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<\/a>\nMay 10-16, 2015<\/h4>\n
Muriel Miguel, co-founder and director of Spiderwoman Theatre Company, the oldest Native women\u2019s theatre ensemble in North America, will be in residence at the University of Oregon May 9-17, 2015.\u00a0 Muriel Miguel represents an embodied 70-year history of Native American theatre and performance.\u00a0 Her achievements have been recognized by numerous awards including an Honorary Doctorate from Miami University, where Spiderwoman Theater\u2019s archives launched the Native Women\u2019s Theatre Archive. Her performance career has been widely acknowledged by Native studies, theatre studies, and queer\/gender studies scholars.<\/p>\n
During her week at UO, Muriel will present a retrospective lecture about Spiderwoman Theatre on May 15 in the Hope Theatre\/Miller Theatre Complex, and a community\/university Story-weaving Workshop on Saturday May 16, followed by an evening work-in-progress presentation. Both events are free and open to the University community and the public.\u00a0 During the week Ms. Miguel will visit and teach classes; meet with Native Studies and other interested students, staff and faculty; and meet with representatives of the Grand Ronde tribe; and attend the Mother\u2019s Day Pow Wow sponsored by the Native Student Union.<\/p>\n
Queer indigenous scholar Jean O\u2019Hara will also be in residence with Ms. Miguel, and will teach a Theatre of the Oppressed workshop and present a talk drawn from her book Two Spirit Acts: Queer Indigenous Performance<\/em>. The Spiderwoman Residency is funded by a CSWS faculty grant,\u00a0 CSWS\u2019s Indigenous Women of the Northwest Research Interest Group, the Department of Theatre Arts, co-sponsoring units, and is the first step of the Women and Rivers Project, a collaborative creative project that explores the relationships\u2014both historic and contemporary\u2014of women in the Pacific Northwest to the many rivers of our region, and initiated by associate professor Theresa May. \u00a0All events are free.\u00a0 Additional support will provide financial support for tribal community members to participate in the week\u2019s events and the Story-weaving Workshop. \u00a0UO students may earn course credit for participation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For more information, or if you would like Muriel to visit your class, email Theresa May tmay33(at)uoregon.edu.<\/p>\n The Spiderwoman Theatre Residency is part of the Women and Rivers Project, supported by a Faculty Project Grant from the Center for the Study of Women and Society, and the Department of Theatre Arts. Cosponsorship: Native Studies Program; Cultural Forum;\u00a0Center for the Study of Women in Society\u2019s Indigenous Women of the Pacific Northwest Research Interest Group; Office of Equity and Inclusion, and CoDaC.<\/p>\n Muriel Miguel<\/p><\/div>\n Muriel Miguel (Kuna\/Rappahannock), founding Member\/Artistic Director Spiderwoman Theatre, is a director, choreographer, playwright, actor and educator. She has directed almost all of Spiderwoman\u2019s shows since their debut in 1976. She grew up performing with her family and at the age of twelve was the cofounder, with Louis Mofsie, of the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers.\u00a0 Muriel studied modern dance with Alwin Nickolais, Erick Hawkins and Jean Erdman. She was an original member of Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theater where she performed in the groundbreaking works: Terminal<\/em>, The Serpent<\/em>, M\u00e8re Ubu<\/em> and Viet Rock<\/em>. She was the director of The Scrubbing Project<\/em> with Turtle Gals Performance Ensemble in Toronto, More than Feathers and Beads<\/em> with Murielle Borst Tarrant, Evening in Paris<\/em> with Raven Spirit Dance Company in Vancouver, and served as actor and dramaturge at Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto. Muriel created the role of Philomena Moosetail in Tomson Highway\u2019s The Rez Sisters<\/em>, a generative work in the development of a First Nations repertory in Canada. She also originated roles in plays by First Nation\u2019s playwrights Marie Clements (The Unnatural and Accidental Women<\/em>), Drew Hayden Taylor (Buz\u2019Gem Blues<\/em>, Bones: An Aboriginal Dance Opera<\/em>). Her one woman shows include Hot’ N’ Soft<\/em>, Trail of the Otter<\/em>, and most recently Red Mother<\/em>, produced by Spiderwoman Theater at La MaMa E.T.C. in May 2010. She is a pioneer in the development of a culture\u2013based methodology for the training of Indigenous theatre students and is an instructor of Indigenous Performance at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre (CIT) in Toronto. She is Program Director for CIT\u2019s summer intensives at Trent University in Ontario and at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. She was a Program Director for the Aboriginal Dance Program and an instructor of Indigenous performance at The Banff Centre for the Arts for seven years, where she choreographed Throw Away Kids<\/em> and She Knew She Was She<\/em>. She has developed four shows for The Minnesota Native American AIDS Task Force working with inner city native youth on HIV\/AIDS issues. \u00a0In 1997, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and presented Spiderwoman Theater archives as the inaugural collection of Native Women Playwrights Archives. Other awards include: the Native and Hawaiian Women of Hope poster by Bread and Roses International Union\u2019s Bread and Roses Center. In 2003, she was the recipient of the first Lipinsky Residency (feminist in residence) for San Diego State University Women\u2019s Studies Department for the initial development of Red Mother<\/em>. She has also served as assistant professor of Drama at Bard College. Publications include \u201cPersistance fo Memory\u201d in Performing Worlds into Being: Native American Women\u2019s<\/em> Miami University Press; \u201cWinnetou\u2019s Snake Oil Show from Wigwam City\u201d in Keepers of the Morning Star: An Anthology of Native Women\u2019s Theater<\/em>; \u201cReverb-ber-ber-rations\u201d in Staging Coyote\u2019s Dream: An Anthology of First Nations Drama in English<\/em>; \u201cthe Trail of Otter\u201d in Staging Coyote\u2019s Dream: An Anthology of First Nations Drama in English<\/em> Vol. 2; and \u201cHot \u2018N Soft\u201d in Two-Spirit Acts: Indigenous Queer Performances<\/em> http:\/\/www.spiderwomantheater.org\/index.htm<\/p>\nResidency Week Schedule of Events<\/h4>\n
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Bio of Muriel Miguel<\/h6>\n
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<\/a>Bio of Jean O\u2019Hara<\/h6>\n
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