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‘Manahatta’ brings Indigenous storytelling to Albuquerque Little Theatre
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Albuquerque Little Theatre this month performs “Manahatta,” a time-jumping play about history and identity by acclaimed Indigenous playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma).
The director, Jay B. Muskett (Diné), sees the play as a chance to tell an authentic Indigenous story.
“We appreciate the opportunity to come into the space and tell our own story in it, which is very lacking in today’s society,” he said. “It’s especially nice to be able to do that here in the Southwest, where people can come and see the play, and see themselves represented in a way that’s not really shown in contemporary American society.”
Muskett’s approach to directing is also informed by an Indigenous framework.
“I come from a background of Indigenous theater, which is a little bit different than Westernized theater,” Muskett said. “I take the tenets of ceremony and ritual that are the main facets of who we are as a culture and a people, and I take those elements into the Westernized theater to kind of spin it on its head.”
“Manahatta” is the original Lenape word for Manhattan, where the play is partly set. As the play progresses, the setting shifts between Oklahoma and Manhattan, and between the 21st and the 17th centuries.
“The story centers around Jane Snake, who is the first Native American to work on Wall Street,” Muskett said. “There’s two competing stories that are happening concurrently, both the Jane Snake story and then the story of her ancestors, who were coerced into selling Manhattan to the Dutch colonizers. So, the story jumps back and forth between modern times and the past.”
Although Snake is a fictional character, the historical events she lives through, including the 2008 financial crisis, are real. The story of her Lenape ancestors is also based on historical events and includes historical characters, such as Se-ket-tu-may-qua, a real Lenape leader.
Nagle, who wrote the play, is both a playwright and a lawyer, which gives her a unique perspective. Muskett met her in 2016, when she presented “Sliver of a Full Moon” at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and in 2019 he worked with her on a staged reading of her play “Sovereignty” at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.
“When she was writing this (‘Manahatta’), she sent it to me, and I got to read a very early version,” Muskett said. “And what really struck me was this idea of interrogating the past through a legal lens.”
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Celeste Lee plays the lead, Jane Snake, as well as Snake’s 17th century ancestor, Le-le-wa’-you.
“Jane Snake, who works on Wall Street, is trying to get her foot in the door. She’s from Anadarko, Oklahoma, which is fairly small, then going to the big city and trying to navigate a whole different life there,” Lee said. “Then, there is Le-le-wa’-you, who is from the 17th century Lenape tribe. She is very strong and driven, just as much as Jane.”
For historical accuracy, Nagle wrote portions of the 17th century dialogue in the Delaware language spoken by the Lenape people. Although learning to speak in an unfamiliar language was a challenge, Lee said, “It wasn’t as difficult as I’d anticipated.”
“I speak some Navajo, so some of the sounds were similar,” Lee said. “That made it a bit easier for me.”
She and the other cast members also availed themselves of online language sites created by the Lenape community.
“There is an online tool where they have multiple community members pronouncing words in the ways that they pronounce them,” Lee said. “So, that gave us options.”
Lee said working with the director, Muskett, was “wonderful.”
“Jay (Muskett) is amazing,” she said. “He likes to tell the story in a way that is as authentic as it can be, while being mindful, too, that this story is touchy. I mean, you’re touching on colonization and the immense struggle and pain and loss that Indigenous peoples went through because of this colonization. And Jay treads lightly in a way that honors the story as it needs to be told without bashing one side or the other.”
Muskett was equally impressed with Lee.
“She’s a multitalented, multifaceted person who brings a new dimension to these characters,” he said.
“Working with an Indigenous cast on this piece has given us an opportunity to reframe some of the images and flip some of the stereotypes that are so ingrained within American society,” Muskett added. “By flipping the script, so to speak, we are reclaiming a little bit of who we are as Indigenous peoples.”
