For Off Broadway/Broadway American Indigenous or First Nations creatives
Native Musicals
Distant Thunder
https://distantthunderthemusical.com/
Darrell Waters, a brash young attorney, returns to his childhood home in Montana to broker a deal between a large energy company and the Blackfeet Nation. In the process, he is forced to confront his reclusive father about their painful past. Through a childhood sweetheart, Dorothy Dark Eyes, he rediscovers his identity and feels his perspective shift: his clever business deal will destroy her language school, further erode Blackfeet culture and taint their land. Darrell must grapple with the paradigm of being Native American in America.
Book: Shaun Taylor-Corbett and Lynne Taylor-Corbett
Music and Lyrics: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
Savage
The Unconquerable Wanda Savage.
Savage the Musical is a dramatic musical inspired by the life of 1920s Chickasaw sharpshooter and silent film actress, Wanda Savage told in part by her great granddaughter, Nicolette Blount. Savage is a powerful story of survival, the universal desire to be accepted and a quest for redemption. Wanda was an independent, widowed, biracial mother trying to raise her child and have a career in a time when women were just starting to have a voice, but Native women were still not heard. She struggled to fit in in the two very different worlds she was raised in, both on the tribe and outside. In the process of making a name for her self, Wanda faced oppression, racism, sexism, white washing and abuse. While Vaudeville exploited her Native identity, Hollywood tried to erase it. She was a modern woman who encountered issues that many women still deal with today. Wanda refused to embrace the stereotype of Native American women. Her story and struggles are as relevant now as they were when she experienced them 100 years ago, holding up a mirror to our society to see how far we have come…or not.
Book: Nicolette Blount and Lindel Hart
Music and Lyrics: Nicolette Blount
Plays
Accountability, A Tragedy
https://newplayexchange.org/plays/1769546/accountability-tragedy
A young Native woman is grappling with a recent loss in her family. A white empty-nester is desperate to atone for a mistake in her past. The two meet by chance and agree to build a Native focused charity together. As the company grows in power and influence, decisions are forced that conflict with the underlying purpose of their work. As everything comes to a head, the women are forced to confront the decisions they’ve made and the unintended consequences to the people they intended to help.
Written by Marty Strenczewilk
Four Women in Red
A 2023 Winner of the Los Angeles New Play Project Playwriting Award. To be produced at the Victory Theatre in Los Angeles, early 2025. Script available by request.
Synopsis: Four Native American women search for women in their lives who have disappeared. #MMIW
By Laura Shamas
Something Else
https://newplayexchange.org/users/60458/tomantha-sylvester
We follow Lucy, an incarcerated Ojibwe woman on death row, as she seeks connection in her final moments. Through song, dance, humor, community, light, and dark she unexpectedly finds freedom and truth.
By Tomantha Sylvester
Pink Man, or The Only Indian in the Room
https://newplayexchange.org/plays/1586775/pink-man
Pink Man is a semi-autobiographical journey of self-discovery that follows one American Indian as he battles tradition, stereotypes and himself. With mixed blood and white features, he faces constant internal and external struggles. As he revisits the formative stages of his life, we watch him grapple with expectations, self doubt, and finding acceptance.
The play utilizes Ojibwe traditions for storytelling while putting a clear focus on the various ways that our native American culture has been weathered away over time.
Being red is terrifying. Being white feels fraudulent. So, the Indian finds himself forced to live in the pink.
Written by Marty Strenczewilk