Larissa FastHorse is a Native American (Sicangu Lakota) playwright and choreographer based in Santa Monica, California.
[4] FastHorse grew up in South Dakota,[5][6] where she began her career as a ballet dancer and choreographer but was forced into retirement after ten years of dancing[7] due to an injury.
[9] FastHorse has created a trilogy of "community engaged" plays with Michael John Garcés and Cornerstone Theater Company.
[19] Wicoun was the third play in the series and, according to FastHorse, explored the strength, beauty, humor, and perseverance culture, language and identity of the Northern Plains Indigenous people.
The Playwrights Horizons production was directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and starred Margo Seibert, Jennifer Bareilles, Jeffrey Bean, and Greg Keller.
"[28][29] What Would Crazy Horse Do?,[30] a comedy inspired by historical events in which the KKK attempted to recruit Indigenous groups,[31] was featured in the Lilly Awards' 2015 reading series with performers Emily Bergl, Jesse Perez, and Madeline Sayet.
[33] Through FastHorse’s revised book, the new production of Peter Pan readdresses the play's depiction of Native Americans as it embarks on an international tour in 2024.
(KCRep),[35] Landless[36] and Cow Pie Bingo[37] (AlterTheater), Average Family (Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis),[38] Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders: a Class Presentation (Native Voices at the Autry Museum of the American West),[39] Vanishing Point (Eagle Project),[40] and Cherokee Family Reunion (Mountainside Theater).
In 2020, FastHorse’s company with Ty Defoe, Indigenous Direction, produced the first land acknowledgement on national television for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC.