Wicoun
A Play with and about the Oceti Sakowin
Áya and their brother Khoskalaka have their hands full raising their siblings and cousins, dealing with zombies on the prowl, and trying to graduate high school. But after Áya, a Lakota teen, summons a traditional superhero in a moment of bravery, they have to embark on a journey across the Oceti Sakowin to find answers in the old stories, within themselves, and in Rapid City.
Touring Again in May & June 2027!
Some History
In 2023, Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota) and Michael John Garcés (Cuban-American), in partnership with Cornerstone Theater Company, collaborated with Larissa’s home communities in South Dakota to create a new play with and about the Oceti Sakowin Oyate. Wicoun is a Native American superhero origin story that blends contemporary culture with traditional ways in a performance that is appropriate for the whole family to attend. We presented a full, live production that included community members onstage, backstage, and in the audience. The production toured across a number of communities like Rosebud, Pine Ridge, and Rapid City. NNTP will be touring a remounted production of Wicoun in the summer of 2027.
Connect With Wicoun
As we prepare for the 2027 tour, we're looking to connect with people and organizations in the communities we'll be visiting. We're seeking potential venue and community partners, hiring artists, crew, and other personnel for paid work on the tour, and meeting with people who simply want to learn more about the project.Whether you're interested in working with us, partnering with the project, making a connection, or just saying hello, we'd love to hear from you.Click the button below to share your information so we can reach out!
The Native Nation Theater Project Team
The Native Nation Theater Project has thirteen years of experience in collaborative theater-making with Indigenous communities of all ages and sizes. NNTP has worked extensively with both urban Indigenous and tribal communities in the Los Angeles area, Arizona, Massachusetts, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Larissa FastHorse
Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota Nation) is a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, 2020 MacArthur Fellow, professor of practice (literature) at Arizona State University’s Department of English, award winning writer/choreographer, and co-founder of Indigenous Direction, the nation’s leading consulting company for Indigenous arts and audiences. Larissa’s revised book of the beloved Jerome Robbins Broadway musical, Peter Pan, toured nationally and internationally.She made her Broadway debut in the 2022-2023 season with her satirical comedy, The Thanksgiving Play, making her the first known female, Native playwright to be produced on Broadway. The Thanksgiving Play is one of the most produced plays in America and abroad with over 300 separate productions. In 2025, Larissa performed her autobiographical solo show, Fancy Dancer, in collaboration with Seattle Children’s Theatre and Seattle Rep. Additional
produced plays include Fake It Until You Make It, For The People, The Democracy Project, What Would Crazy Horse Do?, Landless and Cow Pie Bingo, Average Family, Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders: a Class Presentation, Fancy Dancer, and Cherokee Family Reunion. She develops work with the top theaters in the nation including Center Theatre Group, The Public, Second Stage, Yale Rep, Cornerstone, and Arena Stage.
Michael John Garcés
Garcés is a director and playwright focused on the development and production of new plays, community-engaged projects, devised work, and reimagined classics. He is the President of the Executive Board of SDC, the national union for stage directors and choreographers.From 2006 to 2023 he was the Artistic Director at Cornerstone Theater Company, a community-engaged ensemble based in Los Angeles,. At Cornerstone he commissioned, produced, and directed plays by many writers.Plays he has written include TOWN (Horizon Theatre), south (Great Plains Theatre Commons), Acts of Mercy (Rattlestick Theater), points of departure and customs (INTAR), THE WEB (needtheatre), agua ardiente (American Place Theatre), and several plays produced by Cornerstone Theater Company: Los Illegals, Consequence, Magic Fruit, The Forked Path, and 36 Yesses. Upcoming: Mascs (Profile Theatre Company) and The Americanos, commissioned by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.He is recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award, the Princess Grace Foundation Statue Award, and the Alan Schneider Director Award, and was named one of 25 theater artists who will have a significant impact on the field over the next quarter-century by American Theatre magazine. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists.
You can reach us at [email protected] with any questions or ideas