LARISSA FASTHORSE

MACARTHUR FELLOW SERVES AS ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE

She grew up in South Dakota, but Larissa FastHorse’s career has taken her to Hollywood and the United Nations. With experience in dance, choreography and film production, FastHorse is now becoming well known as a playwright. In September and October, she served as artist-in-residence at the Black Hills Community Theatre in Rapid City.

Several events based around FastHorse’s play Average Family highlighted the residency. The play centers around two families, one white and one Indigenous, who are challenged to survive in an 1840s frontier setting in order to win a reality TV competition.

In 2023, FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play will open on Broadway, making her the first female Native American playwright to ever appear there. The Thanksgiving Play is one of the top ten most produced plays in America.

FastHorse has worked with Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Netflix and others, writing, directing and producing short films. In 2000 she was a delegate to the United Nations in Geneva, speaking on the impact cinema can have on Native peoples. She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2020.

Larissa FastHorse served as artist-in-residence at the Black Hills Community Theater in September and October.