Trinity Repertory Company will present
"The Buz'Gem Blues" by Drew Hayden
Taylor, May 13 - June 19. Kennetch Charlette,
artistic director of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company,
will direct.
"The Buz'Gem Blues" is a comic tale of finding love later
in life. Tribal elder Amos is beginning to wonder if his twenty-something
girlfriend is really the one for him. Then he meets Martha, with whom
he has nothing in common but age. Can two people from opposing Nations
and beliefs find true love? There's a buz'gem ("sweetheart"
in Ojibway) out there for everyone.
Though Mr. Hayden Taylor's work is well known and often produced in
Canada, this is the first regional theater production of his work
in the United States. In staged readings, "The Buz'Gem Blues"
was the hit of Trinity's 2001 and 2002 Native theater festivals --
Theater From the Four Directions.
"'The Buz'Gem Blues' is the first full production of Theater
from the Four Directions," said artistic director Oskar
Eustis. "Drew Hayden Taylor's delightfully funny and
life-affirming tale of love and identity is the perfect choice: rooted
in Native experience, yet wonderfully accessible to a non-Native audience.
We believe this is the largest professional, entirely Native-led production
in American regional theater history."
Drew Hayden Taylor has done everything from stand-up comedy at the
Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. to lecturing at
the British Museum on the films of Sherman Alexie.
He is an award winning playwright, author of 15 books, a scriptwriter,
a humor columnist, short story writer and documentary film director
-- most notably "Redskins," "Tricksters"
and "Puppy Stew," a documentary
on Native humor for the National Film Board of Canada. His next project
is a book on Native humor set for publication next fall. The working
title is Me Funny. He is an Ojibway from the Curve Lake Reserve
in Central Ontario.
For tickets and information, stop by the box office at 201 Washington
Street in Providence, call 401-351-4242 or visit www.trinityrep.com.
