When not teaching at Arizona State University, or running the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program, playwright Madeline Sayet is performing her own work. Beginning October 28, Sayet will perform her intimate and exhilarating solo piece Where We Belong at The Public Theater in New York City.
In a spirit that honors the content, The Public Theater is inviting those who identify as part of the Indigenous and Native community “to join us during the run for free.”
In Where We Belong, Sayer — the great-niece of the late Gladys Tantaquidgeon, a Mohegan medicine woman and anthropologist — delivers soliloquies as she “mourns the suppression of her Indigenous language, and the assimilation that brought about its dormancy.”
Sayet first performed the autobiographical piece in 2019 at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, making her the first Native American playwright to have her work performed in that space. In 2021, the piece was produced as a film adaptation by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and directed by Mei Ann Teo. Watch below.
Where We Belong will be in performances at The Public Theater from October 28 to November 27, 2022, then travels to Portland Center Stage (February 25-March 26, 2023) and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (August 26-October 14, 2023).
