He'eo'o
Winner of the 2019 Native Storytellers Contest with the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program!
Sections
Characters: 3M : 3W or 3M : 4W
Synopsis: Emile is a racially ambiguous young woman new to an urban city, an office job, and her coworker/new roommate’s friend group. Sera, Marion, Mack, Marc, and Luca have known one another since childhood and/or their time throughout undergraduate studies. All are white and liberal feminists that have proudly separated themselves from the people they believe spew hate and oppress marginalized groups. However, Emile finds herself isolated and the recipient of “well-intended” commentary. All while Emile is navigating her place in this group and Mack’s seemingly genuine affections, she is taking care of her younger sister, Yamin who lives in her hometown, 19 hours away. When things start to spin out of control over the course of a weekend, Emile quickly realizes that keeping quiet is no longer a viable option. Her “friends” mean well; that has to count for something, right? Celebrating intersectionality and living prove to be two different things.
Licensing: Uproar Theatrics
He'eo'o
Characters: 5M : 3W
Quantum
Bound
2019 Native American New Play Festival Winner with Oklahoma Indigenous Theatre Company!
Characters: 4M : 1W : 1N
Synopsis: Weaving through time from the 1850s to modern day, the intersection of sacred, ancestral land and tribal sovereignty as innate rights are explored in Bound, but do these rights end where the boundary of Mexico begins? Marigold Page is a Tohono O'odham woman working to resist the construction of a wall along the southern border of the United States as it would split her Nation in half. She meets John, a land surveyor, and as a romance blossoms an oil company representative attempts to build a pipeline through their land following the decision at Standing Rock. Rouge border patrol agents, oil tycoons, and a hesitant tribal council are what Marigold must face in order to assure that her ancestral lands remain intact for future generations. Paralleling this fight are the events surrounding the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, the building of a transcontinental railroad through Indigenous lands, Manifest Destiny, and the redrawing of the Mexican-American border in the name of southern imperialism. Marigold is determined that history does not repeat itself.
Hamlet: El Príncipe de Denmark
2019 Native American New Play Festival Winner with Oklahoma Indigenous Theatre Company!
Characters: 6M : 3W : 2N
Synopsis: This bilingual play takes place during the Indigenous Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos in the midst of a colonization battle. However, unlike the thousands of celebrations before, a ghost returns to seek revenge for his unnatural death by the hands of his brother. Hamlet must fulfill his late father's wishes while protecting his culture as the new regime attempts to erase it for greed, land, and power shown to them by England and Spain. Adapted by Tara Moses, written by William Shakespeare, translations by Editorial Porrúa.
All of Tara's plays are available for download on New Play Exchange. Click the icon above. Also please feel free to visit the contact page for any inquiries.
Background image from the reading of Quantum at Primary Stages, photography by Erin Daley
Synopsis: Gun smoke, burning embers, and the cries of women and children is the new reality for a sleepy Cheyenne village that asked the United States Government for peace seven days prior. Following the early morning attack by the 7th U.S. Calvary lead by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, the surviving women are broken, beaten, and bleeding while they await their impending doom. Fueled by her desire to lead her people, avenge her father’s death, and the spiritual support of the Great Spirit Maheo’o, Walking Woman remains resilient. Inspired by Trojan Women by Euripides, He'eo'o (Translation: Women, pronunciation: eh-yo or ā-yō) asks the question: when white men, when Americans write the history books how will we know the truth?
2020 and 2021 Finalist for the National Playwrights Conference with the Eugene O'Neill Center!
Characters: 3M : 5W
Synopsis: Ivy Johnson was adopted in the fall of 1998 to a Mexican American mother and an African American father. Although it's obvious that she's of color, she has never known where she comes from or her racial background - that is until she sorts through her mail at Thanksgiving. The following weeks come with major discoveries, but they only leave her with more questions. What makes someone Native? A blood quantum mandate demanded by the Federal Government? Culture, language, and pride? What does it mean when your identity is stripped away from you? Rediscovering culture, reclaiming Indigenous identity, and learning what it means to be a Native woman in contemporary America is the road Ivy must travel. Inspired by my maternal grandfather's story.
Watch a digital recording of a reading of Quantum directed by Jake Hart and produced by the American Indian Community House in July 2020!
Don Juan
Don Juan
Characters: 3M : 3W : 1N plus a chorus
Synopsis: Set in modern day and inspired by the Spanish romantic-phantasmagoric-religious drama Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla, Don Juan changes the narrative to reflect agency, accountability, and the dangers of machismo culture. Don Juan is a notorious playboy whose only interest in life is seducing women - with or without their consent. He learns that his best friend (and former partner in crime) Don Luis is getting married to news anchor Doña Ana who has been covering an upcoming event led by activists to honor women and girls who have been killed by machismo men during Dia de Los Muertos. Don Juan convinces Don Luis to engage in one last bet - seduce Doña Inés who recently joined the Convento de la Dama de Guadalupe...and Doña Ana for the pot of money he's saved for his wedding. Classic sword-fighting, Spanish ballroom dance, and social commentary on consent, abuse, and toxic masculinity are sprinkled throughout the play as machismo culture leaves a trail of victims in its wake. Featuring original text by José Zorrilla.
Arbeka
Part of the Oklahoma Cycle
Arbeka
Part of the Oklahoma Cycle
The creation and development of this play was supported by the First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship
Characters: 3M : 3W
Synopsis: Loretta Cloud, the family’s matriarch invites the audience in for a story about her family during one weekend at Arbeka. Her screenwriter niece, Hokte Tiger has been away for over a decade, and she is finally coming back home. After a tragedy last summer and a professional mistake made by Hokte, there's healing to be done. Told through stories, humor, food, music, and dance Hokte remembers what it means to be a Tiger. Arbeka is the first play of the Oklahoma Cycle.
Patchwork
Part of the Oklahoma Cycle
Patchwork
Part of the Oklahoma Cycle
Characters: 1M : 3W
Synopsis: After reuniting with her niece last summer, the family's matriarch Loretta Cloud surprises Hokte with a Seminole patchwork dress with Mvskoke ribbon work. This 10-minute play takes place nearly a year after Arbeka in the Oklahoma Cycle Universe.
Snag
Part of the Oklahoma Cycle
Snag
Part of the Oklahoma Cycle
Commissioned by AlterTheatre Ensemble
Characters: 3M : 2W
Synopsis: It was the summer of love...well about 11 years too late. In the summer of 1978 in Wewoka, OK, Loretta Cloud is working on finishing her nursing degree, and Pancake is joining national movements for Native rights (and robbing the occasional gas station on the side). They have an undeniable spark - a spark Loretta's brother Joe is determined will not ignite. However, the biggest threat to their budding relationship isn't Joe. Narrated by their eldest son, Jimmy Lee Cloud-Harjo, Snag is the second play in the Oklahoma Cycle and the world's first NDN rom-com (we think).
Oñgwehoñwe’
Oñgwehoñwe’
Commissioned by Geva Theatre Center
Characters: 1M : 2W
Synopsis: The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples hangs in the balance. In just a few, short hours decades of work will either be realized or destroyed. Famed Onondaga lawyer, Tonya Gonnella Frichner is determined to secure safety and human rights for millions of Indigenous peoples globally - that is if she can connect with Representative and Ambassador of China Wang Guangya before it's too late. Oñgwehoñwe’ (The Real People) is a 10-minute play.
Sugar
Sugar
Commissioned by Kitchen Dog Theater
Characters: 3M : 3W
Synopsis: Brooke is just trying to make ends meet. As a young woman of color attempting to navigate the world without a family, support system, or access to opportunity, she finds herself working over 90 hours a week at three jobs to pay rent, bill collectors, student loans, and manage one meal a day – and she still comes up short every single week. That is, until she is presented with an opportunity that she cannot say no to. Taking agency over her life is the only reason Brooke needs to enter the Sugar Bowl.
Billie
Part of the Oklahoma Cycle
Billie
Part of the Oklahoma Cycle
Characters: 2M : 4W
Synopsis: Billie girls don't doubt themselves when it comes to love. In 1950, Billie Starr meets Charles Tiger, the love of her life, outside a bus station during a road trip to Oklahoma City from Seminole Nation - and she doesn't waste a single moment. We the soulmates still happily in love 58 years later in 2008 as Charles tends to Billie while she is in home hospice care for advanced kidney cancer. Paralleling their love story is another: Billie's granddaughter who shares her names and her unapologetic attitude towards love, Billie Cloud-Harjo. In 2005, Billie Cloud-Harjo and best friend Vanessa Lowe have some realizations - they've been in love with each other for years and both been too chicken to do something about it. Being a young queer couple in Oklahoma during 2005 comes with its fair share of challenges, but ultimately those challenges aren't the biggest problems they have. By 2008, granddaughter Billie is no longer talking to Vanessa - and there's nothing her loving grandparents can do to change her mind. But is everything exactly as it seems?
A multi-generational story about unconditional love spanning 58 years, Billie is the 3rd play in the Oklahoma Cycle.
Poyvfekcv
Poyvfekcv
Commissioned by the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program
Characters: 1W : 2N
Synopsis: Siblings Dylan and J set out in the woods during the witching hour to investigate an abandoned house on the Mvskoke Reservation despite the many warnings from their mother and elders to not mess around with bad spirits. However, Dylan is determined to see if Creator even exists. A 10-minute play about crisis of faith and culture, Poyvfekcv reminds us of those who came before.
Indigenous, selections of Quantum by Tara Moses
Indigenous, selections of Quantum by Tara Moses
No Peeking Theatre
Jersey City, NJ
June 2018
Photography by: Acid Test Photography