Tara Moses

Tara Moses

Tara Moses (she/her) is a citizen of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Mvskoke, director, award-winning playwright, Artistic Director of Red Eagle Soaring, 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 and 2021 Finalist for the National Playwrights Conference), Bound (2019 Native American New Play...
Tara Moses (she/her) is a citizen of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Mvskoke, director, award-winning playwright, Artistic Director of Red Eagle Soaring, 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 and 2021 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, Patchwork (a 10-minute play), Oñgwehoñwe (a 10-minute play), Snag, Sugar, and OklaHOME (a 10-minute play).

Her plays have been produced and/or developed with Company One Theatre (Boston, MA); AlterTheatre Ensemble (San Rafael, CA); Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas, TX); Geva Theatre Center (Rochester, NY); Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR); 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 currently commissioned by or has been commissioned by Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program, Company One Theatre, AlterTheatre Ensemble, Kitchen Dog Theater, the New Now Commission with Lauren Gunderson, Geva Theatre Center, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. (And exciting updates coming soon!)

She is Participant in New York Stage and Film’s inaugural NYSAF NEXUS project (2021); a Playwright-in-Residence at Alter Theatre (2020/21); 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 is a M.F.A. Candidate in Directing at Brown University/Trinity Rep and holds a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Tulsa.

Twitter/Instagram: @taratomahawk
www.taramoses.com

Currently based on Narraganset Land.

Plays

  • Poyvfekcv by Tara Moses
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: fantasy, horror + 1 more
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    Keyword: Indigenous, Native American + 1 more
    Genre: fantasy, horror, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: Indigenous, Native American, Native
    Siblings Dylan and J set out in the woods during the witching hour to investigate an abandoned house on the Mvskoke Reservation despite the many warnings from their mother and elders to not mess around with bad spirits. However, Dylan is determined to see if Creator even exists. A 10-minute play about crisis of faith and culture, Poyvfekcv reminds us of those who came before.
  • Billie (Part of the Oklahoma Cycle) by Tara Moses
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: drama, romantic comedy
    ·
    Keyword: Native, Indigenous + 7 more
    Genre: drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Native, Indigenous, period, love story, queer love, Oklahoma, Seminole, southern, multi-generational
    Billie girls don't doubt themselves when it comes to love. In 1950, Billie Starr meets Charles Tiger, the love of her life, outside a bus station during a road trip to Oklahoma City from Seminole Nation - and she doesn't waste a single moment. We see the soulmates still happily in love 58 years later in 2008 as Charles tends to Billie while she is in home hospice care for advanced kidney cancer....
    Billie girls don't doubt themselves when it comes to love. In 1950, Billie Starr meets Charles Tiger, the love of her life, outside a bus station during a road trip to Oklahoma City from Seminole Nation - and she doesn't waste a single moment. We see the soulmates still happily in love 58 years later in 2008 as Charles tends to Billie while she is in home hospice care for advanced kidney cancer. Paralleling their love story is another: Billie's granddaughter who shares her name and her unapologetic attitude towards love, Billie Cloud-Harjo. In 2005, Billie Cloud-Harjo and best friend Vanessa Lowe have some realizations - they've been in love with each other for years and both been too chicken to do something about it. Being a young queer couple in Oklahoma during 2005 comes with its fair share of challenges, but ultimately those challenges aren't the biggest problems they have. By 2008, granddaughter Billie is no longer talking to Vanessa - and there's nothing her loving grandparents can do to change her mind. But is everything exactly as it seems?

    A multi-generational story about unconditional love spanning 58 years, BILLIE is the 3rd play in the Oklahoma Cycle.
  • Sugar by Tara Moses
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: coming of age, female coming of age + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: coming of age, female coming of age, sugar baby, sex work, fat women, Dallas, capitalism
    Brooke is just trying to make ends meet. As a young woman of color attempting to navigate the world without a family, support system, or access to opportunity, she finds herself working over 90 hours a week at three jobs to pay rent, bill collectors, student loans, and manage one meal a day – and she still comes up short every single week. That is, until she is presented with an opportunity that she cannot say...
    Brooke is just trying to make ends meet. As a young woman of color attempting to navigate the world without a family, support system, or access to opportunity, she finds herself working over 90 hours a week at three jobs to pay rent, bill collectors, student loans, and manage one meal a day – and she still comes up short every single week. That is, until she is presented with an opportunity that she cannot say no to. Taking agency over her life is the only reason Brooke needs to enter the Sugar Bowl.
  • Snag (Part of the Oklahoma Cycle) by Tara Moses
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, period + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Indigenous, Native American + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, period, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Indigenous, Native American, Seminole, Oklahoma, rom-com, romantic comedy, comedy, small town, culture
    It was the summer of love...well about 11 years too late. In the summer of 1978 in Wewoka, OK, Loretta Cloud is working on finishing her nursing degree, and Pancake is joining national movements for Native rights (and robbing the occasional gas station on the side). They have an undeniable spark - a spark Loretta's brother Joe is determined will not ignite. However, the biggest threat to their budding...
    It was the summer of love...well about 11 years too late. In the summer of 1978 in Wewoka, OK, Loretta Cloud is working on finishing her nursing degree, and Pancake is joining national movements for Native rights (and robbing the occasional gas station on the side). They have an undeniable spark - a spark Loretta's brother Joe is determined will not ignite. However, the biggest threat to their budding relationship isn't Joe. Narrated by their eldest son, Jimmy Lee Cloud-Harjo, SNAG is the second play in the Oklahoma Cycle and the world's first NDN rom-com (we think).
  • Arbeka (Part of the Oklahoma Cycle) 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, Oklahoma
    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...
    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. ARBEKA is the first play of the Oklahoma Cycle.
  • Patchwork (Part of the Oklahoma Cycle) 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 in the Oklahoma Cycle Universe.
  • Oñgwehoñwe’ by Tara Moses
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Indigenous, UN + 2 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, political
    Keyword: Indigenous, UN, United Nations, human rights
    The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples hangs in the balance. In just a few, short hours decades of work will either be realized or destroyed. Famed Onondaga lawyer, Tonya Gonnella Frichner is determined to secure safety and human rights for millions of Indigenous peoples globally - that is if she can connect with Representative and Ambassador of China Wang Guangya before it's too late....
    The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples hangs in the balance. In just a few, short hours decades of work will either be realized or destroyed. Famed Onondaga lawyer, Tonya Gonnella Frichner is determined to secure safety and human rights for millions of Indigenous peoples globally - that is if she can connect with Representative and Ambassador of China Wang Guangya before it's too late. Oñgwehoñwe’ (The Real People) is a 10-minute play commissioned by Geva Theatre Center.
  • 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
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    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. Sera, Marion, Mack, Marc, and Luca 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. Sera, Marion, Mack, Marc, and Luca 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 Mack’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.