Larissa FastHorse
Appearances
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
But at the same time, I was growing up in a very white culture. And my first career was in classical ballet. So it doesn't really get much whiter than that. I don't know, maybe opera, I'm not sure. There's a list, but ballet is at the top. They're way up there, yeah. They're always in the top five. So... Damals, als ich jünger war, war es sehr schmerzhaft, von vielen Dingen zu entfernen.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Du hast das gleiche gemacht.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Ich fühlte mich, als hätte ich nicht in der Reservation geboren, oder als ich so lange von meiner Lakota-Familie entfernt war.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Das war sehr schwer, aber jetzt erkenne ich es wirklich als meine Superkraft, dass ich Lakota-Kultur und ursprüngliche indigenische Erfahrungen verwenden kann und sie für weiße Publikationen übersetzen kann, die leider die Mehrheit der Publikationen im amerikanischen Theater sind.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Oh, yes. My ballet background is hugely influential in my work as a playwright. First off, just in the work ethic. Ballet dancers are expected to be shown something once and then you work on it on your own and you come back und du hast es runtergezogen. Die Leute werden nicht da sitzen und viel Zeit verbringen. Wenn sie Dinge zubereiten, oder dir etwas beibringen, wirst du es lernen.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Du wirst dein eigenes Training am Abend machen, nach sechs Stunden Übungen und Rehe. Du wirst viel von deinem eigenen Leben machen und diese Art von Arbeitsethik hat mir als Schauspielerin sicherlich geholfen, wo du manchmal Monate alleine in deinem Zuhause schreibst und du würdest die Zeit verlieren. Keiner wird an dich schreien. But also you can really see it in my writing.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
There's a lot of movement-based acting. I guess, you know, text-free scenes in my work. The Thanksgiving play is a perfect example. There's several scenes that have little to no text that are movement-based. And they are moving the story forward and they're essential to the story, but without using text or very little text in a lot of scenes.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Oh, a lot. Yeah, I definitely have updated a lot for the times. It's interesting you mentioned Florida. The laws state if something causes, I think it's guilt, discomfort or anguish based on your race, it can't be taught in a school. You'll see those words in the play if you come to it. I wanted to make sure that these people, because they are... Ich nenne es performative Wokeness.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Es sind weiße Leute, liberale Leute, die wirklich hart versuchen, alles richtig zu machen. Und wie du gesagt hast, alles falsch zu machen. Und ich wollte sicher machen, dass sie Leute von heute sind und nicht jemanden, den man sehen kann. Ich will nicht, dass Leute sagen können, oh, seit 2020 haben wir verändert. Also, das ist nicht ich. Weil es definitiv immer noch ist. Aber interessanterweise...
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
One of my first writing mentors was the great Marita Mita, who is a Maori writer and filmmaker from New Zealand. And she said to me at my very first screenplay that I wrote, before I was writing plays, she said, Larissa, you can be an artist or you can be an educator. If you try to be both, you'll do one of them badly. So you have to pick one. And I chose artists.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
And she said, there's certainly art that educates. And there's education that's artistic. But you have to choose which one you are and stay true to that.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
You know, I'm white passing in many ways. And yet at the same time, before I was writing, when I was acting for a while, and the casting director said to me, we can tell you're not completely white and that's a problem. And I was like, wow. And I was like, okay, I'm done. There's nothing I can do about that.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
That should be a little subtitle underneath. United States of America. We can tell you're not white. It's a problem. Yeah, so it was, you know, so I'm, but I am very light skinned. And again, it was something that was sometimes painful because colorism, you know, is a thing in our communities.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
And it was sometimes painful that I was so light and white passing growing up with a lot of, you know, full blood. My father is full blood and they're much darker, my biological father. Und so hatte ich ein bisschen Schmerz darüber, als ich erwachsen bin. Und besonders, weil ich dann ausgewachsen wurde. Es ist so, wer bist du, weißt du, wieder aufstehen.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Oh, es ist anstrengend. Ich würde sagen, ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, wie es sein würde, wenn ein weißer Mädchen ein Spielrecht macht. Sie gehen einfach in ein Theater und spielen ein Spielrecht und machen nichts anderes. Ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, wie das ist. Ich habe es noch nie gemacht.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Ich bin so glücklich mit meiner Karriere, aber ich bin auch der erste in 90 Prozent der Orte, wo ich gearbeitet habe. Der erste in diesem Theater, der erste in... Es geht immer weiter. Ich habe sechs Shows dieses Jahr und ich bin die erste Native Americanin. I guess this is, you know, the privilege of being the first means that I also have a responsibility.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
I do what I call Indian 101, that all the staff has to come to, including front of house, box office, production, everybody, to help them understand indigenous culture, the space they're standing in, and most importantly our audiences that we're hoping to welcome into the theater and how do we welcome them and understanding that theater is a white culture.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Western American theater is a white culture. You know, the assumptions you're making of what's dass akzeptabler Verhalten im Theater komplett anders ist als normales Verhalten in so vielen Kulturen auf diesem Kontinent.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
So that's interesting because actually casting is still very complicated. Red Face is being done regularly all over our country on film and TV, on stages. There are so many non-Indigenous actors still playing Indigenous roles.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
And there are so many people calling themselves Indigenous that cannot in any way prove they're Indigenous and have no actual connection to any Indigenous community playing Indigenous roles. Right. People say they understand more and they're doing better and yet there they are. All red faces being done constantly.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Conversely, fascinatingly, if you read the script of the Thanksgiving play, I put in the character description that people of color who can pass for white should be considered for roles.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
And I was really proud of that. But when I get to New York, we were told we can't put that in the casting breakdown. Well, you can't ask people to play someone else. I was like, wait, there are still white people on these stages in New York City right now playing native. This was a few years ago. Playing native, but you're saying I can't openly have non-
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
you know, white people play white people if they look white to you? You know, and he's like, no, you absolutely can't. I'm not allowed to ask people if they're Native American when they're being cast. And so we have to do this whole kind of song and dance of I kind of try to
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Ja, ich meine, eine Art von Interpretation des Shows ist, dass es sich um die sehr weitreichenden Bedeutungen des Bedeutungsgutes handelt. Es scheint mir, dass die Leute, die zu Broadway-Shows kommen, so sind.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Oh, it's absolutely you. I mean, no, like, I do not hide that. You know, Yeah. I don't hide the fact that this is about, you know, white liberal folks, which tend to be theater goers, not all. I mean, I think the thing that I keep saying, but it's been very important to me in this play, was that first it's fun and that you get to have a good time in the theater.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
And second, I would say that's the sugar and then there's the medicine. And so it's satire. It's a comedy within a satire. So the satire is the medicine and you have to keep taking it through it. Honestly, some people opt out. We've had a couple people walk out. Once it got too far in, they were just like, no, this is too much. I can imagine at least one scene where that might happen.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
The vast majority of audiences are really... Das war verrückt. Das war verrückt.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Yeah, I mean, land acknowledgement, honestly, I know in some places we're getting a little tired of it. But I will say it's not everywhere. You know, for me, until everybody... In the United States of America, if you can name the indigenous land they're standing on, we need to keep doing it. But, you know, I always say too, though, land acknowledgement is a step.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
I grew up in South Dakota, where my Lakota people are from. But I was adopted at a young age, an open adoption to a white family who had worked on the reservation for a long time, the reservation that I'm from. I was always raised very aware of my Lakota identity and my Lakota culture. And they brought a lot of mentors into my life and elders to help me stay connected in that way.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
So it's the first step of many steps toward reparation, right? So you have to at least know who reparations are owed to for the land that you're on. Who are you paying rent to? And then you need to start paying the rent.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Lakota Playwright’s Take on Thanksgiving; Plus, Ayelet Waldman on Quilting to Stay Sane
Of course, thank you. Thanks for having me. So much fun.