Welcome to Broadway Stages' Spotlight, where we feature local shops, restaurants, organizations, individuals, and venues. We encourage our readers to consider supporting these organizations to advance the local community. November is National Native American Heritage Month. Native American Indians have made an essential and unique contribution to our city, nation, and world. This week, we bring you Spiderwoman Theater, an Indigenous women's performance troupe based in Brooklyn.

In 1976, Muriel Miguel gathered a diverse group of women at the Washington Square Methodist Church, including her sisters Lisa Mayo and Gloria Miguel. From this gathering, a movement coalesced that became the Spiderwoman Theater. Today, it is the longest-running Indigenous women's performance troupe in the nation and has been called a pillar of New York's experimental theater scene by The New York Times. Today, the sisters have written and produced over twenty original works for the theater.

The collective's genesis lies in the disillusionment with the treatment of women in radical political movements of the 1970s. The three sisters currently form the core of the company. Their maternal grandmother was a Rappahannock from Virginia, and their father was a Kuna from the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama.

All three sisters were the creative forces behind the group's works and performances. Lisa received classical training as a mezzo-soprano, then studied dance with Uta Hagen and musical comedy with Charles Nelson Riley; Gloria went to Oberlin College in Ohio and studied drama with Herbert Blau; and Muriel trained as a dancer until joining Joseph Chaiken and his avant-garde improvisational company, The Open Theatre.

By the early 1980s, the Spiderwoman Theater emerged as a leading force for Indigenous women, artists, and cultural artisans. While the three Brooklyn-born sisters hail from the Kuna and Rappahannock nations, members varied in age, race, sexual orientation, and worldview. The group's performances tackled issues like sexism, racism, classism, and violence in women's lives. Gender roles, cultural stereotypes, and sexual and economic oppression were questioned as well. Indigenous communities worldwide recognize it as a powerful voice for their concerns.

The company took the name "Spiderwoman Theater" after the weaver in the Hopi creation story. Manifesting the spirit of story weaving is core to its performances; the women use a variety of formats, including poetry, dance, theater, and song. The pieces are organically layered with movement, text, sound, music, and visual images. But they also intertwine humor with popular culture, personal histories, and their sometimes shocking style. Strung together with bursts of color, pop culture, and various art forms, the synergism of all these elements creates a three-dimensional tapestry embodied in space and becomes a theater production.

The women of Spiderwoman continue to move forward in their ambition of creating an artistic environment where Indigenous arts and culture are vital to the larger arts community. Sadly, Lisa passed away in 2013 due to complications from Alzheimer's Disease. Gloria told Westbeth, "We still feel her onstage. She's there and backstage. After a show, we all used to get together. She's still there. I still wait for her."

You can help ensure the company's future by making a tax-deductible donation. Just click here. And while you are at it, follow them on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming performances and workshops.

There is a Native American proverb that says, "Tell me the facts, and I'll learn. Tell me the truth, and I'll believe. But tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever." Broadway Stages is proud to play a role in bringing so many stories to life; we admire Spiderwoman Theater as they pay homage to the stories and storytellers from their heritage and give us all stories that will live in our hearts forever.