Spiderwoman Theater is an American, indigenous women's performance troupe that blends traditional art forms with Western theater. Founded in 1976, the core of the group is formed by sisters Muriel Miguel, Gloria Miguel, and Lisa Mayo. It was the first Native American women's theater troupe and is named after the Spiderwoman deity from Hopi mythology.
History
Muriel Miguel, a founder of the Native American Theatre Ensemble at La MaMa, developed a piece with Lois Weaver based on three stories of the Hopi goddess Spiderwoman teaching people how to weave. Miguel's sisters, Lisa Mayo and Gloria Miguel, joined the group.
Spiderwoman Theater was founded in 1976 and the group premiered their first work, Women in Violence, at Washington Square Methodist Church. The play combined the actors' stories of violence, contrasting serious subject matter with slapstick and sexual humor. For the piece they created a simple lighting design and a backdrop made out of Native American quilts. They toured the play in the United States and Europe. At a theatre in Nancy, France, the women refused to sweep their performance space before their show. Hecklers gathered at the performance, upset that a male producer had to sweep the floor. Organizers of a later performance in Bologna, Italy cancelled it for fear of riots.
Spiderwoman Theater debuted their second play, The Lysistrata Numbah!, in 1977. The production melded Aristophanes' Lysistrata with group members' stories.
Schisms developed in the group that led to the theater dividing in two in 1981. The offshoot lesbian performance troupe Split Britches included Lois Weaver, Peggy Shaw, and Deb Margolin. Spiderwoman Theater continued on with the three sisters and shifted its focus to Native American issues that year with the play Sun, Moon and Feather. Spiderwoman Theater's Winnetou's Snake Oil Show from Wigwam City is a satire of the European and particularly German fascination with Native Americans. The play parodies the characters of dime-store novelist Karl May, New Ageism, and individuals who pretend to be Native American. The play includes a phony shaman workshop where white people are transformed into Indians for a weekend for $3000. According to the troupe, it was an act of resistance meant to reclaim their identity as real Native Americans. After Winnetou's Snake Oil Show, the sisters had enough remaining material they had been working on to have a new show, Reverb-ber-ber-rations.
Performance Documentation of the pieces "Women In Violence" (1976) and "Lysistrata Numbah!" (1977) were included in the WACK! Art and Feminist Revolution Exhibition, organized by Cornelia Butler and presented at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, March 4-July 16, 2007.