Named after Spider Grandmother from Hopi mythology, it is the longest running Indigenous theatre company in the United States.
[1] Founded in 1976, Spiderwoman theater began as an early feminist theatre group, of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous women in New York City.
As part of the feminist movement of the 1970s, their work questioned gender roles, cultural stereotypes, sexual and economic oppression.
[3] Spiderwoman Theater was founded in 1976, as a mixed group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous women, with a focus on producing work about general feminist issues.
The play combined the actors' personal stories of facing violence, contrasting serious subject matter with slapstick and sexual humor.
The offshoot, non-Indigenous, lesbian performance troupe Split Britches included Lois Weaver, Peggy Shaw, and Deb Margolin.
[10] Spiderwoman Theater continued on with the three sisters and shifted its focus to Indigenous issues that year with the play Sun, Moon and Feather.
[5] Their Winnetou's Snake Oil Show from Wigwam City is a satire of the European and particularly German fascination with Native Americans.
In 1997, the Native American Women Playwrights Archive at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio recognized their life's work by awarding them with Honorary Doctorates of Fine Arts.
The sisters' mother and maternal grandmother also grew up in Brooklyn, but their father, a Kuna Indian, was a born in the San Blas Islands near Panama.
She gathered a diverse group of women including both of her sisters Gloria Miguel and Lisa Mayo, thus creating the Spiderwoman theater.
[16] She has written and performed in more than 20 plays that were produced by The Spiderwoman Theater, and toured New Zealand, Europe, Australia, China, United States and throughout Canada.