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Larissa FastHorse

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Larissa FastHorse is a Native American playwright and choreographer. Growing up in South Dakota, she was originally a ballet dancer and choreographer. FastHorse was forced into an early retirement after ten years of dancing due to an injury. However, she always remained interested in writing. After involvement with the Native American film community, she chose to become more involved in the TV and film scene. Later she began writing and directing her own plays, a few of which are published through Dramatic Publishing.

Contents

Urban rez playwright larissa fasthorse


Career

FastHorse became involved with the Native American film community and spoke at film festivals and panels. She was even a delegate in 2000 to the United Nations in Geneva where she spoke on the power film can have for indigenous peoples. FastHorse then chose to broaden her experience and shifted from a career as a dancer and choreographer, to feature television and film development.

First she worked for Universal Pictures before she found employment at Latham Entertainment at Paramount as the creative executive. At the same time, however, she also produced a short film. That short film went on to screen at festivals all over the globe causing FastHorse to once again switch her focus, this time from television and film to writing and directing.

While writing and working on many projects of her own making, FastHorse also served as a panelist for The Film and Video Fellowships which was formerly named the Rockefeller Fellowship. Aside from possessing the Film and Video Fellowships, she has been involved with many other networks and theatre companies. She has written commissioned pieces for the Alter Theatre in San Rafael, CA, Cornerstone Theatre Company and Native Voices at the Autry both located in Los Angeles, CA, as well as the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis, MN, the Kennedy Center for Young Audiences in Washington, D.C., and for Mountainside Theater in Cherokee, N.C. Similarly, she has developed new plays with the Arizona Theatre Company, Tucson, AZ, the Center Theatre Group Writer's Workshop, Los Angeles,CA, and Berkley Rep's Ground FLoor, Berkley, CA.

Honors and Awards

  • 2006 FastHorse completed a fellowship from Fox Diversity Writer's Initiative Programs
  • recipient of the 2015-2016 Joe Dowling Annaghmakerig Fellowship Award
  • National Endowment for the Arts Distinguished New Play Development Grant
  • AATE Distinguished Play Award
  • William Inge Center for the Arts Playwriting Residency
  • Sundance Institute-Ford Foundation Fellowship
  • Aurand Harris Fellowship
  • member of the Center Theatre Group Writer’s Workshop in 2011-2012
  • Center Theatre Group 2011-2012
  • Two for New Works grant recipient
  • National Geographic Seed Grant
  • Delegate to the UN in Geneva

    • Television credits

  • The Line (pilot; Fox)
  • Lakota Falls (pilot; Teen Nick)

    • Theatre credits

    Choreography
  • Unto These Hills, Cherokee, NC, 2008-2011
    • Writing
  • Meeting Mom is an original short story about FastHorse's feelings after meeting her birthmother for the first time.
  • Average Family was a piece commissioned by the Children's Theater Company.
  • Fancy Dancer was also based on FastHorse's life, won FastHorse the 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Distinguishing New Play Development Grant. It was not directed by FastHorse, however, but instead by Peter Brosius.
  • Lazarus Rises was able to run a staged reading funded by the Sundance Institute/ Ford Foundation Fellowship and Grant. Lazarus Rises is an autobiographical metaphor that follows three differently disabled Native Americans veterans as they adventure across the state of South Dakota. Surprisingly enough, the blind man is behind the wheel.
  • Urban Rez is a community-engaged production that was created by FastHorse in collaboration with members of the Native American community of Los Angeles.
  • Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders: A Class Presentation was the first of three commission with the Native Voices at the Autry in Los Angeles.
  • Cherokee Family Reunion premiered in July 2012 at the Alter Theatre in association with the Cherokee Historical Association.
  • A Dancing People was commissioned by the Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences. The play brings together writing backgrounds as well as dance to blend together spoken words and dancing movements.
  • Hunka was invited to be apart of the Arizona Theatre Company's Inaugural Cafe Bohemia season.

    • Personal

    FastHorse is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Lakota people. She lives with husband, sculptor Edd Hogan in Santa Monica.

    References

    Larissa FastHorse Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA