Holly: Nice. Nicely, I do know that it was actually a purpose of yours and that you simply strategized to be the primary Native American lady with a play on Broadway. How does it really feel to have achieved that purpose you set for your self?

Larissa: Oh, it feels superb. I imply, it’s been a very long time and numerous actually onerous work to get right here. So it does really feel actually good, and I’m excited to have the prospect to participate in numerous alternatives due to this now, to guarantee that I’m not the final Native American playwright this century—as a result of up to now we’ve solely had one per century—on Broadway. I’m actually excited to be a part of altering that.

Holly: That’s superior. I perceive that you’ve a complete of seven extra productions in 2023. And a type of issues is the Peter Pan rewrite that you simply’re doing. When it comes to rewriting that story, would you thoughts kind of ranging from the start and stating the plain of what must be mounted?

Larissa: Peter Pan has been really dangerous to numerous Indigenous people— Nicely, all Indigenous people on this nation anyway. It’s one thing that has been very painful for Native folks, each the depiction of us as the one folks in Neverland who can’t appear to understand English and as people are being performed in redface. Each of these issues have been an issue up to now that wanted to be solved. After which additionally the truth that Wendy has no traces that aren’t associated to Peter not directly and doesn’t have a tune, and that Tiger Lily additionally doesn’t appear to have any relationship with Wendy actually hardly in any respect.

And admittedly, in the event you learn the descriptions, there’s a promotion of rape tradition that I’m shocked that we’ve been letting kids learn all this time. Should you learn the outline of Tiger Lily, it says how she’s this fierce warrior and due to that each one the Braves of her tribe need to be coupled along with her. And since she’s a fierce warrior, she’s been capable of struggle them off and keep single this lengthy. My jaw did what yours simply did—dropped—as a result of I couldn’t consider we’re letting kids learn that paragraph over and over. That it’s authentic for a girl to solely survive as single by bodily combating males off, and that that was seen as a constructive for her. That was actually stunning to me. So issues like that completely wanted to be modified, and youngsters ought to by no means learn that paragraph once more.

Except we repair that basis of anti-Indigeneity, which continues to be deeply prevalent, then the remainder of it’s nonetheless constructed on a shaky floor.

Holly: Are you managing to unravel numerous these issues?

Larissa: My present draft tackles all of these issues. It makes it so we do have to rent a pair Native actors however we don’t should play redface for the remainder of the group. Wendy has a tune, and he or she has traces which might be about her personal hopes and goals. She and Tiger Lily have a scene collectively—they’ve motion collectively that isn’t simply centered across the males of their lives.

We’re going to deal with numerous these issues very merely, really, whereas nonetheless retaining all the issues which might be implausible about Peter Pan. I imply, these pirates are hilarious, I really like them. They’re so humorous and so they’re so good. And there’s a purpose this title is so beloved and has lasted this lengthy. It’s really actually good. And so, in so some ways we saved all of that and simply mounted the issues that wanted fixing inside the construction of the unique. It’s not a full reimagining, it’s merely a fixing, which I’m enthusiastic about.

Holly: That sounds nice. I’m excited too.

So, I feel The Thanksgiving Play is anti-racist. I feel it does anti-racist work. What does that imply to you? And would you even agree with me saying that you’re an anti-racist author?

Larissa: That’s query. I’ve to suppose as a result of I haven’t ever considered myself in that means, as a result of I’m particularly, in most of my work, indigenizing. And I feel even this work—The Thanksgiving Play—although it’s speaking about numerous aspects of racism on this nation and white supremacy tradition, my work is at all times very particularly pointing again to indigenizing.

I’m very particularly making an attempt to indigenize our academic system, our arts, our audiences, our phases, our manufacturing folks. I’m centered on indigenizing first to right the muse this nation is constructed on, which is in an anti-Indigenous basis, from which all the opposite racism grew, proper? I’m making an attempt to right that basis first, and that’s the place my focus is as an artist and as a human. As a result of I really feel like until we repair that basis of anti-Indigeneity, which continues to be deeply prevalent, then the remainder of it’s nonetheless constructed on a shaky floor. So, I’m ranging from the underside after which working my means up by means of all the opposite racisms and different isms.

The Thanksgiving Play is as a lot about misogyny as it’s about racism. I name myself an Indigenous lady, as a result of I’m a female-identifying individual, so I say “Indigenous lady” for what I’m recognized as. That assumes so many issues within the Lakota worldview. It means I’ve essentially the most, if you’ll, divine energy as a result of we have now the facility of really creating life. And so we’re thought of closest to the creator, no matter meaning to you, as girls. And subsequently we have now a sacred house in our tradition that’s revered and upheld in very particular sensible and ceremonial methods. I’m speaking lots about misogyny in The Thanksgiving Play. It’s virtually extra prevalent, or at the least as prevalent, as speaking about Indigeneity.

It’s fascinating to me, although, how usually I’ve been in read-throughs with actors and the collaborators didn’t even discover. I imply, that’s how deep it’s, proper? They didn’t discover that each time the lead character Logan says one thing, the group rejects it till her male accomplice underscores it. And as quickly as he says it, then all of them transfer into motion. Once I talked about it, they had been like, “Whoa. What?” I used to be like, “Yeah.” Each single time.

I even had some folks say, “Nicely, he’s simply being supportive.” No. If everyone was leaping into motion doing what she mentioned after which additionally he was saying, “Sure, this was a implausible concept,” that may be supportive. However everyone is sitting there not doing something till the person says sure. It’s not being supportive.