By Levi Rickert
“It is important for us to tell our stories, otherwise, they will not be told,” Yellow Robe continued in a telephone interview with Native News Network on Monday.
"Wood Bones" attempts to tell some of the stories that are relevant to American Indians, but never get told, according to Yellow Robe.
"Wood Bones" is Yellow Robe's fourth play he has written. He is the first Assiniboine playwright to receive the First Book Award for Drama, a Princess Grace Fellowship Award, Theater fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship, a New England Theater Conference Award for Excellence. Yellow Robe's full length play, "Grandchildren of Buffalo Soldiers" finished its national tour produced by the Penumbra Theater Company and Trinity Repertory Company. Yellow Robe is a published playwright, poet, and short fiction writer. He is also an accomplished actor and director.
Who is this house? Where's it from, and how can it ultimately be free of itself? The play explores the American Indian experience through tribal rules and rituals that both liberate and produce a climate of greed and excess.
The home, called 121, requires freedom from its earthly existence, and through a dramatic and painful "renovation" the audience will be haunted by its transformation. The deeply spiritual and beautifully poetic play explores exploitation of our young people, racism and personal greed vs. duty to community as a direct result of American colonialism.
Below: "(l to r) Playwright William Yellow Robe Jr, Director Bob Jaffe, Freedome Bradley, and Veracity Butcher."
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For more on the subject, see:
http://newyorktheatrereview.blogspot.com/2013/05/aurin-squire-on-wood-bone-as-presented.html
Aurin Squire on “Wood Bones” as presented by Eagle Project
The story of Native Americans is so often under represented in America that it's not even considered by most theatergoers. And yet there is no voice needed now more than ever as our appreciation for our own history fades. Wood Bones offers a rare chance for New York audiences.
In its inaugural production, Eagle Project had tackled a challenging and ambitious story by playwright William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. Wood Bones tells the story of a haunted house through a few of its different occupants over the course of several decades. The story cuts back and forth in the 20th and 21st century to tell the story of various people who have struggled with identity, loss, and betrayal under one roof.
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