Tara Moses

Tara Moses

Tara Moses (she/her) is a citizen of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Mvskoke, director, award-winning playwright, Artistic Director of telatúlsa, and co-Founder of Groundwater Arts. As a playwright, her completed works include Sections, He’eo’o (Winner of the 2019 Native Storytellers Contest), Quantum (2020 Finalist for the National Playwrights Conference), Bound (2019 Native American New Play Festival Winner),...
Tara Moses (she/her) is a citizen of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Mvskoke, director, award-winning playwright, Artistic Director of telatúlsa, and co-Founder of Groundwater Arts. As a playwright, her completed works include Sections, He’eo’o (Winner of the 2019 Native Storytellers Contest), Quantum (2020 Finalist for the National Playwrights Conference), Bound (2019 Native American New Play Festival Winner), the adaptation of Hamlet: El Príncipe de Denmark, Don Juan, Arbeka, and Patchwork, a 10 minute play.

Her plays have been produced and/or developed with American Indian Community House (New York, NY); Safe Harbors Indigenous Collective (New York, NY); Sound Theatre Company (Seattle, WA); telatúlsa (Tulsa, OK); Amerinda, Inc. (New York, NY); Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (New Haven, CT); Native Voices of the Autry (Los Angeles, CA); Oklahoma Indigenous Theatre Company (Oklahoma City, OK); Good Luck Macbeth Theatre Company (Reno, NV); No Peeking Theatre Company (Jersey City, NJ); Furnace Fringe Festival (Boston, MA); #BingeTheatreCompany (Washington, D.C.); and Echo Theatre Company (Tulsa, OK).

She is a Cultural Capital Fellow with First Peoples Fund (2020); Invited Playwright with HBMG Foundation’s National Winter Playwrights Retreat (2020); fellow with the Intercultural Leadership Institute (2018/19); the Native Storytellers winner with the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (2019); an observer with the SDC Foundation (18/19); fellow with the Intercultural Leadership Institute (18/19); member of DirectorsLabChicago (2018); member of the Directors Lab at Lincoln Center (2017); Senior Artistic Director Fellow, Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship at Arena Stage (2016/17); recipient of the Thomas C. Fichandler Award (2016); Management Fellow, Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship at Arena Stage (2015/16); associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society; and Dramatists Guild member. She holds a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Tulsa and is expected to attend Brown University/Trinity Rep as an M.F.A. Candidate in Directing in the fall of 2021.
Twitter/Instagram: @taratomahawk
www.taramoses.com

Currently based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Plays

  • Patchwork by Tara Moses
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy
    ·
    Keyword: Native American, Indigenous + 2 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: Native American, Indigenous, Oklahoma, Seminole
    After reuniting with her niece last summer, the family's matriarch Loretta Cloud surprises Hokte with a Seminole patchwork dress with Mvskoke ribbon work. This 10-minute play takes place nearly a year after ARBEKA.
  • Arbeka by Tara Moses
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Indigenous, Native American + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, movement/physical
    Keyword: Indigenous, Native American, dance, family, Seminole, Mvskoke, language, identity, culture, music
    Loretta Cloud, the family’s matriarch invites the audience in for a story about her family during one weekend at Arbeka. Her screenwriter niece, Hokte Tiger has been away for over a decade, and she is finally coming back home. After a tragedy last summer and a professional mistake made by Hokte, there's healing to be done. Told through stories, humor, food, music, and dance Hokte remembers what it means to be a Tiger.
  • Don Juan by Tara Moses
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead + 7 more
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy, movement/physical, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, Don Juan, Mexican, Toxic Masculinity, machismo, activism, Politics, Violence against women
    Set in modern day and inspired by the Spanish romantic-phantasmagoric-religious drama DON JUAN TENORIO by Jose Zorrilla, DON JUAN changes the narrative to reflect agency, accountability, and the dangers of machismo culture. Don Juan is a notorious playboy whose only interest in life is seducing women - with or without their consent. He learns that his best friend (and former partner in crime) Don Luis is...
    Set in modern day and inspired by the Spanish romantic-phantasmagoric-religious drama DON JUAN TENORIO by Jose Zorrilla, DON JUAN changes the narrative to reflect agency, accountability, and the dangers of machismo culture. Don Juan is a notorious playboy whose only interest in life is seducing women - with or without their consent. He learns that his best friend (and former partner in crime) Don Luis is getting married to news anchor Doña Ana who has been covering an upcoming event led by activists to honor women and girls who have been killed by machismo men during Dia de Los Muertos. Don Juan convinces Don Luis to engage in one last bet - seduce Doña Inés who recently joined the Convento de la Dama de Guadalupe...and Doña Ana for the pot of money he's saved for his wedding. Classic sword-fighting, Spanish ballroom dance, and social commentary on consent, abuse, and toxic masculinity are sprinkled throughout the play as machismo culture leaves a trail of victims in its wake.
  • Hamlet: El Principe de Denmark by Tara Moses
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    11
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, docudrama/historic + 8 more
    ·
    Keyword: Hamlet, Shakespeare + 8 more
    Genre: adaptation, docudrama/historic, drama, fable/folktale, holiday, period, political, tragedy, translation, verse
    Keyword: Hamlet, Shakespeare, Latinx, Day of the Dead, bilingual, Indigenous, adaptation, Dia de los Muertos, colonialism, Decolonization
    The bilingual production takes place during the Indigenous Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos in the midst of a colonization battle. However, unlike the thousands of celebrations before, a ghost returns to seek revenge for his unnatural death by the hands of his brother. Hamlet must fulfill his late father's wishes while protecting his culture as the new regime attempts to erase it for greed, land, and...
    The bilingual production takes place during the Indigenous Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos in the midst of a colonization battle. However, unlike the thousands of celebrations before, a ghost returns to seek revenge for his unnatural death by the hands of his brother. Hamlet must fulfill his late father's wishes while protecting his culture as the new regime attempts to erase it for greed, land, and power shown to them by England and Spain.
  • Bound by Tara Moses
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: Native American, Mexican + 6 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, period, political
    Keyword: Native American, Mexican, border, immigration, The Wall, pipelines, American history, Indigenous
    Weaving through time from the 1850s to modern day, the intersection of sacred, ancestral land and tribal sovereignty as innate rights are explored in BOUND, but do these rights end where the boundary of Mexico begins? Marigold Page is a Tohono O'odham woman working to resist the construction of a wall along the southern border of the United States as it would split her Nation in half. She meets John, a...
    Weaving through time from the 1850s to modern day, the intersection of sacred, ancestral land and tribal sovereignty as innate rights are explored in BOUND, but do these rights end where the boundary of Mexico begins? Marigold Page is a Tohono O'odham woman working to resist the construction of a wall along the southern border of the United States as it would split her Nation in half. She meets John, a land surveyor, and as a romance blossoms an oil company representative attempts to build a pipeline through their land following the decision at Standing Rock. Rouge border patrol agents, oil tycoons, and a hesitant tribal council are what Marigold must face in order to assure that her ancestral lands remain intact for future generations. Paralleling this fight are the events surrounding the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, the building of a transcontinental railroad through Indigenous lands, Manifest Destiny, and the redrawing of the Mexican-American border in the name of southern imperialism. Marigold is determined that history does not repeat itself.
  • Quantum by Tara Moses
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Native American, MMIW + 6 more
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller, political
    Keyword: Native American, MMIW, culture, Race, family, identity, adoption, blood quantum
    Ivy Johnson was adopted in the fall of 1998 to a Mexican American mother and an African American father. Although it's obvious that she's of color, she has never known where she comes from or her racial background - that is until she sorts through her mail at Thanksgiving. The following weeks come with major discoveries, but they only leave her with more questions. What makes someone Native? A blood...
    Ivy Johnson was adopted in the fall of 1998 to a Mexican American mother and an African American father. Although it's obvious that she's of color, she has never known where she comes from or her racial background - that is until she sorts through her mail at Thanksgiving. The following weeks come with major discoveries, but they only leave her with more questions. What makes someone Native? A blood quantum mandate demanded by the Federal Government? Culture, language, and pride? What does it mean when your identity is stripped away from you? Rediscovering culture, reclaiming Indigenous identity, and learning what it means to be a Native woman in contemporary America is the road Ivy must travel. Inspired by my maternal grandfather's story.
  • He'eo'o by Tara Moses
    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: Native American, History + 4 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, period, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Native American, History, American history, genocide, Indigenous, culture
    Gun smoke, burning embers, and the cries of women and children is the new reality for a sleepy Cheyenne village that asked the United States Government for peace seven days prior. Following the early morning attack by the 7th U.S. Calvary lead by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, the surviving women are broken, beaten, and bleeding while they await their impending doom. Fueled by her desire to lead her people,...
    Gun smoke, burning embers, and the cries of women and children is the new reality for a sleepy Cheyenne village that asked the United States Government for peace seven days prior. Following the early morning attack by the 7th U.S. Calvary lead by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, the surviving women are broken, beaten, and bleeding while they await their impending doom. Fueled by her desire to lead her people, avenge her father’s death, and the spiritual support of the Great Spirit Maheo’o, Walking Woman remains resilient. Inspired by TROJAN WOMEN by Euripides, HE'EO'O (eh-yo) asks the question: when white men, when Americans write the history books how will we know the truth?
  • Sections by Tara Moses
    Cast: 
    6–7
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: feminism, intersectionality + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: feminism, intersectionality, liberal, people of color, sexual violence, Race, women
    Emile is a racially ambiguous young woman new to an urban city, an office job, and her coworker/new roommate’s friend group. Sarah, Mary, Matthew, Mark, and Luke have known one another since childhood and/or their time throughout undergraduate studies. All are white and liberal feminists that have proudly separated themselves from the people they believe spew hate and oppress marginalized groups. However, Emile...
    Emile is a racially ambiguous young woman new to an urban city, an office job, and her coworker/new roommate’s friend group. Sarah, Mary, Matthew, Mark, and Luke have known one another since childhood and/or their time throughout undergraduate studies. All are white and liberal feminists that have proudly separated themselves from the people they believe spew hate and oppress marginalized groups. However, Emile finds herself isolated and the recipient of “well-intended” commentary. All while Emile is navigating her place in this group and Matthew’s seemingly genuine affections, she is taking care of her younger sister, Yamin who lives in her hometown, 19 hours away. When things start to spin out of control over the course of a weekend, Emile quickly realizes that keeping quiet is no longer a viable option. Her “friends” mean well; that has to count for something, right? Celebrating intersectionality and living prove to be two different things.