Silvestrey P'orantes, Samuel Osbourne-Huerta, Antoñe Rios-Luna, Caidance Kue, and Oogie_Push Photo by LKBachman

Oogie_Push appears in the play along with four other actors. All five play the title character, alternating in narrating her life journey and reflecting the composite Oogie drawn from the varied episodes of her life. At times they join in groups, sometimes all five, forming visual imagery, such as their combined effort in paddling a canoe and establishing a harmonious rhythm in what I would describe as visual poetry. The shift of narrative voices and physical presentation throughout the play is given clarity and cohesion by director Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha, whose work conveys a genuine affection for the subject of the play and a belief in its message.

Water imagery is highlighted throughout, beginning with the birth of Oogie and her twin sister, shown as two babies making ready to emerge into the world, surrounded by translucent blue walls of the womb that has been their first watery home. Using bolts of different shades of blue fabric, other waters Oogie encounters are depicted: the familiar creek behind their family home, the serenely flowing Iowa River, the rougher Missouri River, wild inlets off the Pacific Ocean in Washington state and Alaska, and the vast Pacific itself.

Throughout, Oogie describes the nurturing power of water and the responsibility humans have to it, including paying tribute with deposits of tobacco before entering the water. That was when the rivers were clean enough to swim in, before they became polluted by the runoff of agricultural chemicals. She experiences a near drowning, embarks on canoe journeys in the Pacific Northwest, performs water walker ceremonies in Alaska, and recounts the destructive force of water when a flood hit her community.

There is more to the adventures this Meskwaki woman had as she journeyed through life. We learn about the joy of childhood games, played in an environment that was safe and free. We learn of an adolescence not so different than the adolescence of other American girls, coming of age at the same time as MTV. A bit later, Oogie was named "Pow Wow Princess" in her community and spent a summer travelling from powwow to powwow around the Midwest, representing her people while she learned about a world beyond Tama County, Iowa. This was, perhaps, the seed that planted her desire to travel, to see mountains, oceans, rain forests, and more.

Oogie eventually attended Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. This event provides a segue to the legacy of Indian Boarding Schools, experiences Oogie was spared but which she learned about from her grandmother. It was at Haskell that Oogie discovered her love for theatre, one of numerous turning points in her well-travelled life.

The intimate Boss Stage has a simple setting designed by Niffer Pflager, with the rear wall framed by bolts of blue fabric like the ones used to depict bodies of water. Within that frame, video images show some of the landscapes visited, some of the people mentioned in the play, and at times Oogie herself, particularly during an extended, highly emotional narration of her mother's last days. The video captures such a depth of sadness and loss, and it would seem impossible–or, at least, far too painful–for Oogie to authentically deliver this monologue night after night in live performance.

The cast performs seamlessly, with Oogie_Push clearly the focal point of her saga, but each of the other actors–Caidance Kue, Samuel Osborne-Huerta, Silvestrey P'Orantes and Antoñe Rios-Luna–convey the same force of spirit as Oogie, as well as portraying numerous other incidental characters. A spirit of generosity emanates from the ensemble in their shared conveyance of Oogie_Push's story.

The play includes several movement and dance sequences that reenforce the emotional heft as well as the cultural ties expressed throughout the play, with Sandy Agustin having devised the evocative choreography. Jorie Ann Kosel's costume designs allow each actor to have a distinct look while including some uniform elements that unite them as one primary character. Tom Mays' lighting design and Peter Morrow's sound and projections design serve the production well.

The Meskwaki, like many of America's indigenous nations, were pushed further and further west from their original eastern homeland, and finally banished to Indian Territory in Kansas. However, the Meskwaki were unique among Indian nations in purchasing back a portion of their land–80 acres–from the state of Iowa, which had passed a law to allow this transaction, even though the federal government then forbid the sale of property to indigenous people. This Meskwaki community remains today. It might be the case–or not, this is merely speculation–that the legacy of self-determination represented by the Meskwaki history filtered through the generations down to our playwright.

There are questions raised in the course of the play that I wish Oogie_Push had addressed. One was wanting to know more about her relationship with her mother. After the vivid early scene in which her mother gives birth to twin girls, we hear little about her until she is near death. It would strengthen our understanding of Oogie's deeply felt grief to hear more about the bond the mother and daughter shared in their time together. Also, knowing what drew Oogie repeatedly back to theatre, finally ending up in the Twin Cities with that pursuit in mind, would offer a deeper understanding of the arc this "traveling Meskwaki" has followed.

As it is, The Adventures of a Traveling Meskwaki is a gentle and compelling story about a woman who finds her "true north," the way to live life as her authentic self, drawing on her rich childhood experiences, her native heritage, her family, her travels and her connection to the spirit forces she finds in nature. All that makes for a lovely show that felt like an emotional balm on a week (and will it only be for a week?) when I, and no doubt most of those in the audience, were thrown jarringly off course by the election just a few days earlier. It could not have been planned this way, but Full Circle Theater's timing in staging this production was exquisite. That said, I believe The Adventures of a Traveling Meskwaki would be an affecting play at any time.

The Adventures of a Traveling Meskwaki, a Full Circle Theater Company production, runs through November 24, 2024, at Park Square Theatre, Boss Stage, 10 Seventh Street Place East, Saint Paul MN. For tickets and information, please visit fullcircletheatermn.org.

Playwright: Oogie_Push; Director: Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha; Scenic Designer: Niffer Pflager; Costume Designer: Jorie Ann Kosel; Lighting Designer: Tom Mays; Sound and Projections Designer: Peter Morrow; Properties Designer: Rene'e Gonzales.; Choreographer: Sandy Augustin; Videographer: Mike Hanisch; Intimacy Director: Mason Tyer; Technical Director: Erin Gustafson; Stage Manager: Robin Lentine; Assistant Stage Manager: Katie (KJ) Johns; Producers: Rick Shiomi, Shá Cage.

Cast: Caidance Kue (Oogie and others), Samuel Osborne-Huerta (Oogie and others), Silvestrey P'Orantes (Oogie and others), Oogie_Push (Oogie and others), Antoñe Rios-Luna (Oogie and others), Keivin Vang (understudy).