Indigenous Performing Arts Residency

About the Indigenous Performing Arts Residency

In fall 2023, the Arts Research Center and the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) collaborated to create a multi-year Indigenous Performing Artist Residency (IPAR) program. The IPAR is a 3-year invitation to a local performing arts company working with Indigenous performers, whether playwrights, dancers, musicians, or performance artists, to:

  • host one of their yearly performances by emerging Indigenous performing artists on campus at Berkeley
  • support for their chosen artist to visit campus during the performance as an Artist-in-Residence
  • a public talk, talk back, or artist lecture to support the work
  • an opportunity for the artist to work with students in class visits, etc.

The mission of the IPAR program is to strengthen relationships with Indigenous community partners and to create ongoing financial and material support for upcoming Indigenous performing artists so that Native stories can be told on our campus now and into the future. It utilizes the longstanding collaborative partnership that ARC and TDPS have established with each other over many years, and utilizes both our units’ connections to local California theater and performing arts organizations off campus. 

The program stems from the idea that embodied theater and performance practices are a site of historical remembering and knowledge production. The Indigenous Performing Artist Residency builds a relationship with a local performance company for multiple years, to premiere Native or Indigenous creative works in their theater/performance space. ARC and TDPS will then collaborate to reprise those artistic works in one of our campus performance spaces. During the presentation of the performance, the artist(s) will be invited to campus to meet with our community, give talks, engage with our students in a variety of ways that best support the artistic production. 

The Bay Area's Alternative Theater Ensemble was chosen as Berkeley’s inaugural partnership company for the 2024-2026 period, and offers them the opportunity to workshop or present a play by an Indigenous playwright each spring on campus. 

Alternative Theater Ensemble seeks to create a more just, equitable community by supporting the creative growth of theater artists from historically underrepresented communities, and telling stories that reflect the full complexity and diversity of our community. Their work centers the spiritual and emotional well-being of Black and Indigenous people, casting roles in ways that break stereotypes rather than reinforce them and creating opportunities for both established and emerging artists to learn and support each other in their craft.

– Read more about ATElineline

2025 Playwright-in-Residence: Drew Woodson

Drew Woodson is a Western Shoshone playwright based in New York City. He has had his work read in multiple theaters across New York, including Rattlestick Theater where he was asked to open the first annual Northeastern Native Arts Festival with his play “Your Friend, Jay Silverheels.” For this same work, Drew was named Yale's Young Indigenous Playwright of 2021. More recently, Drew completed a two month artists residency on Governors Island for AICH, and completed a workshop of a new work “From Above” under the direction of Madeline Sayet. As a writer, Drew seeks to tell stories where Native people are allowed to take up space, be complicated, and ultimately be more than a storytelling device. Drew is an MFA Graduate from the Dramatic Writing department at NYU, and an alumni of UC Berkeley's Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies.

Woodson will be in residence with the Arts Research Center and Dept of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies the week of April 14 - 19, 2025. He will participate in class visits, work with Alternative Theater Ensemble to create three staged readings of his play, and participate in a talk back discussion.  

man in plaid jacket wearing glasses leaning against a wall with skyline behind him

Playwright Drew Woodson

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2024 Playwright-in-Residence: Blossom Johnson

Playwrite Blossom Johnson was in residence at the Arts Research Center from April 7th to 14th, 2024. Over the course of her residency she fine-tuned the script of Diné Nishłį, (i am a sacred being) or, A Boarding School Play, visited TDPS Professor Timmia Hearn DeRoy's Directing as a Social Justice Practice course, participated in a free & public talkback alongside Director Daniel Leeman Smith, and oversaw four staged readings of Diné Nishłį, (i am a sacred being) or, A Boarding School Play at Durham Studio Theater and the Arts Research Center.

Her script for Diné Nishłį, (i am a sacred being) or, A Boarding School Play was studied by the students of Indigenous Language Revitalization with ARC Director & Professor Beth Piatote, Playwriting with Professor Philip Kan Gotanda, and Directing as a Social Justice Practice with Professor Timmia Hearn DeRoy.

AlterTheater presented Diné Nishłį (i am a sacred being) or, A Boarding School Play, by Blossom Johnson as the inaugural showcase of the Indigenous Performing Arts Residency.

Poster for production by AlterTheater titled "Diné Nishłį́ (I am a sacred being) or, A Boarding School Play" by Blossom Johnson: features four individuals walking side by side, dressed in blue shirts and purple pants
Blossom Johnson wears a white T-shirt with a "MONSTER SLAYERS" illustration and text standing in front of lush green foliage. She is wearing with large, patterned circular earrings.

Playwright Blossom Johnson

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Diné Nishłį (i am a sacred being) or, A Boarding School Play was a humorous and poignant exploration of coming of age and coming into identity, set at a prep school on the Navajo Reservation that was formerly an American Indian boarding school. With the backdrop of the events of 9/11 and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, four teenage girls participate in a traditional song and dance group to celebrate their Navajo heritage. Along the way, they encounter the spirited opinions of their teachers, the ghosts of the school’s history, and the visions of their future.

“This play celebrates Diné language, songs and culture in the best way I know," Johnson shares. "There are so many elements of Diné storytelling in this play, and I hope Diné people feel empowered and encouraged to learn something new about their culture. Maybe they will walk away with one song or remember a time when they were young and heard their grandparents singing.” 

More info here