Lysistrata Numbah @ Spiderwoman Theater. 1977

- SPIDERWOMAN THEATER, The Spiderwoman Theater Group from New York, 1977.

The Spider Woman Theater Company was founded in 1975 by sisters Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel and Muriel Migue as a group, which mostly worked with performers from a Native American Background. The company’s name is derived from a Hopi goddess. In their plays, the group interweaves dialogue, movement and music to connect different narrative strands, often adding a fair portion of slapstick comedy. To describe its method, the group has coined the term ‘‘storyweaving’’. ‘‘ Women in Violence’’, the first Spiderwoman production, was premiered in New York in 1976 to great success, which also brought the group to Europe. The Spiderwoman Theater Company still exists and in its productions continues to examine the current situation of Native Americans, Native American history, resistance and survival.

This video was produced during the company’s Lysistrata Numbah tour. In their performance Lysistrata Numbah, premiered in 1977, Spiderwoman Theater created a revue of likeable and less likeable characters, satirizing female gender stereotypes.