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Stories From the Drum is an Indigenous-led performance born from the hearts and minds of the Native community. Created through a series of workshops developed and facilitated by Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota), Ty Defoe (Haudenosaunee, Six Nations/Anishinaabe Nation), Marisa Carr (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) and Jaida Grey Eagle (Oglala Lakota), this illuminating work features an all-Native cast from the Twin Cities. To top off the celebration with community, a pop-up market will showcase fine art by local Indigenous makers.

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ARTISTS', WRITERS, PERFORMERS

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Welcome Hand Drum Songs by Wakinyan & Thorne LaPointe (Lakota)

 

GRANDMA’S HAND DRUM Song #1 and Song #2

O'Gichidaakwe, Drum Group, Elder's Council Lodge

 

ANAAMIINDIM by Heidi Erdich (Anishinaabe)

Ernest Briggs (White Earth Band of Chippewa) and the Ikidowin Youth Theater Ensemble

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Intro and DEAR MY FUTURE SON

by Reuben "Kitto" Stately (Dakota, Anishinaabe & Oneida)

 

POW WOW SUMMER, Scene 1, 2, and 3, by Marisa Carr (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe)

Marisa Carr (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe), Isabella Star LaBlanc (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota), and Curtis Kirby (Ojibwe/Bois Forte)

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THE VISITOR by Lini Wilkins (Diné)

Lini Wilkins (Diné), Adrienne Zimiga-January (Ogalala Lakota), and Trisha Begay (Diné Nation)

 

BEAT BOX AND DANCER

Armando Segura (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) and Annastacia Cardon (Ojibwe/Leech Lake/Pilliager Band)

 

TOGETHER IN SMOKE by Isabella LaBlanc (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota)

Isabella LaBlanc (Ojibwe/Dakota)

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POW WOW STORIES #1 and #2 and #3 by Delinda "Oogie" Pushetonequa (Meskwaki)

Roy Taylor (Enrolled Pawnee, and Choctaw, Oklahoma) and Ernest Briggs (White Earth Band of Chippewa)

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TURTLE MOUNTAIN JIG 

TAP MY LITTLE DRUM

by Inez and Rhonda DeCoteau (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe)

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SPIRIT BEAR SONG

Jennifer Cortez (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) and Nalia Segura (Ojibwe/Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe)

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CHOKE CHERRIES FOR AJIDAMO by Marcie Rendon (based on a true story) (White Earth)

Roy Taylor (Enrolled Pawnee, and Choctaw, Oklahoma), Adrienne Zimiga-January (Ogalala Lakota), Annastacia Cardon (Ojibwe/Leech Lake/Pilliager Band) and Armando Segura (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe)

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THEY CAME TO DANCE PART 1 and Part 2 by Adrienne Zimiga-January (Ogalala Lakota)

Inez DeCoteau (Turtle Mountain Band Belcourt ND) and Sharon Day (Ojibwe) and the Ikidowin Youth: Mel Sanda Tucker, Nathan Berglund (Northern Cheyenne/Oglala Lakota), Nalia Segura (Ojibwe/Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), Annastacia Cardon (Ojibwe/Leech Lake/Pilliager Band), Joseph Santana (Lakota Sioux/Standing Rock), Armando Segura (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), Willow LaRoque (Ojibwe White Earth), Jennifer Cortez (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe)

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OUR SONGS HAVE POWER by Sharon Day (Ojibwe), directed by Curtis Kirby (Ojibwe/Bois Forte)

Ikidowin Youth Acting Ensemble: Mel Sanda Tucker, Nathan Berglund (Northern Cheyenne/Oglala Lakota), Nalia Segura (Ojibwe/Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), Annastacia Cardon (Ojibwe/Leech Lake/Pilliager Band), Joseph Santana (Lakota Sioux/Standing Rock), Armando Segura (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), Willow LaRoque (Ojibwe White Earth), Jennifer Cortez (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), Janet Sanchez (Leech Lake)

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CREATIVE TEAM of INDIGENOUS DIRECTION

Co-Directors, Ty Defoe ((Haudenosaunee, Six Nations/Anishinaabe Nation) 

Co-Director,  Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota)

Stage Manager, Katie "KJ" Johns (Bad River Ojibwe)

Lead Artist Pop-Up Market, Jaida Grey Eagle (Oglala Lakota)

Sound Designer, Peter Morrow

Lightening Designer, Wu Chen Khoo

Community Liaison, Marisa Carr (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe)

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TEAM of The GUTHRIE 

Producer, Daisuke Kawachi, Guthrie Producer, CE Assist

Produce, Rebecca Noon, Guthrie Producer, CE Dir. 

Production Manager, Tree O'Halloran

Project Instigator, Carra Martinez

Audion Technician, Joshua Savole

Sound Board, Matthew Koch

Light Board, Angelina Vyushkova

Stage Crew, Peter Artley

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ORIGIN STORY

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     We start by acknowledging that all of us, and the Guthrie, currently are on the stolen land of the Ojibwe and Dakota peoples. For centuries the Dakota and Ojibwe ancestors stewarded the land in the Twin Cities area and we offer my gratitude for the contributions and ongoing contributions to those sovereign nations, (on behalf of the Guthrie).

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      In summer of 2018, the Guthrie in collaboration with Indigenous Direction produced its first Native-centered performance, with the  Happening’s series, WATER IS SACRED. Guided by Indigenous Direction’s facilitators and artists Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota) and Ty Defoe (Haudenosaunee, Six Nations/Anishinaabe Nation), the creation of WATER IS SACRED centered around water and a decolonized theater-making process: water protectors, the grandmother lodge singers, the Indigenous Task Force’s Ikidowin Youth Group, and other local Native artists working together in community to craft an experience and performance featuring native voices, stories based in text, movement, and video. STORIES FROM THE DRUM is a continuation of these art-making and community-building processes.

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     STORIES FROM THE DRUM is more than the performance and the Native Market in the lobby. In practical terms, we offered a series of workshops throughout the year at the Division of Indian Work led by Defoe and FastHorse with Twin Cities community leaders Marisa Carr (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) and Jaida Grey Eagle (Oglala Lakota). In these workshops, community members created original material inspired by the Drum, a small portion of which you are seeing today. We participated in field trips to the Guthrie, where members of the Native community saw shows together with meals, post-show discussions, and tours. Defoe and FastHorse led a workshop with the entire Guthrie staff on decolonizing and indigenizing spaces and processes on Turtle Island and as it relates to the art of making theater.  STORIES FROM THE DRUM is countless conversations, dreams, surprises, and medicine for healing and celebrating this multigenerational, multidimensional, and multifaceted community. STORIES FROM THE DRUM fosters new relationships with essentially family, as we get to know one another in new ways and how we must ALL continue to be stewards of Mother Earth and each other. STORIES FROM THE DRUM is the result of many people realizing their complicity in our colonized society, and asking Indigenous people to lead in order to center their voices, which have been silenced for too long. STORIES FROM THE DRUM is just beginning of the Guthrie’s greater commitment to working with Native communities, which will lead us toward building more collective programming, hiring indigenous artists, and acknowledging the truth of our mutual history at every performance we do -- not just the ones specifically about Native people.

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      The land that the Guthrie continues to this day to be a place Indigenous people call home, a gathering space, and place of trade. As an organization we respect that many Indigenous people, including the Dakota and the Ojibwe Nations, continue to live and work on this island and give gratitude to their ongoing contributions to this area.

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      Those of us lucky enough to collaborate on STORIES FROM THE DRUM are full from this creative, community-growing process and we are hungry for more. Thank you for listening and thank you to everyone who works in the community everyday.

 

With you, we are many nations but, one circle.

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