But in Wings, theater is a gift. The story is a gift. It is a shared experience through which both performer and audience members leave the play with a remarkable benefit. It is a benefit that cannot be quantified in monetary terms, but rather, is made evident in the creation of community and a public space where authentic identity may be expressed, and ultimately accepted.
I never got to see the 2007 workshop of Wings at the Public Theater, but I certainly heard about it. And it inspired me. Suddenly the impossible felt possible. Instead of characters that wear fake feathers and grunt onstage, one of America’s most prestigious theaters had agreed to workshop and present a play that portrays my people, Native people, as human.
Wings offers something true. Something powerful. I hope some non-Native theater companies agree to share it.
WORKS CITED
Elk v. Wilkins. 112. US Supreme Court. 1884. Online.
Greenberg, David. “Keep Andrew Jackson on the $20.” Politico, June 14, 2015. Available at www.politico.com/. Accessed January 5, 2017.
Greenfield, Lawrence A., and Steven K. Smith. United States, Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. American Indians and Crime BJS Statisticians, February 1999, NCJ 173386.
Harjo, Joy. “Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light.” Unpublished. Permission of the author, 2014.
Harjo, Suzan Shown. “Andrew Jackson Is Not as Bad as You Think, He’s Far, Far Bloodier.” Howlround, February 26, 2015. Available at howlround.com/. Accessed December 22, 2016.
Johnson v. M’Intosh. 543. US Supreme Court. 1823. Online.
Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock. 275. US Supreme Court. 1903. Online.
Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe. 435. US Supreme Court. 1978. Online.
United States v. Sandoval. 231. US Supreme Court. 1913. Online.
Wooster v. Georgia. 515. US Supreme Court. 1832. Online.
JOY HARJO
Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light || A Ceremony
Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light by Joy Harjo (Mvskoke) || Development and Production History
DECEMBER 2007
Public Theater Native
Theater Festival
New York, New York
Workshop and Staged Reading
JUNE 2008
Native Voices at the
Autry Playwrights Retreat
and Festival of New Plays
San Diego and
Los Angeles, California
Workshop and Staged Reading
MARCH 2009
Native Voices at the Autry
Los Angeles, California
Equity World Premiere
JANUARY 2010
Alaska Native Heritage Center
Anchorage, Alaska
Tour
MARCH 2010
Merrimack College
North Andover, Massachusetts
Tour
MAY 2010
Outpost Performance Space
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Tour
JUNE 2010
Native Voices at the Autry Festival
of New Plays
La Jolla, California
Tour
SEPTEMBER 2010
Oklahoma Center for Poets and
Writers, Tulsa Library Trust,
American Indian Resource Center,
and Readers’ Library
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tour
DECEMBER 2010
Native Voices at the Autry with the
Public Theater
New York, New York
Workshop
OCTOBER 2011
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, Massachusetts
Reading
February 2012
First Nations House of Learning
University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Performance
CHARACTERS
REDBIRD, who may also be the SPIRIT HELPER: a Native woman, Mvskoke, somewhere in her later twenties, thirties, forties, or fifties
GUARDIAN MUSICIAN: a guitar player who accompanies Redbird on her journey
GUARDIAN MUSICIAN comes onstage about five minutes before the curtain speech to set up gear and tune as needed. He sits extreme stage right.
OPENING
GUARDIAN MUSICIAN plays funky music. Music accompanies the story throughout.
The kitchen table, stage left center, is the gut around which all action flows. It is a heart, a bed, a bier, a car, a counter at the bar, an altar, and a hiding place.
Lights up on the table.
REDBIRD enters upstage left, lands down center stage. She wears jeans, red shirt, and cowboy boots.
Light bright sunlight.
REDBIRD: I welcome you on behalf of the family, and thank you so much for coming out to help with our ceremony. Important information: The bathrooms are down the hall, and there’s water and coffee in the kitchen. Don’t forget to turn off your cell phones, iPads, cameras … no taping, or texting.
REDBIRD, as REDBIRD’S relative, picks up rattle and shakes it.
REDBIRD: Please keep in mind that the patient Redbird Monahwee is in a delicate and vulnerable state. There is imbalance between dark and light. We need your good thoughts to help see us through.
And here to assist us in our ceremony is Redbird’s protector guardian.
GUARDIAN MUSICIAN plays a flourish on guitar as a way of introduction. He never speaks in the play.
REDBIRD: I’ve been asked to open with a traditional family story and song, so that our minds come together as one.
Mvto, mvto, thank you: for ancestral and all spiritual help.
REDBIRD shakes a rattle to signal the beginning of the story.
SONG: RABBIT IS UP TO TRICKS
In a world long before this one, there was enough for everyone
until somebody got out of line.
We heard it was Rabbit, fooling around with clay and the wind.
Everybody