Claire Gardner

● Devil Girl is a feminist coming-of-age story about a 2Spirit Native girl slowly becoming Deer Woman, an iconic Native mythological figure. The story is woven by Native girlhood and godhood. It follows the transformation of Devil Girl, a 17 year old Métis-Cree girl after her arrival at Saint Rose’s Christian Academy. Set in 2008 in rural New England, Devil girl finds herself and her art on the periphery of the school until she connects with her roommate, the daughter of the school’s Chaplain, Camille. As Camille brings Devil Girl into her world of secret parties in the woods, Devil Girl’s body begins to transform, and causes her unmanageable pain. Her pain manifests in deer antlers sprouting from her skull. With the help of the Cree trickster God, Wisahkecahk, Devil Girl embraces her transformation into Deer Woman, while mourning the trauma she had to experience to find her power. Devil Girl explores the MMIW2S crisis and its impact on communities through poetry, surrealism, myth, and magic.

Kittie Knox was a young biracial cyclist who fought against race-based limitations in America’s post-Reconstruction reaction against Black advancement. During her cycling career (1893 – 1899), she became a well-known century (100-mile) rider, protested the League of American Wheelmen’s color bar, and refused to conform to conventions about “lady-like” speed, and fashion while cycling. The plays chronicle the dramatic story of a turbulent time in America’s history with lessons for today’s struggle for racial and gender equality and justice.

Based on the historic looting of an ancient Native town's burial ground at Slack Farm in 1987. Over 900 ancient graves were desecrated, alarming both Native Activists and archaeologists. The Red Power movement's strongest days were over by 1987, but the movement's leaders were still powerful in their communities. When Janice, the daughter of one of these leaders, meets the lead archaeologist on site they form an unlikely friendship. Their connection is only as strong as the allyship of lead archaeologist Dr. Helgeson, a white intellectual heavily influenced by her husband's prejudices. Janice tries to distinguish whether this is merely educational for the archaeologists or whether it is radicalizing, and whether that makes a difference if the remains are not reburied. Out of the Earth asks, what do Americans take out of the earth and what do we give back?

Andromeda in the Stars is an intersectional Queer retelling of the mythology surrounding Andromeda, Perseus, Medusa and Athena. When Andromeda’s mother, Cassiopeia, exclaims that her daughter is more beautiful than anything or anyone else, Poseidon sends a monster to destroy their homeland. Cephus, Andromeda’s father, solves this problem the only way he knows how, with violence. He chains his daughter to the cliffs naked and alone. Visited by Athena and rescued by Perseus, Andromeda starts a new life without her mother, but is forever changed by the loss of her first home. When Andromeda prefers Athena’s company to Perseus’s, tensions grow between the two children of Zeus, leading them to question the patriarchal authority they thought could never be challenged. When Medusa reveals her romantic history with Athena to Andromeda, the lovers separate and meet again where galaxies collide.

It’s 2014 and Kaia and Michel are two best friends who just finished 8th grade. They’re having a sleepover to celebrate and decide to watch Barbie: Princess and the Pauper and Barbie: Diamond Castle for old time’s sake. When the girls get sucked into the movies by a sentient TV they have to face the truth about the Barbie movies’ fanciful, terrifying, problematic, girly world and face their feelings for each other. If you could escape high school with your best friend, would you? Even if it was into a Barbie movie you can never leave?