Native American Performers and Creatives

[StardustsChild]

Posted: 11/18/20 at 1:24pm

Hi all,

As November is National Native American History Month, I have been making an effort to engage deeper with art made for and by Native Americans. Of course I have figures like Will Rodgers (Cherokee), John Trudell (Dakota), and Wesley Studi (Cherokee) on my list, but I have hit a serious snag in finding Native people involved in the theatre - if you have recommendations, please share them here! 

(I'm not looking for white people playing Native roles a la Jerry Mitchell in Will Rodgers Follies)

[¿Macavity?]

Posted: 11/18/20 at 2:17pm

Look into Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska. They produce and workshop tons of works by Native Alaskans. They also produce well-known plays and musicals. They were supposed to co-produce Snow Child with Arena Stage, I believe, but something didn't work out.

[Anakela]

Posted: 11/18/20 at 3:03pm

New Native Theatre in MN. 

Native Voices at the Autry in CA. 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 11/18/20 at 3:09pm

Larissa Fasthorse (Sicangu Lakota) is a playwright and choreographer. Her play The Thanksgiving Play made her the first Native playwright to have written one of the top ten most-produced plays in America.

[Anakela]

Posted: 11/18/20 at 4:17pm

Also, this is from 2018, but here's a great piece from American Theatre on Hawai'i and Alaska Native theatre:

Indigenous States

part of a larger Staging Our Native Nation piece which was that month's issue.  

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 11/18/20 at 4:22pm

Thank you for that info, Anakela, much appreciated. 

[A Director]

Posted: 11/18/20 at 4:38pm

A List of Native Theatres and Theatremakers

Resources, institutions, and more than 100 artists spanning North America.

 

BY AMERICAN THEATRE EDITORS

This list of Native American theatres and theatremakers was compiled in part by Madeline Sayet, with suggestions from Randy Reinholz and with help by Jerald Raymond Pierce.

 

Native-run theatre companies:
Amerinda (American Indian Artists) Inc. (NYC)
Dark Winter Productions (Alaska)
The Eagle Project (NYC)
Native Voices at the Autry (L.A.)
New Native Theatre (Twin Cities)
Oklahoma City Theatre Company’s Native American New Play Festival
Raving Native Productions (Twin Cities)
Red Eagle Soaring (Seattle)
Safe Harbors Indigenous Collective (NYC)
Spiderwoman Theater (NYC)
Thunderbird Theatre (Kansas)
Turtle Theatre Collective (Twin Cities)
Two Worlds Theatre (New Mexico)

 

Other producing organization and university resources:
Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)
Project HOOP at UCLA (dir. Hanay Geiogamah)
Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (dir. Mary Kathryn Nagle & Reed Adair Bobroff)

 

Writers/theatremakers:
Ishmael Angaluuk Hope (Iñupiaq/Tlingit)

Alani Apio (Native Hawaiian)

Jules Arita Koostachin (Attawapiskat, Cree)

Annette Arkeketa (Otoe-Missouria)

Jaisey Bates (Longhouse Huron, Algonquin)

Nick Bear (Penobscot)

C.W. Bearshield (Sicangu Lakota)

Diane Benson (Tlingit)

Columpa Bobb (Tsleil Waututh/ Nlaka’pamux)

Reed Adair Bobroff (Navajo)

Murielle Borst-Tarrant (Kuna/ Rappahannock)

Ed Bourgeois (Mohawk)

Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki)

Margaret Bruchac (Abenaki)

Candice Byrd (Cherokee/Quapaw/Osage)

Julie Cajune (Salish)

Marisa Carr (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe)

Lee Cataluna (Native Hawaiian)

Monica Charles (Klallam)

Vic Charlo (Salish)

Dillon Chitto (Mississippi Choctaw/Laguna/Isleta Pueblo)

Marie Clements (Métis)

Montana Cypress (Miccosukee)

Maulian Dana (Penobscot)

Joseph Dandurand (Kwantlen)

Nora Marks Dauenhauer (Tlingit)

Daystar, a.k.a. Rosalie Jones (Pembina Chippewa)

Ty Defoe (Oneida/Ojibwe)

Darrell Dennis (Secwepemc)

Carolyn Dunn (Muskogee Creek, Seminole, Cherokee)

Ed Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock-Nez Perce)

Steve Elm (Oneida)

Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota)

Lori Favela (Yankton Sioux)

Stephanie Fielding (Mohegan)

Charli Fool Bear (Yanktonai Dakota)

Eric Gansworth (Onondaga)

Hanay Geiogamah (Kiowa/Delaware)

Diane Glancy (Cherokee)

Kim Delfina Gleason (Navajo)

Terry Gomez (Comanche)

Moses Goods (Native Hawaiian)

Jason Grasl (Blackfeet)

Tammy Haili`opua Baker (Native Hawaiian)

Joy Harjo (Muskogee Creek)

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee)

Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibway)

Lance Henson (Cheyenne)

Tomson Highway (Cree)

Linda Hogan (Chickasaw)

Philip Hooser (Choctaw)

LeAnne Howe (Choctaw)

Claude Jackson Jr. (Pima/Hopi)

Dawn Jamieson (Cayuga/Iroquois)

Terry Jones (Seneca)

Frank Henry Kaash Katasse (Tlingit)

Aassanaaq Kairaiuak (Yup’ik)

Margo Kane (Cree-Saulteaux)

Ajuawak Kapashesit (Ojibwe/Cree)

Bruce King (Oneida)

Martha Kreipe de Montaño (Prairie Band Potawatomi)

Donna Loring (Penobscot)

Nancy McDoniel (Chickasaw)

Gloria Miguel (Kuna/ Rappahannock)

Muriel Miguel (Kuna/ Rappahannock)

Duane Minard (Yurok, Piaute)

Kohl Miner (Ho-Chunk)

Sam Mitchell (Yaqui)

Monique Mojica (Kuna/Rappahannock)

N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa)

Vicki Lynn Mooney (Cherokee)

Tara Moses (Seminole)

Jay B. Muskett (Navajo)

Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee)

Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl (Native Hawaiian-Samoan)

Michael Nephew (Cherokee)

Judy Lee Oliva (Chickasaw)

Robert Owens-Greygrass (Lakota)

Richard Perry (Yup’ik)

PJ Prudat (Métis/Cree/Saulteaux)

Kalani Queypo (Blackfeet)

Vickie Ramirez (Tuscarora)

Randy Reinholz (Choctaw)

Marcie Rendon (White Earth Anishinabe)

Mark Anthony Rolo (Chippewa)

Lucas Rowley (Inupiaq)

Madeline Sayet (Mohegan)

Laura Annawyn Shamas (Chickasaw)

Kim Snyder (Oglala Lakota)

Vera Starbard (Tlingit/Dena’ina Athabascan)

Arigon Starr (Kickapoo)

DeLanna Studi (Cherokee)

Cathy Tagnak Rexford (Inupiaq)

Xemiyulu Manibusan Tapepechul (Salvadoran Nawat)

Maya Torralba (Kiowa)

Joseph Valdez (Navajo)

David Velarde Jr. (Jicarilla Apache)

Rhiana Yazzie (Navajo)

Dianne Yeahquo Reyner (Kiowa)

William S. Yellow Robe Jr. (Assiniboine)




 

[Nicolette Blount]

Posted: 5/19/25 at 6:57pm

Native Creatives: Nativetheatreartists.com lists lots of Native creatives.
Nicolette Blount (Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow) Composer, lyricist, book writer, performer, producer.
Brooke Simpson - performer
Sky Lakota Lynch - performer
Kimberly JaJuan -performer, producer
Debra Walton - performer, artistic director, producer

Native musical: savagethemusical.com About a real Native women in the 20s, Chickasaw Wanda Savage. who was on Vaudeville and in silent films, currently in development but has music streaming and over 10K social media followers. Book, lyrics and music by her Chickasaw great granddaughter Nicolette Blount (Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow). 

Updated On: 5/19/25 at 06:57 PM

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 5/19/25 at 9:26pm

Lynn Riggs (playwright for Green Grow the Lilacs) was Cherokee I believe.  More tangential to theater but Maria Tallchief has also had a huge amount of influence in ballet.