Immediate Medium
WINNETOU, I.T. – The Electric Indian
August 25, 2013
online helvetica, sans-serif;”>IN RESIDENCE: August 6-26 2013
For its fourth residency as part of IRT’s 3B Development Series, Immediate Medium is embarking on its biggest project to date,WINNETOU (vin-e-too), I.T., a three-part examination of the former Indian Territory and its descendant, the present day state of Oklahoma.
Workshop Showings:
Sunday, August 25, 7pm
Ticket Price: $10, suggested donation. Free beer.
At IRT: 154 Christopher st. #3B (third floor)
Direction: JJ Lind
Choreography: Jillian Sweeney
Projection and Video: Rob Ramirez
Production Design: Maki Takenouchi
With Max Dana, Siobhan Towey, James Allerdyce, Julie Stainer-Loehr, and Brady Jenkins
The first installment, THE ELECTRIC INDIAN, reimagines the events following Cherokee relocation to Indian Territory as an historically accurate, all-white fantasia of Indianness. Its central character is the controversial Cherokee figure Elias C. Boudinot, a half-Cherokee Confederate colonel and founder of the small railroad town of Vinita, Oklahoma. Boudinot, the son of a prominent chief, advocated passionately on Indian affairs, but was vilified by his own people for his role in opening the door to white settlement in Indian Territory and for his father’s role in the Trail of Tears.
The piece draws upon Boudinot’s well-known lectures of the day — which were fuel for much 19th century mythology about native people — and remixes them with traditional Cherokee storytelling techniques, 21st century technologies, and found historical, anthropological, and mass market Indian “artifacts.” Through ritual, dance, projection and song, THE ELECTRIC INDIAN envisions Boudinot as a charismatic evangelical magician. As he extols the wonders of the Great American Civilization, he is glorified, amplified and fetishized by its technologies as a magical, mythical and rarely-seen being — a modern day unicorn, The Indian.