Larissa FastHorse
Larissa FastHorse is a Native American (Sicangu Lakota) playwright and choreographer based in Santa Monica, California. FastHorse grew up in South Dakota, where she began her career as a ballet dancer and choreographer but was forced into an early retirement after ten years of dancing due to an injury. Returning to an early interest in writing, she became involved in Native American drama, especially the Native American film community. Later she began writing and directing her own plays, several of which are published through Samuel French (a Concord Theatricals Company) and Dramatic Publishing. With playwright and performer Ty  Defoe, FastHorse co-founded Indigenous Direction, a "consulting firm that helps organizations and individuals who want to create accurate work by, for and with Indigenous peoples." Indigenous Direction's clients include the Guthrie Theater. FastHorse is a past vice chair of the Theatre Communications Group, a service organization for professional non-profit American theatre. Career. In 2000, FastHorse was a delegate to the United Nations in Geneva, where she spoke on the impact cinema can have for Indigenous peoples. FastHorse then shifted from a career as a dancer and choreographer, to feature television and film development. FastHorse worked for Universal  Pictures before joining Latham Entertainment at Paramount as a creative executive. She produced two short films, "The Migration" and "A Final Wish," before switching her focus to writing and directing. While writing and working on many projects of her own making, FastHorse also served as a panelist for The Film and Video Fellowships, formerly named the Rockefeller Fellowship. She has been involved with many other networks and theatre companies, having written commissioned pieces for the Alter Theatre in San Rafael, CA; Cornerstone Theatre Company; and Native Voices at the Autry both located in Los Angeles, CA, as well as the  Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis, MN; the Kennedy Center for Young Audiences in Washington, D.C.; and for Mountainside Theater in Cherokee, N.C. She has developed new plays with the Arizona Theatre Company, Tucson, AZ; the Center Theatre Group Writer's Workshop, Los Angeles, CA; and Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor, Berkeley, CA. Her play "Urban Rez," created with Cornerstone Theater, portrays the experience of Indigenous people in Los Angeles County, home to the U.S.'s second-largest Indigenous population. "The Thanksgiving Play" was begun with a fellowship from the Guthrie Theater and developed through readings including at DC's  Center Stage Play Lab in 2016; it was produced by Artists Repertory Theatre in Oregon in April 2018. Both "The Thanksgiving Play" in 2017 and "What Would Crazy Horse Do?" in 2014 were featured on the annual "Kilroys' List" of "recommended un- and underproduced new plays by female and trans authors of color." "What Would Crazy Horse Do?," a comedy inspired by historical interest by the KKK in collaborations with Indigenous groups, was featured in the Lilly Awards' 2015 reading series with performers Emily Bergl, Jesse Perez, and Madeline Sayet. "The Thanksgiving Play" also secured FastHorse's off-Broadway playwright  debut, with an October 2018 production announced by Playwrights Horizons, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and starring Margo Seibert, Jennifer Bareilles, Jeffrey Bean, and Greg Keller. FastHorse currently serves as Vice Chairman of Playwrights Horizons. As part of her production contract as a playwright, FastHorse requires that the theatre hire at least one other Indigenous artist for the production, and showcase at least one other Indigenous artist's work in the building. Personal. FastHorse is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Lakota people. She lives with husband, sculptor Edd Hogan, in Santa Monica.