Join us for a great night of theatre, as we present a staged reading of a new ten-minute play by Justin P. Lopez (Mapuche) followed by a staged reading of a new full length play by Steve Callahan (Osage).
New Year’s Purun - “Come on, just one dance!” 16-year old Taiel just needs one successful Purun dance in order to fulfill his duty of becoming a traditional tribal healer... and finally getting the homophobic bullies at school off his back. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get the dance quite right. Helped by his cousin Aliwen and the ancestors, A New Year’s Purun is a coming-of-age play about young Mapuche natives in urban Chile by Justin P. Lopez.
The Counting of the Heads - The Counting of the Heads is an Osage romance. Will and Annie love one another, but is that enough to keep an Osage man and a white woman together in Oklahoma in 1906? Will and his non-Native wife Annie have separated, leaving the enrollment status of their four children in question. Their unexpected reunion at the first Osage tribal census (“the counting of the heads”) in June, 1906 reignites their feelings for one another, but leaves open the question of a reconciliation. Steve Callahan has given us a realistic drama about passion, partnership, and parenthood, based on his own family history.