Chasing Honey
by Laura Shamas
- Characters
- All characters are Native American
- Sandy: female, college student
- Kai: Sandy’s mom/spirit, female
- Andrew: Sandy’s dad/spirit, male
- Mack: male, college student
- Heather: female, college student
- Len: male, college student
- Jimmy: Len’s dad, male
- Setting
- Time: Now. Place: Western U.S., Arizona, near border. And above.
90 minutes, no intermission. Area staging. The set can be completely open, with simultaneous staging, all elements onstage from start to finish, with levels and individual playing areas. - Summary
- A play about disappearance: of the bees, of ways of life, of culture, of family. In a college town in Arizona, Len, the son of a migrant Cherokee beekeeper, becomes involved with Sandy, a daughter of one of the Shadow Wolves. Because of Colony Collapse Disorder, Len and his father face the end of their migratory beekeeping business. Sandy and her father are challenged by domestic issues, insect dreams, and a mission related to terrorists. Identity and nature collide as Len and Sandy’s lives intertwine.
- Production history
- Chasing Honey was workshopped and presented in a public reading at the Public Theater’s Native Theater Festival, November 12-15, 2008.
Director: Alanis King. Artistic Director: Oskar Eustis.
Chasing Honey was workshopped and presented in a public reading as part of the Native Voices at the Autry 2008 Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays, June 22-29, 2008.
Director: Carla Nell. Dramaturg: Jacqueline Goldfinger. Producing Artistic Director: Randy Reinholz. Producing Executive Director: Jean Bruce Scott.
Chasing Honey was workshopped and presented in a public reading in “Weesageechak Begins to Dance XX” by Native Earth Performing Arts, Inc., Toronto, October 11-13, 2007.
Director/dramaturg: Lisa Ravensbergen. Artistic Director: Yvette Nolan.
Thanks to beekeeper Greg Clements, North Carolina.
-Synopsis written by the author.
