UI prof, playwright mines 'truth in fiction' in one-woman show

Playwright, novelist, poet, filmmaker and theater artist LeAnne Howe originally meant for public events to be the heart of her story and one-woman theater piece, "Choctalking on Other Realities."

Events such as the 1969 takeover of Alcatraz Island by American Indians, the Vietnam War, World War II refugees, and American Indians and African-Americans fighting for social justice.

"The events shaped the beginning narrative but felt sterile, although I could see clearly the hands of the Vietnam draftees, shaky," she wrote in the program notes for "Choctalking," to be presented on Friday and Saturday at Krannert Center. (Both performances are sold out, but tickets might be returned; check the day before each show.)

"Others had bitten their fingernails into the quick as they spooned up meals of beans and corn bread, their last meal as civilians at the airport cafe. But the narrative still fell short, even though I had a series of images I could use, they didn't add up to meaning."

Howe, a professor of American Indian studies and creative writing at the University of Illinois, continued to revise the Choctalking story through the 1980s. She finally saw another piece of the story after she visited Israel and Jordan in the early '90s.

"What I saw and experienced in Jerusalem seemed to relate to what I had seen and experienced in Oklahoma in the late 1960s," wrote Howe, an enrolled member of the Choctaw of Oklahoma. "Oppression, colonialism, yet the story was still not fully realized."

Finally everything coalesced as Howe worked on revisions of "Choctalking," to be published as a story in the Cimmaron Review. The final element, she wrote, was the metaphor of "running," a memory from her childhood.

"As you will see in performance and in the films, the metaphor of 'running' from soldiers, 'running' from missionaries and church, 'running' from a hail of bullets becomes a universal tragedy that plays out in the lives of all the characters, both past and present," she wrote.

"That's when the story came alive and began to speak for itself. While I continue to call 'Choctalking' fiction, there are many elements of the story that have been taken from events in my life. But isn't that the truth of fiction, anyway? Ourselves, but always in disguise?"

Howe, who joined the UI faculty in fall 2005, has seen her work published in several different languages; she has been invited to read and lecture throughout the United States and in Japan, Jordan, Israel, Romania and Spain.

Her play, "Indian Radio Days," co-written with Roxy Gordon, was produced in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere and was aired throughout the Midwest on Columbus Day 1993 by American Public Radio stations.

Howe's writing has appeared in numerous journals, scholarly publications and anthologies. She has received grants, awards and fellowships, among them the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence.

Another of Howe's project, the documentary "Indian Country Diaries: Spiral of Fire," for which she was the screenwriter and on-camera narrator, aired on PBS in 2006. The documentary takes Howe to the North Carolina homeland of the Eastern Band of Cherokees to explore how tourism, community and cultural preservation affect the health of the tribe.

With Emmy-winning filmmaker James Fortier, Howe also is working on another documentary, "Playing Pastime: American Indians, Softball and the Politics of Survival."

Howe's second novel, "Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story," was published last year by Aunt Lute Books. In it, the author weaves multiple narratives that follow the Miko Kings, an American Indian baseball team, and others from 1896 through the Vietnam War era to 2006.

Howe received the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for her first novel, "Shell Shaker" (Aunt Lute Books, 2001) and the 2006 Oklahoma Book Award for her poetry collection, "Evidence of Red."

"Shell Shaker" also brought Howe the Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year Award.

If you go

What: LeAnne Howe's one-woman piece, "Choctalking on Other Realities," an exploration of Howe's Choctaw roots and her modern-day odyssey beyond the U.S. borders.

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Where: Studio Theatre, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., U.

Tickets: $8 to $22 (both performances are sold out, but check the day before each show for returned tickets; there is an online waiting list at www.krannertcenter.com).

For information: Call 333-6280 or log onto www.krannertcenter.com.

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