Muriel Miguel

Muriel Miguel (born August 15 1937) is a Native American director, choreographer, playwright, actor and educator. She is of Guna and Rappahannock ancestry and was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. In 1976, she founded the Spiderwoman Theater with her sisters, Gloria Miguel and Lisa Mayo (born Elizabeth Miguel). The Spiderwoman Theater was the first Native American women's theater troupe to gain international recognition, and remains the longest continuous running Native American female performance group. Miguel has directed nearly all of the Spiderwoman Theater's shows since their debut in 1976, and currently serves as its artistic director.

Early life Miguel was born in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of three sisters. Elmira Miguel, her mother, was a member of the Rappahannock tribe of Virginia. Her father was a Guna from islands in Guna Yala, off the coast of Panama.

In elementary school, she was taught that Native American culture was "dead." In response to this, she created the Little Eagles with her friend Louis Mofsie.

Miguel went on to study modern dance with Alwin Nickolais, Erick Hawkins and Jean Erdman. She was an original member of Joseph Chaikin's Open Theater along with Sam Shepard, Megan Terry, Peter Feldman, and Chaikin himself.

Career

The Spiderwoman Theater In the early 1970s, Miguel began working with women of diverse backgrounds and prioritized storytelling through "sound, movement, moments, and breath." Muriel wanted to work with the anger and complex emotions regarding the "Indian situation," the Indian Movement, and the violence experienced throughout her life. They took Women in Violence to the Nancy Festival in France, becoming the first feminist theater group to participate. In 1977, they debuted their second play, The Lysistrata Numbah!, storyweaving Aristophanes' Lysistrata with stories from the different group members.

The group eventually split, with Weaver leaving to create the performance troupe Split Britches; the three sisters continued creating pieces as the Spiderwoman Theater. As a theatre and performance group, the sisters recognized the need for Indigenous stories to be told and heard. Utilizing their signature storyweaving methodology, they became a pillar in Indigenous arts and theater. Other shows put on included Trilogy: Friday Night Jealousy, My Sister Ate Dirt (1978), Cabaret: An Evening of Disgusting Songs and Pukey Images (1979), Oh, What a Life (1980), The Fittin' Room (1980), Sun, Moon and Feather & Split Britches (1981), I'll Be Right Back (1982), and many others. Miguel also worked with inner-city Native youth on HIV issues, and developed shows for The Minnesota Native American AIDS Task Force (now known as The Indigenous Peoples Task Force).

Writing and Choreography Miguel choreographed Throw Away Kids and She Knew She Was She for the Aboriginal Dance Program at the Banff Centre. A lesbian erotica and trickster story, Hot 'N' Soft touches on taboos within the Native lesbian community, citing her own sexual awakening and experiences throughout the piece. Writing this piece, Miguel asserts her identity within the two-spirit, lesbian, and queer Indigenous communities.

Other In 2019, Miguel directed Marie Clements' play The Unnatural and Accidental Women as the first presentation of Canada's National Arts Centre's Indigenous Theatre department.

Honors In 1997, Miguel and her sisters were the founding contributors to the Native American Women Playwrights Archive at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Consequently, they received honorary Doctorates of Fine Arts at Miami University for their life's work and contribution to theater. In 2018, Muriel received an award of $275,000 via the 2018 Duke Awards. She received the 2019 Distinguished Career Award at the Southeastern Theatre Conference.