Nebraskan shares experiences researching Standing Bear
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By JEFF KORBELIK / GZO
New York City playwright and Nebraska native Chris Cartmill resorted to show-and-tell.
Realizing that many of his friends in the Big Apple didn’t know where Nebraska was, he drew a map to show them.
The prop has now become a permanent fixture of his monologue “The Nebraska Dispatches.”
What: "The Nebraska Dispatches"
Where: Johnny Carson Theater, 11th and Q streets
When: 7:30 Friday
Tickets: $18, $8 for students; 472-4747 or www.liedcenter.org
Note: A question-and-answer session with the playwright follows the performance.
“I have a line in the show that says Nebraska is not just a way to get to Colorado,” the playwright joked, referencing the famous 1976 New Yorker cartoon cover by Saul Steinberg, which depicts a map of the world as seen by self-absorbed New Yorkers.
“Many of my friends know now where it is, that’s for sure,” Cartmill said with a laugh.
Cartmill will present “The Nebraska Dispatches” tonight at the Johnny Carson Theater.
The work evolved from a play the Lied Center for Performing Arts commissioned Cartwright to create about the historic trial of Ponca Chief Standing Bear, who successfully argued in U.S. District Court in Omaha in 1879 that Natives are “persons” and have the rights of citizenship.
The Lied will present “Homeland” next year as part of its 2008-09 season.
Cartmill also has written a third piece, “Testimony,” based on his Standing Bear research. Like “Homeland,” “Testimony” is a multicharacter play.
Cartmill, an award-winning playwright, actor and director, is originally from Lincoln.
He’s spent more than four years working on “Homeland,” including returning to his home state to immerse himself in the lives of Natives in Nebraska.
Standing Bear was born on land that became the Ponca reservation in what is now Nebraska.
Directed by Christine Marie Brown, with sound designed by Philip Nolan,“Dispatches” was born from Cartmill’s research experiences.
The monologue is a personal, political and spiritual journey filled with humor, unlikely connections, Dickensian-like characters, a very small car, profound revelations about home — and the aforementioned map.
“The story I’m trying to tell (about Standing Bear) is intertwined with my own feelings about Nebraska as home,” Cartmill said. “It’s about the changing face of the state and the struggles we have to define our home.”
Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.
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