Where We Belong

Madeline Sayet

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781350338791
• eBook ISBN: 9781350338814
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: British Drama

I've been trying to remember a story.
Can you help me?
A long time ago our ancestors told it to us.
I think it has to do with where we belong. In 2015, Mohegan Theater Maker Madeline Sayet travelled to England to pursue a PhD in Shakespeare, but her voyage across the ocean became an unexpected journey of transformation. Riding the spirit wind of her Mohegan ancestors who crossed the Atlantic in the 1700s on diplomatic missions to protect her people, Where We Belong is a search for belonging in a globalized world. It is at once a rich investigation into the impulses that divide and connect us as people, but it is also about a wolf that learns how to become a bird and fly.

Production History

Early Development

The space organizations offer for readings and development are key to creation. Where We Belong exists because the following theaters opened their doors to us early on.

The first time any words from this play were read was in the lounge at Dixon Place, NY, in January 2018.

In July 2018, a section of Where We Belong was read as part of Global Female Voices at the Arcola, in London, produced by Global Voices Theatre. (This is how the Origins Festival found out about the work.)

In November 2018, the first full draft of Where We Belong was read on the set of Larissa Fasthorse’s Thanksgiving Play at Playwrights Horizons as part of their Indigenous Voices Series curated by Emily Johnson.

Larissa Fasthorse has given each theater she works with the requirements that: She cannot be the only Native work in the season, and she cannot be the only Native person paid. This set up the landscape not only for this reading to happen, but also for a theater culture willing to accept accountability riders like the one required with this tour.

In February 2019, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater provided space to workshop the play, and in December 2019, hosted the first reading in America after the London performance.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continued this support by allowing for workshops in which Sayet could hear the work read by other Native Theater artists.

An earlier version of Where We Belong was first presented in June 2019 at The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe in London as part of Border Crossings’ ORIGINS Festival, the UK’s only large-scale multidisciplinary festival of Indigenous arts and culture.

Playwright and Performer: Madeline Sayet

Director: Mei Ann Teo

Costume Design: Asa Benally

In 2021, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Association with The Folger Shakespeare Library produced a film adaptation of Where We Belong, recorded in April 2021 and released in June 2021.

Playwright and Performer: Madeline Sayet

Director: Mei Ann Teo

Dramaturg: Vera Starbard

Production Design (Lighting and Scenic): Hao Bai

Costume Design: Asa Benally

Original Composition and Sound Design: Erik Schilke

Director of Photography and Editor: jb

Stage Manager: John Hall

In October 2021, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company re-adapted the show for live performance with Baltimore Center Stage.

In April 2022, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Association with the Folger Shakespeare Library launched a national tour of Where We Belong, premiering in April 2022 at Philadelphia Theatre Company

Playwright and Performer: Madeline Sayet

Director: Mei Ann Teo

Dramaturg: Vera Starbard

Production Design (Lighting and Scenic): Hao Bai

Costume Design: Asa Benally

Original Composition and Sound Design: Erik Schilke

Stage Manager: Grace Chariya

Technical Director: Megan J. Coffel

Standby for Madeline Sayet: Emily Preis

Dialect Coach: Liz Hayes

Casting Director: Judy Bowman

Executive Producers: Broadway and Beyond Theatricals

2022 Touring Locations:

Philadelphia Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Seattle Rep, The Public Theater (NY)

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Woolly Mammoth creates badass theatre that highlights the stunning, challenging, and tremendous complexity of our world. For over forty years, Woolly has maintained a high standard of artistic rigor while simultaneously daring to take risks, innovate, and push beyond perceived boundaries. One of the few remaining theatres in the country to maintain a company of artists, Woolly serves as an essential research and development role model within the American theatre. Plays premiered here have gone on to productions at hundreds of theatres all over the world and have had lasting impacts on the field. Co-led by Artistic Director Maria Manuela Goyanes and Managing Director Emika Abe, Woolly is located in Washington, DC, equidistant from the Capitol Building and the White House. This unique location influences Woolly’s investment in actively working towards an equitable, participatory, and creative democracy.

Woolly Mammoth stands upon occupied, unceded territory: the ancestral homeland of the Nacotchtank, whose descendants belong to the Piscataway peoples. Furthermore, the foundation of this city, and most of the original buildings in Washington, DC, were funded by the sale of enslaved people of African descent and built by their hands.

The Folger Shakespeare Library

Folger Shakespeare Library is the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, the ultimate resource for exploring Shakespeare and his world. The Folger welcomes millions of visitors online and in person. It provides unparalleled access to a huge array of resources, from original sources to modern interpretations. With the Folger, you can experience the power of performance, the wonder of exhibitions, and the excitement of pathbreaking research. The Folger offers the opportunity to see and even work with early modern sources, driving discovery and transforming education for students of all ages.

The award-winning Folger Theatre in our nation’s capital bridges the arts and humanities through transformational performances and programming that speak inclusively to the human experience. Folger Theatre continues its legacy through exciting interpretations and adaptations of Shakespeare and expands the classical canon through cultivating today’s artists and commissioning new work that is in dialogue with the concerns and issues of our time. Folger Theatre thrives both on its historical stage and in the community, engaging audiences wherever they happen to be. Learn more at folger.edu

Mei Ann Teo (Director) is a queer immigrant from Singapore making theater and film at the intersection of artistic/civic/contemplative practice. As a director/devisor/dramaturg, they create across genres, including music theater, inter-medial participatory work, reimagined classics and documentary theater. They helmed Dim Sum Warriors the Musical by Colin Goh and Yen Yen Woo, composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun for a national 25-city tour in China. Recent work includes Jillian Walker’s world premiere SKiNFoLK: An American Show at the Bushwick Starr, Madeline Sayet’s Where We Belong at Shakespeare’s Globe and Woolly Mammoth and the North American premiere of Amy Berryman’s Walden at Theaterworks Hartford. Teo received the League of Professional Theatre Women’s Josephine Abady Award and is the Associate Artistic Director and the Director of New Work at Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Hao Bai (Production Designer) is a multidisciplinary designer in lighting, sound, video projection, and worldbuilding (environment) for live and virtual performances. Recent: Virtual: Final Boarding Call (Ma-Yi Theater+WP Theater); Nocturne in 1200s (Ping Chong). Lighting: Waterboy and the Mighty World (Bushwick Starr & The Public Theatre). Projection: Electronic City (NYIT Awards). Sound: Walden (TheatreWorks). Upcoming: Production Design: This Isle is All (Harvard). Lighting/Projection/Sound: Arden (The Flea). Lighting: CHINOISERIE (Ping Chong). Sound: Little Shop of Horrors (St. Louis Rep).

Asa Benally (Costume Designer) is a Citizen of the Navajo and Cherokee Nations. The Rez Sisters (Stratford Festival); Venus & Adonis, Savitri, CAV + PAG (New Camerata Opera); Grounds (International Contemporary Ensemble); Sweat (Center for Contemporary Opera); Mrs. Warren’s Profession (The Gingold Group); Blues for an Alabama Sky (Keen Company, Drama Desk Nomination); Somewhere Over the Border (Syracuse Stage); Too Heavy For Your Pocket (George Street Playhouse); Skeleton Crew (Westport Country Playhouse); Measure for Measure (The Public Theater Mobile Unit); Cymbeline (Yale Repertory Theater); The Brobot Johnson Experience (The Bushwick Starr); Whale Song (Perseverance Theater); The Winter’s Tale (HERE Arts Center). Training: M.F.A Yale School of Drama. B.F.A. Parsons School of Design. Online: www.asabenally.com

Erik Schilke (Composer and Sound Designer) is an ambient electronic composer and music producer. His debut album Synthesis was recently released on the German label Hymen Records. He has previously scored film projects for acclaimed directors including Fernando Lazzari and Madeline Sayet. Online: erikschilke.com and hymen-records. bandcamp.com/album/synthesis

Vera Starbard (Dramaturg) T’set Kwei yóo xat duwasáakw. Vera Starbard áyá ax saayí. Dleit áa x’éináx Vera Marlene Bedard yóo xat duwasáakw. Teeyneidi naax xat sitee. T’akdeintaan yádi. Wooshkeetaan dachxán. Dena’ina dachxán. Takjik’ _wáan áwé uháan. Shaan Seetx xat uwdiztee. Dgheyaytnux’ uxaa.óo. Vera Starbard, T’set Kwei, is a Tlingit and Dena’ina writer and editor. Her mother is of the Teeyeineidi clan and her father is T’akdeintaan. Vera is Playwright-in-Residence at Perseverance Theatre through the Andrew W. Mellon National Playwright Residency Program and Editor of First Alaskans Magazine. Vera is also a writer for the PBS Kids animated children’s program ‘Molly of Denali,’ which won a Peabody Award in 2020. Vera currently lives with her husband Joe Bedard (Inupiaq/Yup’ik/Cree) on the Dena’ina land around Dgheyaytnu – colonially called Anchorage, Alaska. www.verastarbard.com

Costume sketch by Asa Benally.

Madeline Sayet is a Mohegan theater maker who believes the stories we pass down inform our collective possible futures. She has been honored as a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Hollywood & Entertainment, TED Fellow, National Directing Fellow, NCAIED Native American 40 Under 40, and a recipient of The White House Champion of Change Award from President Obama. She serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor at ASU with the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACMRS) and is the Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (YIPAP). Her plays include: The Neverland, Antigone or And Still She Must Rise Up, Daughters of Leda, Up and Down the River, and The Fish. Recent directing work includes: The Neverland (Krannert Center, Illinois), Tlingit Christmas Carol (Perseverance Theatre), Midsummer Night’s Dream (South Dakota Shakespeare), Henry IV (Connecticut Repertory ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Production History
• Contents
• Where We Belong
• Setting
• Prologue
• Borders
• A Wolf Named Bird
• Two Households – Both Alike In How To Lock A Door
• What’s In A Name?
• You Taught Me Language
• The First Divide
• A Changing World
• Seeking Justice From The Crown
• Who Are We When We Fly?
• The Mohegan Man Who Believed In The Words Of The
• What Is Home?
• The Mohegan Girl Who Believed In The Power Of
• Indians In Boxes
• Breaking Point
• Real Indians
• More Bird Than Wolf
• Fear Of Landing
• Epilogue: Everywhere
• Alternative Version of the Beginning of BREAKING
• eCopyright