Students to premiere William S. Yellow Robe Jr. play at Black Box Theatre

October 25, 2016 Arts, School of Performing Arts

Wood Bones performance posterA cast of nine undergraduates will premiere “Wood Bones,” a play by Assiniboine playwright William Yellow Robe Jr., at the University of Maine Nov. 4.

Yellow Robe will direct the production, which is part of the School of Performing Arts season. Performances in the Black Box Theatre are at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 4–5 and Nov. 10–12; and 2 p.m. on Nov. 6 and Nov. 13. Tickets are $10 and available online.

For more information or to request a disability accommodation, call 581.4703.

The full-length play reminds audience members what they take and leave behind in their most secure and comfort places of life, says Yellow Robe, a member of the Assiniboine Tribe from the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana and a Visiting Libra Diversity Professor in the UMaine Department of English.

The main character in “Wood Bones” isn’t actually a person, though it’s portrayed by one onstage. Rather, 121 is the number of a house near a South Dakota reservation. As a character, 121 is a mixture of spirit energy, drawn from the people who have lived in the house over a 50-year period.

The play begins with, and periodically returns to, an ongoing dialogue between a Native man, Leroy and 121. Through their conversations, characters who once lived in the house are introduced, with key moments in their lives, experienced at 121, playing out onstage.

Through a process of ritual that last several days, 121 remembers and reproduces all the lives and events that have occurred in the space called “home.” “Wood Bones” is not a story of ghosts or the paranormal; it combines drama with strong references of Native tribal cultures and Native tribal theatre.

Contact: Jay Field, 207.581.3721 (M, TH, F); 207.338.8068 (Tu, W)