LEAVENWORTH — A diverse female cast takes audiences back to pioneer times when Caucasian, African American and Latina women moved into the landscape with the Indigenous people of North Central Washington.
“Unsettled” returns to Icicle Creek Center for the Arts for the second year at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are online at icicle.org for $15-$28.
This performance art form includes dance, drumming, song, rap, instrumentation, acting, poetry, storytelling and Indigenous prayer in the nxaamxcín language.
It is the third production in a series by Dangerous Women, directed and produced by Rhona Baron, recipient of a Stanley Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.
In 2017, “Spellbound” was a celebration of mystical women, and in 2018 “Victorious” was a chronicle of American women winning the right to vote. “Unsettled” is back by popular demand after a sold out run in 2022.
“Underlying the entire show is a message of stewardship of the landscape we live in,” Baron said.
All scenes in the show have been collaboratively devised by the ensemble of female creators.
“The Moon as a universal feminine figure to narrate the production, one season at a time,” Baron said, which gives the “sense of cycles and natural history.”
“‘Edutainment’ is a combination of the arts and learning, but our brand of it at this point is quite sophisticated,” she continued. “Every single scene is historic, from the opening number that shines a light on the different kinds of pioneer women that chose or were forced to come West, through family based personal histories in this region, through indigenous practices that have gone on for 10,000 years and are still being performed. Songs about the Oregon Trail; there is a rap about a woman from Spokane named Klondike Kate. It’s women’s history.”
“I personally want to be as inclusive as possible — very non-snobby. There’s a sense in our cast and crew of mutual support and curiosity about what we can bring to life… about making the world better,” Baron said. “Most in Dangerous Women are teachers, many community visionaries, nine or 10 directors in the cast, and we want to say something that matters.”
One of the cast members is Stacy Coronado, a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes, who recently moved from Omak to Wenatchee as a school counselor.
Coronado said her favorite parts of “Unsettled” are the true stories of the area, such as a scene written by the actual granddaughter of a pioneer woman whose family still has a pair of moccasins from an interaction with a Okanogan Indian woman.
“Doing all of this on stage — to us it’s more. Some of us have lived the traumas of that boarding school, or parents who raised us from the perspective of that trauma. So it’s very emotional for us,” Coronado said.
Each performance is followed by a brief question and answer session with the artists.
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