Wednesday, February 26, 1997
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Marcum Conference Center
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056
Topics
Speakers and panelists will discuss Native American women’s writing today, contemporary Native American theater, new directions in linking Native American and mainstream performance raditions, directing and producing Native American drama, and the role of libraries and archives in fostering Native American creativity.
- Diane Glancy, poet, novelist, playwright (Macalester College)
- Associate Professor of English, Macalester College, Minneapolis, MN; teacher, scholar, and reviewer of contemporary Native American literature; author of eight books of poetry, fiction, and plays; MFA (Univ. of Iowa); Native American. Prof. Glancy will speak on the contemporary Native American women’s voice. Her book of plays is titled War Cries (1995) and her most recent book is a novel, Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears (1996).
- Monique Mojica, playwright and performer (Toronto)
- Librarian, National Museum of the American Indian (a Smithsonian Institution), New York, NY; MLS; Native American. Ms. Kreipe de Montana will discuss the role of libraries, museums, and archives in preserving Native American culture and fostering creativity. Author of the Native American Almanac (1993), “Powwows” in Native Heritage (1995), and a play, “Harvest Ceremony.”
- Randy Reinholz, director of “Native Voices Festival” (Illinois State U)
- Native American actress and playwright, Calgary, Alberta. Daughter of Lisa Miguel of Spiderwoman Theater; has extensive contacts with Native American theater performers and writers in Canada as well as the U.S.; BA. Ms. Mojica will discuss current trends in women’s Native American theater and ways in which it is synthesizing mainstream theater craft with traditional Native American attitudes and performance. Publication: Princess Pocahontas and The Blue Spots (1991).
- Martha Kreipe de Montano, librarian (National Museum of the American Indian) and playwright
- Assistant Professor, Department of Theater, Illinois State University, Normal, IL; director of Native Voices Festival of plays (1994- ). Prof. Reinholz’s talk will give an overview of Native American theater today.
- Judy Lee Oliva, playwright (New York), moderator
- Professor of Theatre, CUNY Graduate School; President-Elect, Association of Theatre for Higher Education; Ph.D.; author of Feminist Spectator as Critic (1988), Presence and Desire: Essays on Gender, Sexuality, Performance (1993), and others. Prof. Dolan’s remarks will wrap up the conference.
- Jill Dolan, scholar and teacher, president-elect of ATHE (CUNY), respondent
- Playwright, New York; secretary, Association of Theatre for Higher Education; formerly on the Theatre faculty, Univ. of Tennessee. Ph.D.. Publications: David Hare: Theatricalizing Politics (1990) and New Theatre Vistas: Modern Movements in International Theatre (1996).
Many Voice Singers, Tuesday evening, February 25
Spiderwoman Theater, “Sun, Moon, Feather,” Tuesday evening, February 25
Murielle Borst, “Beyond Feathers and Beads,” Wednesday afternoon, February 26
The conference is part of a series of events inaugurating the Native American Women Playwrights Archive established in the Miami University Libraries in the fall of 1996. Dedication events are:
Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree conferred on Spiderwoman Theater
Exhibit of Spiderwoman Theater papers, King Library
Dedication of the Archive, Wednesday evening, February 26
The conference is sponsored by Miami University Libraries in cooperation with the Department of Theatre, the Women’s Studies Program, the School for Interdisciplinary Studies, and several other Miami departments and programs, and is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Ohio Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
