Theater Review: Cultural details are essential to Autry production of ‘They Don’t Talk Back’
Not every theater production begins with a field trip to the far reaches of Alaska. For the director and four cast members of “They Don’t Talk Back,” a play by Frank Henry Kaash Katasse, a journey to a remote Tlingit fishing village somehow seemed essential.
The play is the newest production from the “Native Voices” series at the Autry National Center, which has hosted the Native American theater program since 1999. The program’s goal of “cultural immersion” led to a five-hour ferry ride outside of Juno to a village of 200 people, said Randy Reinholz, who leads the series and is directing the play.
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By the time “They Don’t Talk Back” opens March 2 at the Autry’s Wells Fargo Theatre, all the cultural details will be as accurate as possible. “We worked with language experts,” he added. “There is Tlingit language, Tlingit dancing, there’s Tlingit songs, there’s a pantomime based on traditional performance and aspects of Tlingit culture.”
Reinholz compared the play’s central story to the traditional “City Mouse and Country Mouse,” where a city cousin returns to the family village with “all his trappings and attitude against the backdrop of grandparents raising their grandchildren.” All is not well, with parents suffering from substance abuse, and a military veteran father who is still shaken with PTSD from his tour of duty in the first U.S. war in Iraq.
“The grandson’s there and it’s as simple as him learning what love is, what a family is,” he explained. “It’s a very tough environment — the geography of a small fishing village.”
Reinholz, a descendant of the Choctaw tribe, co-founded the “Native Voices” program with his wife Jean Bruce Scott in 1993, while teaching at Illinois State University. After a career working in theater and television, it was his first work with Native American theater.
“I realized the reason I haven’t been involved is there really isn’t much going on,” he said. “That led to: why not? And you see if you can make a difference.”
The program was created to develop and produce “new works for the stage by Native American, Alaska Native and First Nations playwrights,” according to the Autry.
For the Native American writers who have developed their work through the program, having a production of their play in Los Angeles with professional actors and stage production can be an important boost. “Like anything, it’s a step in a career,” said Reinholz. “I think it can be empowering to have a greater audience see their work and interpret it back to them. Our audiences are very vocal. It’s great to hear the feedback and see people engaged at that level.”
Audiences who have been drawn to the program are about 35 percent Native American, Reinholz estimated. The rest represents a wide range of backgrounds and interests.
“A friend put it well: ‘Hey, the audience looks like Los Angeles!’” said Reinholz, who notes that the Los Angeles area is known to have the largest urban population of Native Americans anywhere — about 200,000.
The new play is also the first production Reinholz has personally directed since 2009. His increasing duties as an administrator at San Diego State has meant less time to devote to directing.
“So this has been a real treat,” Reinholz said of working on Katasse’s play. “This particular production has great moving images and a really sophisticated soundscape. It’s exciting to direct and work with a writer and get his vision of what it should be.”
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What: “Native Voices at the Autry Presents: ‘They Don’t Talk Back’”
Where: Wells Fargo Theatre, Autry National Center, 4700 Western Heritage Way; in Griffith Park.
When: Preview performances March 2 and 3, 8 p.m.; regular performances March 4 to 20, Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; also Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m.
More info: (323) 495.4252; theautry.org
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Steve Appleford, steve.appleford@latimes.com
Twitter: @SteveAppleford
