TheatreSquared announced that Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate and member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is joining the team at the regional theatre company to serve as the 2021 Artist in Residence. The renowned writer, musician and performer will be working with TheatreSquared’s artistic team to develop her first full-length musical for the stage. The show will mine the history of American music and restore southeastern Native people to the origin story of blues, jazz, and rock. The play’s working title is We Were There When Jazz Was Invented.
"I’m excited to work with TheatreSquared, which has such a fine reputation for development of new plays. I appreciate, too, that the theatre is located in my mother’s homeland," said Joy Harjo.
"It’s been such a pleasure to get to know Joy, and it is a privilege to host her as our 2021 Artist in Residence at TheatreSquared," said Executive Director/Producer Martin Miller.
"This work is so important to T2’s mission and vision," said Director of New Play Development Dexter Singleton. "We look forward to working not only with Joy, but also to connecting through this partnership with the vibrant arts community in our neighboring Tulsa."
Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is serving her third term as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. The author of nine books of poetry, including the highly acclaimed An American Sunrise, several plays and children's books, and two memoirs, Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior, her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, two NEA fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. As a musician and performer, Harjo has produced seven award-winning music albums including her newest, I Pray for My Enemies. She is Executive Editor of the anthology When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through — A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry and the editor of Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry, the companion anthology to her signature Poet Laureate project. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Board of Directors Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and holds a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Artist in Residency program is an extension of the mission of TheatreSquared’s Arkansas New Play Festival. Through the ANPF, T2 seeks to champion diverse plays that address important social, economic and racial issues; to be a place our community can see themselves reflected on stage; and to present socially conscious new work. The 2021 Arkansas New Play Festival is supported by Barbara Shadden, in memory of Harry Shadden, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.
About TheatreSquared
TheatreSquared’s signature offering of bold new plays in an intimate setting has driven its growth to become the state’s largest theatre, offering more than 300 performances annually in two intimate spaces and online. The playwright-led company is one of mid-America’s leading laboratories for new work, having launched more than 60 new plays. Notable collaborators have included Bryna Turner, Anne García-Romero, Pulitzer Prize finalist Lisa D’Amour, Qui Nguyen, Mona Mansour, Tony Award nominee Lee Blessing, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Amy Evans, and many others. TheatreSquared’s remarkable expansion—with a twentyfold increase in audience in just the past decade—parallels the emergence of its home region in the northwest corner of Arkansas as a booming population center and destination for American art. Offering far-reaching access and education programs and an open-all-day gathering space, the Commons Bar/Café, TheatreSquared remains rooted in its founding vision, that "theatre—done well and with passion—can transform lives and communities."
Major funding for the TheatreSquared Season 16 is provided by The Walton Family Foundation, Inc.; the Walmart Foundation; the Tyson Family Foundation; the Windgate Foundation; and the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Marketing support for TheatreSquared Season 16 is provided by Experience Fayetteville, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Fayetteville Flyer, 3W Magazine, CitiScapes, KUAF, MailCo USA and Univision.