Episode 12: Julie Pearson Little Thunder – A Southern Fantasia

In this episode, which was recorded remotely in November 2020, we meet playwright and Native theater scholar, Dr. Julie Pearson Little Thunder, and take a listen to selections from her latest play, “A Southern Fantasia.” The reading features Elizabeth Randall as Arifiday, Jana Rhoads (Kiowa/Caddo) as Laune, Vanessa Adams Harris (Mvskoke Creek) as Okcate, April Wind (Mvskoke Creek/Cherokee) as Auntie, and Harold Blalock (Eastern Shawnee/Peoria/Cherokee) as Fletcher.

Dr. Julie Pearson Little Thunder has a theater degree from the University of Kansas and worked as a co-founder, director and playwright for a Tulsa-based Native theater company from 1993 to 2010. Of mixed Irish, Creek and African-American ancestry, Little Thunder has published over a dozen articles on Native theater and the Native arts for various journals and magazines. Her most recent works include a book, A Life Made With Artists and a screenplay. She talks to Emily and Lindsey about writing “A Southern Fantasia,” which is one of the few pieces of writing she has completed in the last thirty years that isn’t set in Oklahoma. Little Thunder shares her thoughts on writing a play set in Alabama and the complications of Southern history, discusses the challenges of directing a play during the pandemic, and offers her insight into taking on new creative projects in screenwriting.