Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Orginal Publication Date
1981
Journal Title
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Volume
1
Issue
ess/vol1/iss1
First Page
10
Last Page
11
Abstract
This collection of plays is significant because it is the first Native American drama written by a Native American. Hanay Geiogamah, a Kiowa Indian, has been actively involved as a playwright (producing these plays in the 19705), has taught drama at the University of Washington, and has directed Native American theater in recent years (directing his own work, as well as other drama, at the La Mama Experimental Theater in New York and directing the Native American Theater Ensemble). This thin volume, New Native American Drama: Three Plays, was readied for publication only after each drama had been performed and sympathetically received by audiences and critics alike. Body Indian, Foghorn, and 49, the three plays in this series, represent a new art form for the theater, but the themes implicit in them are timeless, universal concerns for the Native American and for the student of literature. No doubt, the plays make good theater, intriguing and fresh, but they also present provocative, although sometimes disturbing, views of humanity. To gain insight into these themes, however, readers must devote themselves to understanding Geiogamah's characters, his unusual techniques, and his allusions to American Indian tradition. Once these elements are studied, the plays become richly suggestive and powerful.
Rights
Copyright, ©EES, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 1981