Post by Moon Seeker on Aug 5, 2009 21:38:28 GMT -5
Native Americans bring authenticity to revamped ‘Unto These Hills’
BY TRAVIS LONG - travis.long@newsoberver.com
CHEROKEE, N.C. - A flurry of flesh, gunfire and smoke fills the mountainside as a young Cherokee warrior slays half a dozen Creek Indians and then comes to the aid of a wounded Gen. Andrew Jackson.
The scene depicting the Battle of Horseshoe Bend is a page out of history repeated about 70 times a year since 1950 at the Mountainside Theatre in Cherokee.
What makes this year’s performances of “Unto These Hills” different from the more than 4,000 prior performances is that members of North Carolina’s Eastern Band of Cherokees now play most of the lead roles.
In past years, whites with painted skin and dark wigs played most of the drama’s principal parts. Cherokees were often cast in minor, nonspeaking roles. The script also has been revised to make it more historically accurate.
The storyline covers a swath of Cherokee history leading up to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced 15,000 Cherokees from North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee along the Trail of Tears to present-day Oklahoma. The Eastern Band comprises descendants of Cherokees who hid in the mountains during the removal.
In recent years, those involved in the production felt a growing call for more authenticity and for Cherokee involvement on- and offstage. The effort to cast Cherokees in principal roles was led by 48-year-old director Eddie Swimmer, who was in the play when he was a teenager.
“Theater spoke to me, and I knew I wanted to see my name in a playbill,” says Swimmer, who is one of the original members of the famed American Indian Dance Theatre, which has performed across the United States and taped two TV specials for the PBS “Great Performance” series.
After studying theater at Brigham Young University, Swimmer went on to appear in dance theater on television and in films. He returned to the reservation and the outdoor drama and last year became the first Eastern Band member to direct the play.
Last year Swimmer started community acting classes and heavily recruited locals to play roles in the show.
“We’re actually playing family members,” says Swimmer, referring to several cast members who are direct descendants of the historical figures they portray. “It carries a deeper meaning. ... The pain, the sorrow, the hurt really comes to it.”
The play has undergone two major rewrites since 2006. Linda Squirrel, who works for the Cherokee Historical Association, wrote the latest script.
“It was like watching a stereotypical western Indian movie from the ‘50s or ‘60s,” Squirrel said of the original script. “A lot of the historical things in the show were inaccurate.”
Squirrel spent the off-season painstakingly researching and editing the script for accuracy. Among the major changes this year is a revamping of the climactic eagle dance scene.
“We wanted to bring back the feeling of the old show, yet make it a little more contemporary,” said choreographer Larissa Fasthorse, a Lakota of the Sicangu Nation.
Fasthorse thought it was important to show the modest traditional eagle dance as well as the spectacle of the interpretive modern eagle dance, which has become a crowd favorite over the play’s 60-year history.
“I don’t know any other tribe in the country that has this kind of exposure and this kind of access to an audience to be able to teach their own stories and their own history from their own perspective,” Fasthorse said. “It inspires me every single night.”
Travis Long is a staff writer with the Raleigh News & Observer, a McClatchy newspaper.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Unto These Hills: A Retelling”
WHERE: Mountainside Theatre, Cherokee
DIRECTIONS: Take I-26 north to Asheville (Great Smoky Mountains Expressway). Continue west on U.S. 74 past Waynesville, Sylva and Dillsboro to exit 74, Cherokee. U.S. 441 will take you into Cherokee.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. every day but Sunday through Aug. 29. 7 p.m. pre-show.
COST: $18-$22, $8-$10 for children younger than 12, family pack (two free tickets for children 6-12 with one adult ticket).
INFORMATION: (866) 554-4557 or www.cherokee-nc.com
www.thestate.com/living/story/884624.html
BY TRAVIS LONG - travis.long@newsoberver.com
CHEROKEE, N.C. - A flurry of flesh, gunfire and smoke fills the mountainside as a young Cherokee warrior slays half a dozen Creek Indians and then comes to the aid of a wounded Gen. Andrew Jackson.
The scene depicting the Battle of Horseshoe Bend is a page out of history repeated about 70 times a year since 1950 at the Mountainside Theatre in Cherokee.
What makes this year’s performances of “Unto These Hills” different from the more than 4,000 prior performances is that members of North Carolina’s Eastern Band of Cherokees now play most of the lead roles.
In past years, whites with painted skin and dark wigs played most of the drama’s principal parts. Cherokees were often cast in minor, nonspeaking roles. The script also has been revised to make it more historically accurate.
The storyline covers a swath of Cherokee history leading up to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced 15,000 Cherokees from North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee along the Trail of Tears to present-day Oklahoma. The Eastern Band comprises descendants of Cherokees who hid in the mountains during the removal.
In recent years, those involved in the production felt a growing call for more authenticity and for Cherokee involvement on- and offstage. The effort to cast Cherokees in principal roles was led by 48-year-old director Eddie Swimmer, who was in the play when he was a teenager.
“Theater spoke to me, and I knew I wanted to see my name in a playbill,” says Swimmer, who is one of the original members of the famed American Indian Dance Theatre, which has performed across the United States and taped two TV specials for the PBS “Great Performance” series.
After studying theater at Brigham Young University, Swimmer went on to appear in dance theater on television and in films. He returned to the reservation and the outdoor drama and last year became the first Eastern Band member to direct the play.
Last year Swimmer started community acting classes and heavily recruited locals to play roles in the show.
“We’re actually playing family members,” says Swimmer, referring to several cast members who are direct descendants of the historical figures they portray. “It carries a deeper meaning. ... The pain, the sorrow, the hurt really comes to it.”
The play has undergone two major rewrites since 2006. Linda Squirrel, who works for the Cherokee Historical Association, wrote the latest script.
“It was like watching a stereotypical western Indian movie from the ‘50s or ‘60s,” Squirrel said of the original script. “A lot of the historical things in the show were inaccurate.”
Squirrel spent the off-season painstakingly researching and editing the script for accuracy. Among the major changes this year is a revamping of the climactic eagle dance scene.
“We wanted to bring back the feeling of the old show, yet make it a little more contemporary,” said choreographer Larissa Fasthorse, a Lakota of the Sicangu Nation.
Fasthorse thought it was important to show the modest traditional eagle dance as well as the spectacle of the interpretive modern eagle dance, which has become a crowd favorite over the play’s 60-year history.
“I don’t know any other tribe in the country that has this kind of exposure and this kind of access to an audience to be able to teach their own stories and their own history from their own perspective,” Fasthorse said. “It inspires me every single night.”
Travis Long is a staff writer with the Raleigh News & Observer, a McClatchy newspaper.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Unto These Hills: A Retelling”
WHERE: Mountainside Theatre, Cherokee
DIRECTIONS: Take I-26 north to Asheville (Great Smoky Mountains Expressway). Continue west on U.S. 74 past Waynesville, Sylva and Dillsboro to exit 74, Cherokee. U.S. 441 will take you into Cherokee.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. every day but Sunday through Aug. 29. 7 p.m. pre-show.
COST: $18-$22, $8-$10 for children younger than 12, family pack (two free tickets for children 6-12 with one adult ticket).
INFORMATION: (866) 554-4557 or www.cherokee-nc.com
www.thestate.com/living/story/884624.html