Event

Evening Series: Menil and Her Heart

Part of the 4th Annual Zero to Fierce Festival, Menil and Her Heart is a Cahuilla play focused on the contemporary issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous women and girls. Seventeen year old Isabella Madrigal, of Cahuilla and Chippewa descent, has written a full-length play that follows the disappearance of a Cahuilla girl, and the efforts of her sister to find her by journeying into an alternate realm of traditional Cahuilla stories.

Isabella banded together a group of Natives and non-Natives to host the premier production of Menil and Her Heart through a series of workshops and rehearsals with a cast of 15 mostly inexperienced performers as part of earning her Girl Scout Gold Award. Through partnering with the nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, word got out, including through national attention from Indian Country Today, and more than 100 people came to laugh, cry, and connect.

The drama is also Ms. Madrigals way to help bring Native American representation to the arts.

"People are fighting back to get justice and healing for these families", Madrigal said. "I saw that my play could be another thing to provide that".

Menil and Her Heart was most recently performed at the California Genocide Conference 2019.

Menil and her Heart will be performed as part of our Lunchbox Series on Friday, March 6 at noon and our Evening Series on Saturday, March 7 at 8 PM.

Audiences are encouraged to attend the Pre-Show Dinner and Discussion on Friday, March 6 at 5 PM.