“Native American Voices” completes the Adobe Theater’s online series with five short plays written, directed and performed by Native people.
The works are all 15 minute comedies and dramas, available from Aug. 13-Aug. 22. Kim Delfina Gleason, Stanley Shunkamolah and Jay Muskett directed.
Albuquerque Theatre Guild board member Gleason will helm “Cashed Out” by Claude Jackson, Jr. A woman with a gambling addiction agrees to stop after she wins big. Her Auntie and her daughter want to believe her. Set on the Navajo Nation, the play features a cast of three.
“She’s smart and she’s not someone off the streets,” Gleason said.
The woman’s daughter, Maya, and her Auntie decide it is better for them to let go and accept her the way she is.
“As Native people, we always accept each other as mothers and sisters,” Gleason said. “It’s a lovely moment. She wins a lot of money, she’s bringing it home and they don’t want it. It’s her they want.”
Jackson’s “They Shoot Basketballs, Don’t They?” concerns an NBA scout called to the reservation to look at a potential player. When locals point out the 5-foot-five female athlete, the scout laughs. Jackson originally wrote the athlete’s role as a male.
“It was more powerful for us to advocate for Native American women,” Gleason said.
Alan Kilpatrick’s “Article 13 or How Manhattan Was Sold” takes a comedic spin on the acquisition of the island from the Lenape tribe.
“It also includes a moose,” Gleason said.
In 1626, a Trump-like character tries to negotiate a contract with the tribe, but the chief sees beyond the sales pitch.
“He sees through him, knows he’s going to steal as much as he can,” Gleason said. “At the end, he says this contract will work, but you have to kiss the moose.”
The plays also include Vivian M. Carroll’s “Dust and Disobedience,” set in an imaginary summer after the Battle of Little Bighorn and before Wounded Knee. “Birthday Brunch” by Jen Olivares concerns Tiffany, an artist from an unstable home during a world-wide pandemic.
The series is the Adobe’s final online presentation until their regular live season opens in October.
