In the early 2000s, I inherited a book collection from my former theatre teacher. It was a virtual treasure trove of hardcover and paperback classics of the theatre, covering everything from Greek tragedy to the best of the 20th century. One volume, with a copyright date of 1920, was particularly interesting because it was an anthology of “best American plays.” I knew there were really no great American plays before the work of Eugene O’Neill, so I wondered what on earth the volume contained. Indeed, the last work in the collection was O’Neill’s first Pulitzer winner Beyond the Horizon, but John Gassner’s anthology attempted to bring together all the important early American plays, which don’t hold up to today’s standards, but nevertheless contained an old American play on the subject of Pocahontas, one of my favorite myths, legends, historical stories of America.
The play in question was Pocahontas, or The Settlers of Virginia (1830) by George Washington Parke Custis. Custis was the adopted son of our first President and, after a successful voluntary career in the military, became a noted orator and playwright. His plays were typical of the time—bombastic, melodramatic dialogue, skimpy to ensure there was much time for special effects and, of course, all the tropes about Native Americans we wince at today. After all, we’re talking about a Pre-Civil War Southern playwright writing about race relations.
But there was more to it than that. The story of Jamestown really is our nation’s first great story of culture clash in a country that continues to clash over one thing or another. Also, Custis’ work was anthologized because his Pocahontas play improved over past ones which were more historically accurate, but anticlimactic because Pocahontas’ saving of Smith (probably not a true event) came as the climax of the play rather than in the first act.
There was a lot there that could be used for further adaptation. The story of Pocahontas has taken on legendary status and no dramatic rendition can be historically accurate because our information is so full of holes and come from sources that play it up into “legendary” status. Yet, I’ve found each version of Pocahontas does something interesting and even reveals aspects of the historical truth, though they’ve not all been synthesized in one single dramatic work.
Disney’s 1995 Pocahontas has all the dwellings of the Powhatan people facing east as they would have been (though it gets almost everything else geographically wrong). Terrence Malick’s masterpiece The New World (2005) attempted to rebuild the Algonquin language. And then there’s Custis’ work, which reveals the polygamous and religious side of the Powhatan confederacy. It also smartly solved the problem of the Natives and English not understanding each other.
He included a fictional character named Barclay, who is the last surviving remnant of a lost colony, like Roanoke (my other favorite early American historical story). He has been kept by Powhatan Wahunsenacawh to teach his people the ways of the English so they can be better prepared for future explorers. Of course, there is nothing historical about any of this, but it does keep one from solving the language barrier by magic leaves or something else tedious (ahem, Disney).
I had initially intended on my version of Custis’ work to be played by adults and perhaps, since the play is set in 1607, creating it in the style of an Elizabethan play where a small cast performs multiple roles on a Globe Theater-like setting. But only scant fragments, including the opening scene, were ever written down and it seemed like I was in no hurry to finish it.
Cut to the early 2010s and I am teaching theatre at a high school in Jefferson County, Alabama. I need large-cast plays to show off the talents of my students, who I loved and were wonderful—so good in fact that, by my second year, I established a Classics Unit which would perform slightly more challenging plays. The impetus of this began when, in my first year, we held a concert reading of the first draft of my new play Cry of the Native Children, which retained exactly one line of Custis’ original (used ironically) and was changed from a three act play for adults to a long one act suited for high schools and community theaters.
Feedback from the reading, overall, was strong though I don’t know if the community fully understood what was happening as it is unusual for a high school to mount a new play. The reading gave me a sense of changes that could be made and, by year 2, I had a slightly expanded draft that brought in so many characters that everyone who auditioned ended up in the cast. One was even added as I saw fit to use a historical character who gets little credence, the Powhatan’s brother Opechancanough, who was an important political figure.
Native Children (which we called Native Chicken for fun in rehearsals) would be mounted in the Winter of 2011 at the high school and then tour to play the last slot of that year’s Thespians Festival at Troy University. As rehearsals barreled toward us, any notion of historical costuming or scenery went out the window. Since we were already teeter-tottering on eggshells by having Caucasian and African American students playing Native roles, it seemed more in line to have an experimental show. The “tribes” wore all white and all black, the Natives wearing white so as not to give the impression that either character group color stood for "good" or "bad." It had always been my contention that the story couldn’t just stomp on the actions of the English (though that would have been easy enough to do) but should be more overall anti-violence, pro-discussion, between two people who are at war.
We also went several steps further—we performed the play on a bare space with the stage walls in full view. The only scenic elements were three periaktoid towers which could be moved together or separately to denote certain playing areas. They were painted on all three sides and could transform into the inside of a Native dwelling to the forests, etc. An original rock score was composed by Justin McElroy, who also had to put together music for a Native dance that became everyone’s favorite part of the show. Fluorescent make-up, strobe and black lighting, and representative weapons finished out the show’s technical elements.
The play does establish the Powhatan as polygamous with various names, including secret ones. Pocahontas was the nickname of Amunote, secretly named Matoaka, and later, after her marriage and conversion, Rebecca. The religions of each tribe were given equal time and examination, and Barclay became my favorite character, wryly commenting on the actions bringing a social critique of the events. Native Children was a success at the high school and now it was time to take it on tour.
We made it to South Alabama and, as we were slated for the last Sunday morning session, I wasn’t expecting a lot of folks to stay around. But a crowded house and the restoration of a more risqué closing line, made the experience sort of the crowning point of my time teaching high school theatre. I’m ashamed of it, but I’m often uncomfortable watching my own plays with an audience. Yet, I never missed a performance of Native Children. It was a perfect synthesis of an excited and talented cast, some really interesting new directions for the company technically, and a play we all genuinely liked.
Eventually the script was published and is available for license from Eldridge Plays and Musicals, which also publishes my translation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the first show of our 2nd season. Unfortunately, it was published with my old pseudonym Robert Cole. It has not seen productions since, I think, because of the enormous number of men required. By beginning my tenure at the high school directing Grease, I never wanted for men, and I think most schools struggle with this, though I would not mind it being performed gender blind as well as racially blind. In the published version, I encourage any company who can to cast Native actors and our production did include one Mexican-indigenous performer.
'Til this day, Native Children my favorite production of one my plays and I was smart enough to film it for preservation. For more info on how to purchase the script or perform the play, visit Eldridge’s website.
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