Native Voices at the Autry is taking its 2008 production of Diane Glancy's Salvage to participate in Origins, the UK's inaugural festival of First Nations Creative Art. Native Voices is the only U.S. theater company selected to participate along with three others from around the world. Native Voices directors, crew, and Salvage cast and playwright will join with groundbreaking artists from the Indigenous cultures of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand in London. The intercultural, multimedia company Border Crossings brings these artists together to explore First Nations experience in the twenty-first century through theater, film screenings, events, and participation at venues across London.
Native Voices Producing Artistic Director Randy Reinholz and playwright Diane Glancy will participate in panel discussions followed by seven performances of the play in front of an international audience. The play features the original Los Angeles cast, made up of Elena Finney, Noah Watts, and Robert Owens-Greygrass, under the direction of award-winning director Sheila Tousey.
"We are very honored to be taking Salvage to the festival and are looking forward to participating in panels and workshops. It‘s a wonderful opportunity to discuss Indigenous and Aboriginal theater with other Native and First Nations theater artists from around the world," said Reinholz and Native Voices Producing Executive Director Jean Bruce Scott.
Native Voices productions have traveled throughout the U.S., Canada, and Australia. This is Native Voices at the Autry's first invitation to England.
Schedule of Events May 9
Identity: Ethnic or Cultural? - A Panel Discussion
A discussion of what constitutes a First Nations identity, with Daniel David Moses, Yvette Nolan (Artistic Director, Native Earth Theatre), James Ashcroft (Tumuaki; Artistic Director, Taki Rua), Randy Reinholz (Choctaw; Producing Artistic Director, Native Voices), and others tba.
Venue 2: Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1D 3NE £3. Telephone: 020 7478 0100.
May 11
Native American Theatre: A Panel of Playwrights
What makes Native American theatre distinctive? How does it express traditional culture and relate it to the contemporary world? What are its main concerns today?
The panel includes Cherokee playwright Diane Glancy, Delaware playwright Daniel David Moses, Yvette Nolan from Native Earth Theatre, and the directors of the Huron-Wendat company Ondinnok: Yves Sioui Durand and Catherine Joncas.
Chaired by Prof. Helen Gilbert (Royal Holloway College, University of London). Presented by the Origins Festival and the Eccles Centre for American Studies, the British Library.
Venue 8: The British Library, Euston Road, London NW1. £6 / £4 concessions. To book, contact Origins Box Office at Riverside Studios. Telephone: 020 8237 1111.
Salvage by Diane Glancy
Cherokee writer Diane Glancy offers a picture of Native American culture battling to exist in the contemporary world. A man ruins another family's life in a car accident. As his own family becomes the target of revenge, his elderly father turns to the spirits and his devout wife turns to her God and the past.
"Native Voices at the Autry has a winner...inspired performances." - Variety
"...unfolds with a mythic inexorability that grips us right until the end" - LA Times
Performances of Salvage
May 12, 8 pm, Press event
May 12,13,14,15,16 at 8 pm
May 16 at 4 pm
May 17 at 5 pm
Actors: Elena Finney, Noah Watts, and Robert Owens-Greygrass
Playwright: Diane Glancy
Director: Sheila Tousey
Lighting Designer / Stage Manager: Craig Wolf
Executive Producers: Randy Reinholz, Producing Artistic Director, and Jean Bruce Scott, Producing Executive Director
May 17 - Closing Ceremonies
Riverside Studios
Crisp Road, Hammersmith London W6 9RL
www.riversidestudios.co.uk
www.originsfestival.bordercrossings.org.uk
