William S. Yellow Robe Jr. (February 4, 1960 – July 19, 2021) was an

Assiniboine The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakoda ...

actor, author, director, educator, playwright, and poet.

Life and career

A member of the

Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation The Fort Peck Indian Reservation ( asb, húdam wįcášta, dak, Waxchį́ca oyáte) is located near Fort Peck, Montana, in the northeast part of the state. It is the home of several federally recognized bands of Assiniboine, Nakota, Lakota, ...

, Yellow Robe was raised by his mother on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Colum ...

. He studied writing and performing arts at the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fa ...

. Yellow Robe's works have been performed in venues across the United States, including the

Penumbra Theatre Company The Penumbra Theatre Company, an African-American theatre company in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was founded by Lou Bellamy in 1976. The theater has been recognized for its artistic quality and its role in launching the careers of playwrights includi ...

in St. Paul; the

Public Theater The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American L ...

in New York; the

Trinity Repertory Company Trinity Repertory Company (commonly abbreviated as Trinity Rep) is a non-profit regional theater located at 201 Washington Street in Providence, Rhode Island. The theater is a member of the League of Resident Theatres. Founded in 1963, the theat ...

in Providence, RI; and the Smithsonian's

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

in Washington, D.C. He was a member of Penumbra, as well as the Ensemble Studio Theater, Amerinda, Inc., and the advisory board for Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theatre. Yellow Robe has also taught at the

Institute of American Indian Arts The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic S ...

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Provide ...

, and the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifie ...

. He died following a long illness in Bangor on July 19, 2021. The day after he died, Yellow Robe was named the recipient of a $40,000 award in recognition of his contributions to theatre. His papers joined the many playwright and poetry archives at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the p ...

The University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 2022 and are available there for research.

Awards

*New England Theater Conference Special Award winner (2004) *

New York Community Trust The New York Community Trust is the community foundation for New York City, with divisions in Westchester and Long Island. It is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States and one of the largest funders of New York C ...

Helen Merril Award for Playwrighting (2021), announced one day after Yellow Robe died.

Bibliography

* * *''The Body Guards.'' ASIN: B014613HLM *''The Burning of Uncle.'' *from Learner, A. (Ed.). (1990). ''Dancing on the rim of the world: an anthology of contemporary Northwest native American writing.'' Tucson: University of Arizona Press. *''The Council.'' ASIN: B014617O4S *''Independence of Eddie Rose.'' ASIN: B00LLPCN1C *from Mojica, M. and Knowles, R. (Eds.). (2003). ''Staging coyote's dream: an anthology of First Nations drama in English.'' Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press. *''Restless Spirits: plays.'' Albany: State University of New York Press,

020 020 is the national dialling code for London in the United Kingdom. All subscriber numbers within the area code consist of eight digits and it has capacity for approaching 100 million telephone numbers. The code is used at 170 telephone exch ...

*''Rez Politics.'' ASIN: B0146168YK *''Sneaky.'' ASIN: B014619D42 *''The Star Quilter.'' ASIN: B01461109S

Notes

External links

William S. Yellow Robe Jr. Papers
at the

Faculty Profile
at the

Bill Yellow Robe Spoke Native Truth to White Power
by

Rhiana Yazzie Rhiana Yazzie is a Navajo playwright, actor, and filmmaker. She is based in the Twin Cities where she founded New Native Theater in 2009. Early life An enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, Yazzie grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. According ...

American Theatre Theater in the United States is part of the old European theatrical tradition and has been heavily influenced by the British theater. The central hub of the American theater scene is Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yellow Robe, William S. Jr. 1960 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American poets 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American male actors 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century American poets 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American male actors 21st-century Native Americans American male dramatists and playwrights American male poets Assiniboine people Brown University faculty Institute of American Indian Arts faculty Male actors from Montana Native American dramatists and playwrights Native American male actors Native American poets People from Poplar, Montana University of Maine faculty University of Montana alumni Writers from Montana

Life and career

Awards

Bibliography

Notes

Further reading

External links