by: Eva Thomas
January 27, 2008

LOS ANGELES CA - Creating a space for young artists to find their voices, Native Voices at the Autry is doing brilliant work with the Young Native Voices: Theater Education Workshops. Now in its seventh year, Young Native Voices has provided workshops and residencies for American Indian youth.

Native Voices at the Autry is a professional Theater Company located in Los Angeles devoted to developing new scripts by Native writers. It is housed at the Autry Museum - a destination for many school-age children.

”Working closely with the Southern California Indian Center,” said Native Voices artistic director Randy Reinholz, Choctaw, ”We wanted to develop something for the young people here in LA.”

The Theater Education workshops encourage young American Indians to explore their stories and share their experiences through the art of playwriting. To date, 45 new plays have been written by young playwrights as part of the project.

In January, six playwriting classes were taught over three weekends. The young playwrights were paired with professional mentors for an intensive playwriting workshop which concluded in a staged reading of their plays. In this year’s program, there were 15 kids ranging in age from 9 - 18.

”The key is the mentors,” said Bryan Davidson, Young Native Voices national coordinator. ”They really take the role of guiding the young playwrights, encouraging them and even nagging the kids to write.”

One of this year’s mentors was actor and writer Robert Greygrass, Lakota. ”The kids were bright and creative. It was fun to watch them develop their stories, to see the light bulbs go off in their heads and their excitement to write.”

”The mentors are successful in the areas of film and theater,” Davidson said. ”They really serve as a model for what these kids can do and what they can be.”

On Jan. 26, a full-house attended the 2008 Young Native Voices Festival where the Native youth showcased their work. Topics of this year’s plays included falling in love, getting along with one’s family, creation stories, stories about identity and even the high school dance. Excerpts of the plays were performed by professional Native actors.

Actress Yvonne Fisher, Cherokee, performed in this year’s Young Native Voices Festival. ”My favorite part is feeling like I contribute to making the characters come alive,” Fisher said. ”Before their plays are read, the young playwrights are so nervous and insecure about their work; but when the audience laughs, the kids become elated because the audience gets it.”

This year, Young Native Voices teamed with CANOE (Composer Apprentice National Outreach Endeavor), the First Nations Composer Initiative, to present a concert of new works by four Native student composers. The young composers in the CANOE program were also paired with musical mentors.

After each play or musical selection was performed, the young playwright or musician stood for acknowledgement with a big round of applause.

”Now is a good time to make art, to tell the world how you feel about things,” said Raven Chacon, Dine’ - First Nations Composer Initiative mentor.

Paula Starr, Cheyenne, executive director of SCIC, attended the 2008 Young Native Voices Festival. ”It was wonderful to see the way the kids opened up; to unveil themselves, their emotions,” Starr said. ”It was very raw. The kids also incorporated music and theater with elements of traditional stories and traditional instruments. It was so beautiful.”

Speaking to the audience, Davidson said, ”The large turnout today proves that the voice and the creativity of these young people matter.”

”Here in L.A., we are lucky to have Native Voices at the Autry,” Starr added. ”They really get it. They understand that it is important to tell our own stories and to train the next generation of artists.”

In 2005, Young Native Voices expanded outside the Los Angeles area with the Reservation Outreach. That year, Native Voices theater artists were in residence at the Coeur d’Alene Schitsu’umsh Reservation in Idaho, working with students to create and perform ten 10-minute plays.

In 2006, they were in residence for a month at the Sycuan Reservation in San Diego County, where they worked with 37 students from the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation. Students participated in theater workshops and created a full production of three traditional Kumeyaay stories featuring Kumeyaay language, song and dance.

”Mostly, you feel really proud of the kids,” Reinholz said. ”Their evolution from the time they first get here to the final presentation is remarkable. Many of them arrive a bit shy; but by the end of the program, all the young artists essentially say in front of 200 people: ‘This is what I think and this is who I am.”’

© 1998 - 2008 Indian Country Today.

Posted on February 27th, 2008 by hunwut
Filed under: Museum