Rhiana Yazzie
Core Writers 2009 // Jerome Fellowships 2010 // Core Writers 2010 // Core Writers 2011 // Core Writers 2012
Rhiana Yazzie is a Navajo playwright based in Minnesota. She is a Playwrights' Center Core Member and is commissioned by the Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Public Theater to write a play for American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle.
In the 2008/09 seasons, Rhiana will see the production of four new plays in the Twin Cities: Rainbow Crow, a commission by Stepping Stone Theatre for Youth Development in Saint Paul; Las Madres commissioned by Teatro del Pueblo for their 2009 Political Theatre Festival; Red Ink, a commission by Mixed Blood Theatre; and Ady, a commission by Pangea World Theatre. Rhiana received a 2008 Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Expressive Arts grant to develop Ady and it was a 2009 SPF finalist. Her next production is Chile Pod a Theatre for Young Audiences story commissioned by the La Jolla Playhouse, it toured in February of 2010.
Though originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Rhiana relocated to Minnesota from Los Angeles after receiving a Playwrights' Center Jerome Fellowship in 2006. She is also an award winning writer of plays for radio and for youth. Recently she was invited to workshop and present her play Wild Horses at the biennial Bonderman National Theatre for Youth Symposium at Indiana Repertory Theatre in March 2009. I n 2006 she was invited to The Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices theatre for young audiences residency.
She is the three time winner of the Native Radio Theatre annual new play contest; her TYA radio play The Best Place to Grow Pumpkins received an Honorable Mention at the ImagiNative Film Festival in Toronto for Best Radio. An appreciated voice in her community writing about the contemporary Native American experience, she was honored by "First Americans in the Arts" in Los Angeles, California, with an award for Outstanding Achievement in Writing in 2007.
A few of her other plays include Asdzani Shash: The Woman Who Turned into a Bear (finalist in the 2005 Bay Area Playwrights Festival; 1st annual Two Worlds Festival of Native American Theatre, 2008); The Long Flight (translated into Spanish and presented at the 30th World Congress of the International Theatre Institute - UNESCO in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico; and a 2002 finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Award); This Land Has Seen War Before was published in a 2008 anthology, Birthed From Scorched Hearts: Women Respond To War, edited by MariJo Moore that includes contributions from Amy Goodman, Paula Gunn Allen, and Matilde Urrutia.
Rhiana is also very active as a radio/audio theatre writer and director. In May of 2008, Rhiana directed and coordinated, Boozhoo and Waste Yahi From Minneapolis, A Native Radio Theatre Variety Show, which brought together over 20 regional Native artists on a nationally distributed radio program produced by Native American Public Telecommunications (Boozhoo and Waste Yahi are Ojibwe and Dakota words for hello, both tribes are indigenous to Minnesota). Rhiana was a co-host of KFAI's WomenSpeak and a frequent guest host of KFAI's Indian Uprising, a community affairs program targeted to the Twin Cities Native American and broader community. She is now a co-host of First Nations Radio that airs Sunday nights at 7pm (CST) on KFAI.
Some of Rhiana's plays are available published online in university libraries across the country through Alexander Street Press.
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Search for published plays by Rhiana Yazzie...
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Las Madres
A one act playDescription
An unexpected look at the story of Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo of Argentine through the eyes of their grandchildren and links the disappearance of children throughout the hemisphere from Argentina to Canada through government programs that removed indigenous children from their families.
An unexpected look at the story of Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo of Argentina through the eyes of their grandchildren and links the disappearance of children throughout the hemisphere from Argentina to Canada through government programs that removed indigenous children from their families.
This play was commissioned and first produced by Teatro del Pueblo at their 2009 Political Theatre Festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Wild Horses
A play for young audiencesDescription
Rose Mary, a 12 year old Tongva Native America girl from the big city of Los Angeles, takes a fantastic journey into her city's and family's history as she learns to trust her recovering alcoholic father again when he suddenly announces he's leaving for the summer to go tame wild horses in the desert. The play is brought to life through an ensemble of five actors, found object puppetry, and imaginative characterizations.
Rose Mary, a 12 year old Tongva Native America girl from the big city of Los Angeles, takes a fantastic journey into her city's and family's history as she learns to trust her recovering alcoholic father again when he suddenly announces he's leaving for the summer to go tame wild horses in the desert. The play is brought to life through an ensemble of five actors, found object puppetry, and imaginative characterizations.
This play has been invited to the 2009 Bonderman Playwriting for Youth National Symposium at Indiana Repertory Theatre and the Kennedy Center's 2006 New Visions/New Voices theatre for young audiences residency.
Asdzani Shash, The Woman Who Turned into a Bear
DescriptionAsdzani Shash, The Woman Who Turned into a Bear is a modernized retelling of a Navajo legend where a woman faces the choice of becoming an animal or remaining human.
Helen, a contemporary Navajo woman, lives on the edge of the reservation and works in a convalescent home for the aged. She desperately tries to navigate a world of thwarted love, abused elders, and the power of myth while discovering what it means to live, love, and die as an American Indian today.
Directed by MARION MCCLINTON
Featuring M. COCHISE ANDERSON, KIM DELFINA GLEASON, HARRISON LOWE, and JAMES RODRIGUEZ
The Long Flight
A one act playDescription
A fantastical tale of the redemption of a Navajo man and his world invisible to America.
A fantastical tale of the redemption of a Navajo man and his world forgotten by America.
This play was translated into Spanish and presented at the 30th World Congress of the International Theatre Institute - UNESCO in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico; and was a 2002 finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Award.
ADY
Download Script Sample
Description
A Lee Miller photograph of surrealist artists that includes a dancer from the West Indies naked to the waist is the jumping off place for this play. A contemporary Navajo woman relates the mostly unknown story of the surrealist muse Adrienne Fidelin, Ady. A play that reveals the woman in the photograph through the lens of race, history, and art.
Asdzani Shash, The Woman Who Turned into a Bear
A full-length playDescription
Based on a Navajo legend about a woman who turns into a bear, this play is the story of a young woman surrounded by elders that give her no guidance when an abusive ex-lover resurfaces in her life as she has to decide if she will remain human or become an animal.
Based on a Navajo legend about a woman who turns into a bear, this play is the story of a young woman surrounded by elders that give her no guidance when an abusive ex-lover resurfaces in her life as she has to decide if she will remain human or become an animal.
This play was read at the First Annual Two Worlds Festival of Native American Theatre in 2008 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and was a 2005 Bay Area Playwrights Festival finalist.
Rainbow Crow
A musical play for young audiencesDescription Based on a Lenape Native American story, the crow, once known for her beautiful voice and colorful feathers embarks on a journey to save her world from a new thing called "snow!" Along the way, she discovers that inner beauty and loyalty are more important than appearance.
Based on a Lenape Native American story, the crow, once known for her beautiful voice and colorful feathers embarks on a journey to save her world from a new thing called "snow!" Along the way, she discovers that inner beauty and loyalty are more important than appearance.
This play was commissioned by and premiered at Stepping Stone Theatre in Saint Paul, Minnesota in October 2008.
