The Crossroads Project has selected Marty Strenczewilk’s play Pink Man, or, The Only Indian in the Room as the winner of the 2023 Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative, a new play development program for BIPOC playwrights organized by the Illinois State University School of Theatre and Dance. A group of volunteer readers comprising students, faculty, staff, and community members evaluated over 90 submissions this year. Strenczewilk will be invited to campus in mid-April for a workshop residency that will culminate in an in-person staged reading, directed by Dr. Shannon Epplett, on April 14 at 7:30 p.m. (location to be announced). Follow The Crossroads Project on Facebook for updates on these events.
The winning play
Pink Man follows an American Indian in a semi-autobiographical journey of self-discovery as he battles tradition, stereotypes, and himself. Having mixed blood and white features, he faces constant internal and external struggles over his identity and heritage, worried about how others see him. Being red is terrifying. Being white feels fraudulent. So, the Indian finds himself forced to live in the pink. Pressed by an enigmatic cafe owner who takes a special interest in him, the Indian revisits the formative stages of his life, where he grapples with expectations, self-doubt, and acceptance from other Native Americans. The play utilizes Ojibwe storytelling traditions while also exposing the various ways that Native American culture has been distorted and erased over time.
“As an Indigenous American, I’ve rarely seen our voices on the stage,” says Strenczewilk. “It was something I never realized until I started writing my own plays. I never intended to tell Indigenous stories, but found myself drawn back to write what I see is missing from the theatre—authentic stories of the lives of Indigenous people in America today.”
The playwright
Marty Strenczewilk is an Ojibwe theatre artist and storyteller, enrolled with the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Select credits include: co-founding a New York City-based theatre company that created sustainable productions of new plays; touring Europe with Trisha Brown Dance as master carpenter; writing/performing slam poetry across New York City; choreographing a 9/11 anniversary show; performing in Tony & Tina’s Wedding off-Broadway; and performing in the first staged production of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle in New York City. He has a B.A. in Theatre from SUNY Buffalo and has studied at The Barrow Group, Broadway Dance Center, Alvin Ailey, HB Studio, and Joffrey Ballet. He is currently a member of the BETC Writers Group and a member of Creative Nations, an all-Indigenous led artists’ collective. His plays can be found on New Play Exchange.
The finalists
The 90-plus plays submitted to Diverse Voices this year span a wide range of topics, styles, and cultural backgrounds. The Crossroads Project narrowed this impressive pool down to five finalists (including Strenczewilk’s Pink Man).
Alex Alpharaoh’s O-DOGG: An Angeleno Take on Othello is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello set during the 1992 L.A. uprising.
Damon Chua’s Quixotic Professor Qiu explores racism and xenophobia in academia through the story of a Chinese American mathematician suspected of being a foreign spy.
Patty Kim Hamilton’s Peeling Oranges is a surrealist play about a family of Korean women living in suburban Oregon who are each haunted by the past.
Matthew Park’s Lessons is about an aspiring pianist who runs into power dynamics and sexual abuse in the world of classical music education.
These and other plays by talented BIPOC artists reflect the multitude of experiences and perspectives that make up American theatre today.
The Crossroads Project
The Crossroads Project is an advocacy committee comprising faculty, staff, and students that promotes equity, diversity, and inclusion in the Illinois State University School of Theatre and Dance. In the past, Crossroads has invited established playwrights to Illinois State to participate in mainstage productions of their work. Recently, Crossroads presented Ga-AD! by Ugandan playwright and director Adong Lucy Judith in 2018 and Delhi-based author Manjula Padmanabhan’s Harvest in 2017.
The Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative was created to complement these programs by supporting playwrights of color as they develop new work. In addition to providing opportunities for artists from historically underserved groups, the initiative also creates an environment in which students and community members can interact directly with professional theatre artists. The inaugural staged reading took place in fall 2020 with Even Flowers Bloom in Hell, Sometimes by Franky D. Gonzalez, followed by The DePriest Incident by Charles White in spring 2021 and Dear Mr. C by Tidtaya Sinutoke in 2022. The Crossroads Project accepts gifts through the Crossroads Program Fund to support Diverse Voices and other arts programming.
