Smith College to Present "Molly Has Her Say"

Smith College senior Marge Bruchac will present her play, "Molly Has Her Say," at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 7, and Saturday, May 8, at Smith's Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts, Green St., Northampton.

Bruchac's work-in-progress focuses on the "hidden histories" of northeastern Algonkian Indians and the conflict between Anglo-American written histories of disappearance and Native American oral histories of persistence. In the play, two "Mollys"--Molly Ockett and Old Mali--emerge from the past to speak to young Molly Marie, a Native American graduate student who denies her own Indian identity, even as she researches the details of Abenaki history.

Molly Ockett: "Some a' these young ones git ta thinkin' th' stories don' mean nothin. Jes words on a page, jes sounds spoken inta' th' air . . . Them scratches got power, girl! Talkin' leaves-akwighigan-we calls 'em....They can write ya out, same's they kin write ya in!"

The voices of these Abenaki Indian women speak to the systematic displacement and disruption of Abenaki communities from the colonial period to the present and their tenacious hold on "Ndakinna," their homeland, through personal anecdotes, historical texts, and traditional stories. Molly Ockett, a late 18th-century Pequawket Indian doctress, is trying to reach Molly Marie through her research, asking her to re-examine the texts and myths of extinction and remember her own family history. Old Mali, the voice of the ancestors, is trying to "sing the world into being," offering strength and connection to a timeless place where the songs and stories live. Molly Marie is just trying to get through her studies with a cynicism and disconnectedness that protects her from having to take any responsibility for these histories or her own "Indianness."

Molly Marie: "What if I'm not Indian enough?...What if nobody believes me...who's gonna claim me then? Get off me--go find another Indian to kick around! I don't want your stories!"

Old Mali: "Old Mali has somethin' she's been wantin' ta say to ya: The ancestors did the choosin,' girl...ain't your responsibility nohow...it's jes that now yer the one holdin' pen an' paper..."

Playwright and director Marge Bruchac, who portrays Molly Ockett, is herself of Missisquoi Abenaki descent. She is a traditional storyteller, an interpretive consultant for Old Sturbridge Village museum, and a Smith College Sophia Smith Scholar pursuing independent study in theater and history. Shelly LaVallee, who portrays Molly Marie, is of French, Iroquois and Blackfoot descent. She is currently pursuing a degree in events and conference management.

This production, which is supported in part by a grant from the Five College Multicultural Theater Committee, is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible.

For more information, call Marge Bruchac at (413)584-2195.

April 16, 1999