THE CARLISLE PROJECT

PART OF THE NEW MUSICALS LAB WRITER’S RETREAT

By Annalisa Dias and Ronee Penoi

“if the great spirit haD desired me to be a white man, he would’ve made me so in the first place.”

— Sitting Bull | Hunkpapa Lakota leader

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ABOUT THE CARLISLE PROJECT

The Carlisle Project unravels the complicated legacy and trauma of Indian boarding schools in an expressive song cycle. The project uses song, satire and ceremony to tell the harrowing history of Carlisle Indian School and the brutal assimilation enforced under its motto “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” In this musical song cycle, indigenous women separated by time, place, and experience grapple with the generational trauma and erasure that Carlisle caused, and explore what it means to be Native American now. Songs include, "Don't Let Me Be Lonely," "You Were There," "Stories," and "Man on the Bandstand."

 

ABOUt FLORA MUSICALS

Annalisa Dias' & Ronee Penoi's musical theatre partnership, Flora Musicals, is the result of six years of personal collaboration. Together the team seeks to challenge the dominant narrative. With their artistic work, and in the way they build that artistic work, they mean to center the voices and experiences of indigenous people and people of color. Flora Musicals believes that musical theater can advance the impact of marginalized narratives in a rare and special way. ​

 

LEARN ABOUT “ASSIMILATION”

Watch this moving and insightful look into the history, operation, and legacy of the federal Indian Boarding School system, whose goal was total assimilation of Native Americans at the cost of stripping away Native culture, tradition, and language. Film from the Indigenous Americans YouTube Channel.

THE CREATORS

  • Annalisa Dias

    Creator

    Annalisa Dias is a Goan-American citizen artist, community organizer, and award-winning theatre maker working at the intersection of racial justice and care for the earth. She is Director of Artistic Partnerships & Innovation at Baltimore Center Stage. Annalisa is also a Co-Founder of Groundwater Arts. Prior to joining BCS, Annalisa was a Producing Playwright and Acting Creative Producer with The Welders, a DC playwright's collective; and a Co-Founder of the DC Coalition for Theatre & Social Justice.

  • Ronee Penoi

    Creator

    Ronee Penoi is the founder of Theatre from the District, an effort to support, advance, and tour the work of talented generative artists in Washington, DC. She was most recently the National New Play Network Producer-in-Residence at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, where her focus was on presenting ensemble/devised/generative work inside new play theaters. At Woolly, she was dramaturg for the remounted production of Mike Daisey’s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs and Basil Twist’s Arias with a Twist. She is the author of A Producing Theatre’s Guide to Presenting, a handbook of tools and resources for small-to-mid-sized theaters nationwide. Previously, she was part of the inaugural class of New Play Producing Fellows at the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage, where she produced Karen Zacarias’ playwright residency as well as a national convening on devised work. Ronee was Assistant Stage Manager for Anna Deavere Smith’s national tour of Let Me Down Easy, was Directing Fellow for Arena Stage’s 08-09 season, and Artistic Fellow for The Shakespeare Theatre’s 07-08 season. Currently, Ronee is writing a musical about Carlisle Indian School (recipient of a Creative Communities Fund grant from Cultural DC’s Mead Theater Lab). She is a proud graduate of Princeton University.