NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

Contact: Georgiana Lee, 402-472-0497 or glee3@unl.edu

STARR'S ONE-WOMAN COMEDY SHOW HITS THE MIDWEST BATTLING STEREOTYPES
WITH WIT AND SONG

LINCOLN, Neb.—June 24, 2009—Verna Yahola’s All Nation’s Café in Sapulpa, Okla., is where the all magic—and mayhem—happens. Legendary Choctaw country music star Patty Jones has asked Verna if she can do her 10th anniversary TV special at the eatery. Add a punk rock star from England, mix in a Navajo fry cook, stir in an Indian activist and fold in six more characters to let one of the most energetic productions from actress/singer/songwriter Arigon Starr set and you’ll have the makings of a smorgasbord filled with laughter, original music and fun.

Native American Public Telecommunications’ Native Radio Theater project presents a live recording of Native Voices at the Autry's The Red Road July 17-18 at the Terry M. Carpenter Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Center. The show is being presented in association with Nebraska Educational Telecommunications and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film.

Written and performed by Starr (Kickapoo/Creek), this one-woman show takes audiences straight to the heart of Indian Country by stepping back to the summer of 1977. Verna Yahola, a 35-year-old Creek woman, is more than a little bit country. Her fry cook and confidante and bingo fanatic help Verna hold it together. And her patrons and friends gather at one the best spots on legendary Route 66 to show what a slice of Native America is about.

“The Red Road in Lincoln is going to be a hoot,” Starr said. “We’re reworking the script especially for the radio audience. There are many elements of the show that will translate from the stage production, however. We’ve also found brand new ways to bring the story to life—we’re gonna put the listeners right in the middle of the All Nations Café.”

The Red Road is based on a real truck stop owned by a Red Lake Chippewa man along Interstate 5 in Washington. The characters are composites of friends and relatives and people who Starr has met along the way. Starr developed the play with Native Voices at the Autry, the only professional theater company in the U.S. devoted to developing and producing new plays by Native Americans. Native Voices at the Autry produced The Red Road world premiere in 2006 at the Los Angeles-based Autry National Center.

The Red Road is being recorded live for NAPT’s Native Radio Theater, a project created in 2005 in partnership with Native Voices at the Autry. The Lincoln production will be directed by award-winning television and audio producer Dirk Maggs of London. Principally known for his work in radio, Maggs pioneered the use of Dolby Sound in BBC radio and has evolved radio drama into “audio movies,” which involves combing scripts, layered sound effects, cinematic music and cutting-edge technology. From 2003 to 2005, he produced new radio episodes of The Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

The live recording in Lincoln will be Starr’s second recording for Native Radio Theater. Starr’s radio comedy series, SUPER INDIAN, a spoof on a Native American superhero, was distributed and broadcasted in 2007. The Red Road and the fourth season of Native Radio Theater are slated for distribution to tribal and public radio stations this fall.

Native Radio Theater is the only Native American programming of its kind produced for public radio in the country, and is heard through tribal, public and community radio stations throughout the nation. The program is funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

To read more about NAPT's Native Radio Theater and learn about past projects, go to www.airos.org. For The Red Road press kit, go to www.nativetelecom.org/nrt_the+redroad. For other information about Arigon Starr and The Red Road, the show The Los Angeles Times and Daily Variety called “witty, insightful and lively,” go to the performer’s website at: www.arigonstarr.com/Red_Road/presspage.html.

Tickets for the Lincoln show at 7:30 p.m., July 17, and at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., July 18 at the Terry M. Carpenter Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Center, 1800 N. 33rd St., are on sale now. Cost is $12 (includes a $2 service fee). For more information, call 402-472-4747, or to purchase tickets online go to http://unltheatretickets.universitytickets.com.

A brown bag lunch with Arigon Starr and Director Dirk Maggs is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. July 16 at UNL’s Nebraska East Union on 37th and Fair streets. Call or email Georgiana Lee at 402-472-0497 or glee3@unl.edu for more information about the lunch workshop.

About NAPT:

Native American Public Telecommunications, Inc., shares Native stories with the world through support of the creation, promotion and distribution of Native media with offices in Lincoln, Neb., and Albuquerque, N.M. NAPT support makes it possible for public television audiences to view such quality programs as March Point, a coming of age story about three teens from the Swinomish Tribe who question the existence of two oil refineries on the reservation. Other NAPT products include AIROS.org, an online radio station with 24-hour Native music, and VisionMaker Video, an online catalog of DVDs produced for PBS, and distributor of March Point and other documentaries by and about Native Americans. Native Radio Theater can be heard on AIROS.org this fall.

For more information on NAPT, go to www.nativetelecom.org.

About Native Voices at the Autry:

Native Voices at the Autry is the nation’s premiere equity theater company devoted to developing and producing new works for the stage by Native American playwrights under artistic Director Randy Reinholz (Choctaw) and Executive Director Jean Bruce Scott. Established at the Autry National Center in 1999, Native Voices provides a supportive and collaborative setting for Native American playwrights, actors and theater artists from across the U.S. and Canada. The 2009-2010 season marks the 10th anniversary of the theater company. Native Voices has produced 12 new play festivals, six playwright retreats and more than 80 workshops and public-staged readings. New plays, which have had national and international tours, include Please Do Not Touch the Indians, SUPER INDIAN, Salvage, Joy Harjo's Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, and Métis playwright Marie Clements' Now Look What You Made Me Do and Urban Tattoo. Through its Young Native Voices: Theater Education Project, Native Voices provides workshops and residencies for young Native writers and actors through public-staged readings of 5- to 10-minute plays and student/community productions of traditional stories.

To learn more about Native Voices at the Autry, go to www.autrynationalcenter.org or www.myspace.com/nativevoices.

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