Playwright, Lawyer and Cherokee Citizen to Discuss Native American Theatre
Noon Thursday, April 19, 2018
New Time! Due to weather-related travel issues, the Scholars' Convocation will begin at noon.
Mary Kathryn Nagle, a nationally acclaimed playwright, partner at Pipestem Law Firm PC, and executive director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program, will discuss her work and Native American theatre on Friday, April 20, 2018. The free and public event will begin at 4 p.m. in the Wall Performance Lab.
This event will follow Nagle’s Scholars’ Convocation Lecture, “Sovereignty in the Law, Sovereignty of Our Stories,” at noon, April 19, in Rosenfield Center, Room 101.
It will feature a question-and-answer session with Nagle and student-created stage and media pieces drawn from Nagle’s plays titled Sovereignty, Miss Lead, Sliver of a Full Moon, and My Father’s Bones, co-written with Suzan Shown Harjo.
Students in Grinnell College’s Native Performance and Media course, taught by Jen Shook, Grinnell Mellon Fellow with Digital Bridges for Humanistic Inquiry, will present their work. Then, in conversation with Shook, Nagle will discuss the landscape of contemporary Native American theatre and her own work in theatre, law, and policy, in the context of students’ scenes.
“Mary Kathryn Nagle’s current success demonstrates that we are at a tipping point for recognition of Native American performance. People interested in the theatrical production process will get a glimpse inside her experiences as a Native woman playwright,” Shook says.
“At the same time,” Shook adds, “her work as a lawyer as well as a writer grapples with the most pertinent of political and legal issues for Native peoples today, from environmental protection to violence against women. She’s in the thick of the fights, and has the powerful storytelling voice to share the struggles and celebrate the victories of survival.”
A native of Oklahoma City, OK, Nagle is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She has significant experience in constitutional law related to federal Indian law. Her law firm, Pipestem, is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the sovereign rights of tribal governments and improving the lives of Native people.
In addition to her legal work, Nagle is an award-winning playwright and 2013 alumna of the Public Theatre’s Emerging Writer’s Group. Nagle’s play Manahatta was performed as a staged reading as a side-event in the 2013 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous People and is currently in a full production run at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Arena Stage recently commissioned and produced Nagle’s Sovereignty, a play that examines history, treaties, and the prosecution of sexual violence.