William S. Yellow Robe, Jr.

William S. Yellow Robe, Jr.
Born	William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. February 4, 1950 Poplar, Montana
Occupation	Actor, author, director, educator, playwright, poet[1]
Nationality	Assiniboine
Genre	Native American literature
Notable works	Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers: And Other Untold Stories, Where the Pavement Ends
Notable awards	First Nations Book Award for Drama

William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. (born February 4, 1950) is an Assiniboine actor, author, director, educator, playwright, and poet.^[1]

Life and career

A member of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Yellow Robe was raised by his mother on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana.^[2] He studied writing and performing arts at the University of Montana.^[3]

Yellow Robe's works have been performed in venues across the United States, including the Penumbra Theatre Company in St. Paul;^[4] the Public Theater in New York;^[5] the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI;^[6] and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.^[7] He is a member of Penumbra, as well as the Ensemble Studio Theater,^[8] Amerinda, Inc.,^[1] and the advisory board for Red Eagle Soaring Theater Company for Native youth.^[9]

Yellow Robe has also taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Brown University,^[10] and the University of Maine.^[11]

Awards

• Princess Grace Foundation Theater Fellowship (1989)
• The Playwrights' Center Jerome Fellowship
• Native Writers' Circle of the Americas First Nations Book Award for Prose (1992)
• New England Theater Conference Special Award winner (2004)^[12]

Bibliography

• Where the Pavement Ends: Five Native American Plays. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. 2003. ISBN 0806132655.
• Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers and Other Untold Stories. UCLA American Indian Studies Center. 2009. ISBN 093562659X.

Notes

1. "William S. Yellow Robe, Jr.". Amerinda.org. Amerinda. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
2. Uno, Roberta; Robe, William Yellow (Fall 1989). "Interview: William Yellow Robe". MELUS. 16 (3): 83. doi:10.2307/467568.
3. Pulitano, Elvira (Spring 1998). "Telling Stories through the Stage: A Conversation with William Yellow Robe". Studies in American Indian Literatures. 10 (1): 19.
4. "Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers". Penumbra. Penumbra Theatre. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
5. Hetrick, Adam (August 3, 2011). "William S. YellowRobe, Jr.'s Thieves Arrives at the Public". Playbill. Playbill. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
6. "Past Seasons". Trinity Repertory Company. Trinity Repertory Company. Archived from the original on 2012-02-28. Retrieved 2013-03-19.
7. "National Museum of the American Indian Presents Production of Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers". Newsdesk. Smithsonian. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
8. Geiogamah, Hanay. "Interview with William S. Yellow Robe Jr. (2007)". Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
9. "Acclaimed playwright William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. to read works at Hangin' Art Gallery". Char-Koosta News. November 8, 2012. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
10. McElwain, Diana (April 21, 2003). "William Yellow Robe: No One's Stray Dog". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
11. "Faculty — William Yellow Robe". Department of English. University of Maine. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
12. Watts, Jeff (Fall 2004). "Countdown to Convention 2004" (PDF). NETC News (PDF). 13 (4). Retrieved 2015-03-24.

Further reading

• Krasner, David (2009). "Coming-of-Age on the Rez: William S. Yellow Robe's The Independence of Eddie Rose as Native American Bildungsdrama". In Wilmer, S. E. Native American Performance and Representation. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. pp. 171–181. ISBN 978-0816526468.
• Rooks, David (2005). "The Real Thing: Identity and cultural authenticity are dramatic fodder for William S. Yellow Robe Jr. An interview". American Theater. Theatre Communications Group. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
• Stoudt, Charlotte (2004). "Border Crossings: Theatre, Tribalism and Twenty-First-Century America. Luis Valdez at San Diego Repertory Theatre and William Yellow Robe, Jr., at Trinity Repertory Company". In Stoudt, Charlotte. Stages of Transformation: Collaborations of the National Theatre Artist Residency Program. New York: Theatre Communications Group. pp. 56–67. ISBN 978-1559362771.
• Weagel, Deborah Fillerup (2011). "The Quilt as (Non-)Commodity in William S. Yellow Robe Jr.'s The Star Quilter". Western American Literature. 46 (1): 46–64.
• Weinert-Kendt, Rob. "In the Trenches: William Yellow Robe". tgc circle. Theater Communications Group. Retrieved 2015-03-24.