17, Noon
Sunday, June 28, 2:00 p.m.
WHERE:
Lounge Theatre
6201 Santa Monica Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90038.
TICKET PRICES:
$12 / Reservations Recommended
INFORMATION:
HollywoodFringe.org
IMAGES ARE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
