Nine days, two stages, five events. La MaMa's Global Indigenous Theatre Festival runs October 30 to November 7 and brings companies from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Minneapolis to the East Village for Spiderwoman Theater's 50th year.
La MaMa presents the festival in association with Spiderwoman Theater, a Native American women's company and longtime La MaMa resident, and produces it with Loose Change Productions. Everything plays the Ellen Stewart Theatre and the Downstairs Theatre at 66 East 4th Street.
Kōpū opens the festival, October 30–November 1. It comes from Te Pou Theatre, a kaupapa Māori company in Aotearoa New Zealand, and its wāhine performers use live music, poetry and poi to tell their own account of being women.
Invisible Shadows plays the same dates. It is from Minneapolis's Ikidowin Theater Ensemble, written by Sharon Day and directed by Sir Curtis Kirby, and follows urban Indigenous young people finding their way back to their culture in the middle of the opioid crisis.
The second week, November 4–6, pairs Maayuma li Mubirr (Healing Scars) from Australia's Moogahlin Performing Arts with All My R(el)ations, a dance-theater piece about returning to community from Aanmitaagzi of Ontario, Canada.
It closes on November 7 with a 50th anniversary gala for Spiderwoman Theater, created by Murielle Borst-Tarrant.
Prices include fees. A two-show package is $40 and a full festival pass covering all five events is $100. Single tickets and the schedule are on La MaMa's festival page.
