The Tenth Muse

When I taught my class of undergrads at Stony Brook University, I infused my graduate research in Native theater into my syllabus. I taught plays by Lynn Riggs, Bruce King and Luis Valdez. The impact on my students, especially those of Native and/or Hispanic descent, was noticeable. Students are brought up on a scholastic diet of the Western Canon, which is made up almost exclusively of dead white male writers. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that – in my last review I wrote about the multiple points of access to King Lear. But there’s always a disconnect if the artist doesn’t come from a background similar to that of the audience. My students of Native and Hispanic descent were able to engage with Mummified Deer better than perhaps any of my students of whatever background could with A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

So imagine my delight when I opened up my program and found out that The Tenth Muse would feature Indian characters! And not the racist kind that are POC servants who give wise advice to the white protagonists. No, the protagonist in The Tenth Muse is a mestiza. Other characters occupy other positions on the colonial Mexican social ladder. The play itself represents an exploration of the social hierarchy in 17^th century Mexico. “Why, that’s irrelevant to us 21^st century Americans,” you may opine. “Not to me,” I might respond. My own family was colonized in the 19^th century by the United States. Granted, the structure of colonization between California in 1850 and Mexico in 1650 are markedly different: in Mexico, the Catholic Church was a major player and the goal was to enslave the indigenous population. In northern California, the goal was to kill us all, irrespective of anybody’s religion. That said, both Karuks and Nahuas (my tribe and the tribe represented in Tenth Muse respectively) suffered colonization. In both instances, people of mixed-race (like me) constituted a challenge to the racial hierarchy established in the Western hemisphere. So, yeah, this play resonated with me, and it’s not even about the kind of Indian I am. In a theatrical culture where Shakespeare is the bane of the working playwright, it’s a breath of fresh air to see a Shakespeare festival commissioning a new work. And its especially invigorating for that new work to be by a playwright outside of the Anglo mainstream. And that it’s a play with strong Native over-tones? I love it.