Larissa FastHorse talks about forthcoming play Urban Rez at Skid Rows Indian Alley. | Photo: Kevin Michael Campbell.
In partnership with Cornerstone Theater Company : Cornerstone Theater Company makes new plays with and about communities.
This article is the first in a series about Cornerstone Theater Company 's upcoming Hunger Cycle play, Urban Rez, a community -engaged production created in collaboration with members of the Native American community in Los Angeles. Urban Rez, written by Larissa FastHorse, an award -winning playwright and choreographer from the Sicangu Lakota Nation, reflects a contemporary story of urban Indians in Los Angeles through performances that examine the hunger that persists when culture, language, land and identity are denied.
Playwright Larissa FastHorse has worked to develop Urban Rez in response to her communitys specific challenges. Her desire is to provide an experience that blurs the lines between theater, culture, and education and to present the play at outdoor venues, connecting audiences with the lands of the Native people of the Los Angeles Basin. The artistic process began by interacting with indigenous peoples of Southern California and learning about their culture, issues, needs, and aspirations. The end result will be an immersive theater experience that unfolds as part of an interactive cultural fair, held outdoors this spring at the Los Angeles State Historic Park and Kuruvungna Springs.
This series will explore the play's development process from the perspective of community members and artists involved in the project. In this interview, FastHorse discusses Urban Rez and what it means to Hunger for Culture.
Photo: Paula Donnelly.
How does this play fit into a cycle of plays about Hunger and what was the catalyst for you to want to write this play now?
The Cornerstone ensemble approached me about writing a play for the Hunger Cycle, and at that point they had a topic that they were interested in having me write about. As the cycle went along, a couple of the other plays seemed to cover that topic and so they came back to me and said think about what you are interested in -- what about the topic of hunger interests you -- and let us know. As I was thinking and brainstorming; it was my husband who actually came up with the concept of Hunger for Culture and how it connected to the original people of the Los Angeles Basin. They are here -- have been here for thousands of years -- and yet have no claim to their ancestral lands, no claim to their own name even because the federal government has declared them extinct. There felt to me to be this huge hunger for so many things. At the same time, we are all living, and working, and doing this play on this land that actually belongs to someone else who has no ability to claim it -- which I found to be both tragic and a fascinating way of thinking about hunger.
I also think, Hunger for Culture is something that we can all identify with. We all are searching for who we are and the way we define that is continuously changing throughout our lives. We have this ongoing hunger and I wanted to use the story of the original people of the L.A. Basin and their very clear obvious hunger as a sort of mirror for us to be able to examine some of our smaller hungers about who we are and where we come from.
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Has that concept of Hunger for Culture resonated with the people you've met and interviewed for this project?
Yes. It has turned into something very universal. There is this massive industry right now serving people who are interested in learning about their DNA and their ancestry. People want to know who they are and where they come from. Especially in a city like L.A. where we are this incredible melting pot of cultures and yet people feel isolated and alone. We are looking for ways to connect to each other and to something bigger than ourselves. The people of the L.A. Basin -- the various tribes that have called this area home -- they have this direct link to that and they have held on to it. It's expressed not just through their DNA but through a shared culture that has survived despite three different countries trying to wipe them out. That survival and that strength speaks to everybody in different ways.
More specifically, it's been exciting to hear the different reactions and feedback from people that have heard the play or have been part of the process of creating the play, particularly people of the Los Angeles Basin. It's been very moving to be allowed to take their voices and add them to this play and try to express this incredible, and truly inconceivable, desire to exist. I honestly can't conceive of that being an issue, just trying to exist. Trying to be acknowledged for who you are. They fight this every single day, this invisibility, and it's been such an honor to bring that story forward and hopefully educate the rest of us -- including you and I both -- about that fight that's going on for people and how deep that hunger is.
How has the Cornerstone process of playwriting been different from how you might otherwise approach your writing?
It's the same and different at the same time. Because I come from a tribal background, that historically did not have a written language, I rely very heavily on oral history. When I do research as a playwright I depend on talking with people and I conduct a lot of interviews. Going through the Cornerstone Institute Intensive was incredibly rewarding as a playwright -- and as a human. For me, it was a formalization and deepening of a process that I was inherently doing and gave a whole other dimension to my work. This process really changes the way you do theater. I will say it kind of screws up making regular theater. It ruins just sitting at home and writing.
Urban Rez director Micha
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Larissa FastHorse talks about forthcoming play Urban Rez at Skid Rows Indian Alley. | Photo: Kevin Michael Campbell. 
