photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Allison Levering (left) and Myrna Red Leaf rehearsing for the Thunderbird Theatre's production of the production of “Wounspe Wanktya—A College Education." The cast and crew of Haskell Indian Nations University's student theater company said they really connected to the play because of its themes and Native storytelling, and it will perform the production Friday, April 17 at 7 p.m.

Haskell students and community members will bring back an inactive theater group on campus for its first independent production since the COVID-19 pandemic with a play that centers Native stories.

The school’s Thunderbird Theatre, a theater company at Haskell Indian Nations University that started in 1975, will put on their first show after a long hiatus, with the production of “Wounspe Wanktya — A College Education” by Lakota playwright Alexandra Hesbrook Ramier. That performance will take place Friday, April 17 at 7 p.m. in the Haskell Auditorium, 2425 Choctaw Ave.

“Wounspe Wanktya — A College Education,” which was first staged in Minnesota in 2019, tells the story of two Lakota girls from the Pine Ridge Reservation who go to college at a big state school in a place that is “in a not typically native area,” according to Jade Warrington, a senior at Haskell producing the play.

Although the two women, Tiffany and Tashina, have opposite personalities — Tiffany is a “party girl” who is getting good grades despite struggling with addictions while Tashina is struggling in school and becoming depressed — they stick together in part because they are the only students from their reservation. After Tashina attempts suicide and is left in the hospital, the girls decide then to make a “healing dress” to help them through college. The issue is, they don’t know “anything about how to make a dress,” Warrington said.

Over the course of the play, the girls connect with the campus community — from a mostly white knitting club to the Native student union — build different connections and go through the ups and downs of college life as they work to create the dress. Through this, the two girls experience their own “healing journeys,” Warrington said, which first brings them apart and then back together.

Warrington said the production is very special, not only because it brings back the dormant theater group but because it is the first time the production is being put on by an all-Native cast and all college students.

“This is a big deal for us,” Warrington said.

photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Jade Warrington, the assistant director for the Thunderbird Theatre group’s production of “Wounspe Wanktya—A College Education” poses in front of the Haskell Auditorium, 2425 Choctaw Ave.

Virginia Snake-Bumann, the set designer for the play, said even though she is not a current Haskell student, she wanted to do anything she could “to see the play succeed.” Snake-Bumann went to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and she said the theme of navigating college as a Native student “hit home for her.”

Snake-Bumann is one of the 36 people who are taking part in the production, according to Warrington, and she is not alone in feeling drawn to the story. The production team can “see parts of themselves” in each character, Warrington said, noting the two leads — Myrna Red Leaf who plays Tashina and Allison Levering who plays Tiffany — have been able to tap into a strong connection because of their Native background.

The resurrection of the Thunderbird Theatre group is something that Warrington is incredibly proud of, but the play will feature a lot more of Haskell’s performing arts groups. Warrington said that many of the student groups were “put on pause” during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they are starting to become active once again. The production will feature members of the Haskell Chorus, a Haskell rock band and traditional hand drummers, and Warrington said she is excited to bring all those elements together.

“Being able to showcase all the aspects of arts at Haskell on one stage is really special to me,” Warrington said.

Snake-Bumann said she was excited to see the performance after all the work the students put in despite limited resources. Although arts at Haskell can sometimes be seen as traditional crafts like beading, she said that performance is a very important form of expression for Native people. She hopes bringing back the theater group can give more students a way to tap into to different ways of expression.

“We have always been storytellers,” Snake-Bumann said.

Along with the performance, which will last about one hour, Warrington said the original playwright and cast will be on hand afterward for a Q&A session. The performance is free. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the play will start at 7 p.m.

photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Members of the Thunderbird Theatre company rehearse ahead of a production of “Wounspe Wanktya—A College Education.” It will be the first full performance from the Thunderbird Theatre since before the COVID-19 pandemic.