I have, and her name is Terry Gomez. She is Institute of American Indian Art’s new Project Hoop coordinator. The acronym stands for Honoring Our Origins and Peoples through Native American Theater.

When asked, “What historical character would you like to be?”, she named the following:
• Lucille Ball for her comedic genius
• Freida Kahlo for her ability to turn body and mind anguish into art, and her cultural dedication
• John Steinbeck for his insight of human condition and the struggles of the poor
• Mother Teresa of Calcutta for her compassion for the broken and oppressed.

Then she added with a laugh, “All combined into one Comanche woman. Aye!”

Her response shows her serious yet playful nature. Gomez is in a unique position for she not only teaches theater arts, but she also is the director of a play production, “Ghost Dance,” written by Annette Arkeketa, Otoe-Missouria and Muscogee, a Native American woman writer and activist. The play is part of the coursework for Gomez’s Play Production II class. The students learn the steps in the production.

The Play, “Ghost Dance”

"I wish to make a difference in the world by working with students, pushing them out there into theater," Gomez says. “The theme of our play is repatriation. It is something that the students will think about and be aware of the seriousness of it. We had a visiting director who did not know what repatriation was about. Through this type of writing and this play, we can get it out there to the public.”

Gomez, a Comanche from Oklahoma, attended IAIA from 1992 to 1995 and graduated with degrees in Associate of Fine Arts in 2-Dimensional Art and Associate of Arts in Creative Writing. She then attended the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque for a short time.

In a warm tone of voice, she spoke of her experience there: “I left UNM because I had no luck with the general critique of my writings. Their class critiques were based on grammer function and punctuation and not as an Indian criteria of subject and content. I thought I was a horrible writer!”

Soon after, Gomez decided to return to IAIA even though she was discouraged by others not to come. At IAIA, Gomez’s first playwright experience came under Professor Jon Davis. That first semester she wrote a play, “Intertribal,”which she was going to throw away, but Davis stopped her. It became her first published piece.

In 2003, Gomez graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing.

Gomez As A Teacher

When asked how different is it to be a faculty after being one of the students at IAIA, Gomez did not hesitate to answer, “ I feel like I have reined in my carefree ways for a more serious manner towards the job I love doing.”

In her easygoing manner she continues, “I work with students who are brilliant and fantastically talented. There are not enough Native Americans in theater. It is a big responsibility. You hope that you are doing justice instilling discipline and seriousness into the students.

“Many of the students do take their responsibility sincerely. This became evident in the student’s dedication to rehearsal. Last semester our rehearsal was on a holiday. I understood that these students could be out there during the holiday enjoying their free time. I gave them a choice and I told them they could do what they wanted on that holiday and not have to practice. They said, ‘No, we want to rehearse.’

On the day of the rehearsal, all of them showed up, Gomez said. “What they thought was important was to attend the rehearsal. It was an amazing experience.”

“I Just Want to Make A Difference”

Becoming famous is not Gomez’s goal. “I just want to make a difference in the lives of the students by guiding them through Native theater so they can inform the public through their play production what is going on in Native issues,” she says.

Gomez’s quiet countenance comes through her voice as she answers the question, how far are you in accomplishing your goals? “I hope in the middle. There is still a lot of work to do. I want to do more theater especially Native Theater.”

Though she has put out several calls, Gomez is still seeking an actor to play the role of the grandfather in “Ghost Dance.” At the February IAIA Community Gathering, Glenda Kodaseet, IAIA campaign and development interim-director, who plays the part of the grandmother in the play, shared this conversation she had with Gomez one evening at rehearsal:

“Do we have Grandpa?” Kodaseet asked

“No, he’s still Missing In Action!” Gomez replied, demonstrating her characteristic sense of humor.

“Ghost Dance” will be performed April 30, May 1 and 2 at the James A. Little Theatre at the New Mexico School for the Deaf, 1060 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe.

Project Hoop is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE). Project Hoop gives tribal colleges a start in Native Theater studies and develops students creatively in art, academics and professional pursuits rooted in Native traditions, spiritual outlook, histories, cultures, languages and communities. This project gives a boost to the theater arts studies for it has been the least studied and pursued arts caused by lack of funding, scholarship, curriculum and staffing.

The program is a recent addition to the curriculum studies at IAIA. More information can be found at http://www.hoop.aisc.usla.edu/about.htm.