Gloria Miguel: Misdemeanor Dream and NEWS12 Interview

GLORIA MIGUEL INTERVIEW ON NEWS 12 MARCH 22,2022

Photo: Jonathan Staff

The Native American Bohemia in Brownstone Brooklyn

Ms.Muriel Miguel and her two older sisters, Gloria (95) and Lisa Mayo (who died in 2013 at 89), have often been described as the matriarchs of Indigenous theater in North America.

“They made a space for so many people and companies,” Penny Couchie, an actor and choreographer of Ojibwe and Mohawk ancestry, said. “They made no apologies for the way that we tell stories.”

In recent weeks, Ms. Miguel has been scrambling to finish preparing for the debut of her latest production, “Misdemeanor Dream,” a collaboration between her company, Spiderwoman Theater, and Aanmitaagzi, an arts group led by Ms. Couchie and her husband, Sid Bobb, on Nipissing First Nation territory in Ontario. The show, which will open on March 10 at La MaMa, the experimental theater in the East Village, represents the culmination of her life’s work so far, she said.

– Saki Knafo, NY Times March 4, 2022 (excerpt)
Read entire article HERE

La MaMa ETC presents the world premiere of Misdemeanor Dream

March 10 – 27, 2022

Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: https://www.lamama.org/shows/misdemeanor-dream-2022

“Misdemeanor Dream” features Ms. Miguel’s sister Gloria, in the role of The Elder.Credit…Adrienne Grunwald for The New York Times

It is the latest large-scale production of Spiderwoman Theater, the legendary Downtown feminist-Indigenous theater ensemble. Created by a multi-generational performing ensemble with members drawn from Indigenous communities across North America and internationally, this unique production across inter-woven disciplines explores the realms of Indigenous story, magic, interrupted dreams and lost languages, while including all who experience it in a vital continuum of Native spirit and worldview.

In Misdemeanor Dream, old spirits long-ago silenced reveal themselves to the current inhabitants of Turtle Island through their stories and experiences of daily, contemporary life (“Turtle Island” is the name given to Earth by Indigenous peoples in North America).

We are, in the words of Spiderwoman co-founder and artistic director Muriel Miguel, “exploring what we, as Indigenous people, have lost, how we reclaim it and our path to move into a future where we can hold on to our dreams, heal ourselves and be hopeful.”