Native Voices at the Autry First Look Series Presents THE BIRD HOUSE 10/7

Native Voices at the Autry, American's leading Native American theatre company, kicks off its 11th Season with a reading of The Bird House by esteemed Native American playwright Diane Glancy (Cherokee*), directed by Stephan Wolfert with dramaturgy by Bryan Davidson, on Thursday, October 7, 2010, 7:00 p.m., at the Wells Fargo Theater at The Autry National Center in Griffith Park. The evening is part of Native Voices' FIRST LOOK SERIES: Plays in Progress, which brings playwrights together with professional directors, dramaturgs, and actors for an eight-hour workshop and public presentation at the Autry. A chat with Glancy, Wolfert, Davidson and the actors follows the reading. Native Voices is the country's only Equity theatre company dedicated exclusively to developing and producing new works by Native American Playwrights.

Set in the back room of a failing church in the high plains of Texas, The Bird House delves into the lives of a minister and his two sisters as they sort through the snarls of their past and adapt to loss and the uncertain future of their home and family. The cast includes Ellen Dostal as Clovis, and Native Voices Founder/Producing Artistic Director Randy Reinholz (Choctaw*) as Jonathan Logan/ Reverend Hawk, a part written specifically for him.

Glancy, author of the hit play Salvage, says, "The landscape for The Bird House comes from Texas- the ground dried and cracked, the alkali traces, the short, brittle weeds. I'm also interested in 'miniaturist theatre,' an invented term that means a play constricted in a small space. I want to get as close as possible to the claustrophobic while maintaining a play with very large issues- abandonment, poverty, stroke, death. The actors can hardly can move, they are hemmed with the smallest stitches by the sharpest needle." She notes the term also reflects an undercurrent in Native American heritage because it is "a minority culture in relationship to others, often physically confined to a reservation." Glancy adds that the play was inspired, in part, by American artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), who was influenced by Surrealism and renowned for crafting small boxed assemblages from found objects.

Diane Glancy (Cherokee*) is professor emeritus at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota and was the 2008 - 2009 Richard Thomas Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Her latest poetry collection, Stories of the Driven World, was published by Mammoth Press in 2010. She published two books in 2009, The Reason for Crows, a novel of Kateri Tekakwitha, SUNY Press, and Pushing the Bear, After the Trail of Tears, University of Oklahoma Press. In 2009, she and Christina Wright received an Expressive Arts Grant from the National Museum of the American Indian to write a play, The Catch, on the history of native education. In 2010, she also finished her first independent film, The Dome of Heaven, about a mixed-blood girl in Vici, Oklahoma, who wants to go to college, which continues Glancy's interest in the theme of education. Native Voices at the Autry has produced three of her plays: Jump Kiss (2002); Stone Heart: Everyone Loves a Journey West (2006); and Salvage (2008). She holds an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writer's Workshop.

Native Voices at the Autry is the country's only Equity theatre company dedicated exclusively to producing new works by Native American Playwrights. The company has been hailed by critics as "a virtual who's who of American Indian theatre artists," "a hot bed for contemporary Native Theatre," "deeply compelling" and "a powerful and eloquent voice." Native Voices, which provides a supportive, collaborative setting for Native Theatre artists from across North America, was established as a resident company at The Autry National Center in 1999. It is widely respected in both the Native American and theatre communities for its breakthrough plays and diverse programming showcasing unique points of view within the more than 500 Native American nations in North America. Deeply committed to developing new works by beginning, emerging and established Native playwrights from across North America and seeing them fully realized, Native Voices has presented fully staged productions of 18 critically acclaimed new plays, including 12 world premieres, 7 Playwrights Retreats and 12 New Play Festivals, and more than 80 workshops and public staged readings of new plays. Native Voices is led by Founder/Producing Artistic Director Randy Reinholz (Choctaw*) and Founder/Producing Executive Director Jean Bruce Scott and maintains successful long-term relationships with New York's The Public Theater, Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT), Washington's Kennedy Center, The National Museum of the American Indian and La Jolla Playhouse.

The Autry National Center, formed in 2003 by the merger of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage with the Southwest Museum of the American Indian and the Women of the West Museum, is an intercultural history center dedicated to exploring and sharing the stories, experiences, and perceptions of the diverse peoples of the American West. Located in Griffith Park, the Autry's collection of over 500,000 pieces of art and artifacts, which includes the collection of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, is one of the largest and most significant in the United States. The Autry Institute includes two research libraries: the Braun Research Library and the Autry Library. Exhibitions, public programs, K-12 educational services, and publications are designed to examine critical issues of society, offering insights into solutions and the contemporary human condition through the Western historical experience.

Suggested donation is $10, Autry Members are free. NATIVE VOICES AT THE AUTRY is located at The Autry National Center, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90027-1462. To purchase tickets, please call (323) 667-2000, extension 354, or visit www.NativeVoicesattheAutry.org.

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