Announcements
Larissa FastHorse Returns to Campus for 2026 Residency
April 22-24, 2026
The Department of Theater Arts is thrilled to welcome back playwright and choreographer Larissa FastHorse for a spring residency following her selection as the 2025 Brandeis Creative Arts Award recipient.
A member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, FastHorse is a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2020 MacArthur "Genius" Fellow, and a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University. She recently made history as the first known female Native American playwright produced on Broadway with her satirical hit, The Thanksgiving Play.
Beyond her Broadway success, FastHorse is a leader in "radical inclusion." Her work with Indigenous Direction - the company she co-founded - and her recent nationally recognized trilogy of community-engaged plays (including Urban Rez and Native Nation) have redefined Indigenous representation in the American performing arts.
The Brandeis Creative Arts Award, supported by the Poses Family Foundation, is one of the university’s most storied traditions. Established in 1956, the award recognizes artists whose work embodies the Brandeis value of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). By joining the ranks of past winners like Leonard Bernstein, August Wilson, and Georgia O’Keeffe, FastHorse is recognized for her commitment to using theater as a tool for social change.
Larissa FastHorse Receives 2025 Creative Arts Award; The Thanksgiving Play Comes to Brandeis
Dear Brandeis Community,
I am pleased to announce that Brandeis will recognize playwright and choreographer Larissa FastHorse with the 2025 Creative Arts Award.
As an embodiment and example of Brandeis’ founding values of repairing the world, Ms. FastHorse uses her talents to redefine how Indigenous people and issues are represented in the landscape of American performing arts. Her satirical comedy, The Thanksgiving Play, debuted on Broadway in the 2022-2023, making her the first known female Native American playwright to be produced on Broadway. The Thanksgiving Play became one of the top ten most produced plays in America during the 2023-2024 season. A member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, she is the first Native American playwright to have a play on that list.
In recognition of her commitment to using theater to inspire and enact social change, she is a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. In addition to her playwriting and performance work, she is co-founder of Indigenous Direction, the nation’s leading consulting company for Indigenous arts and audiences.
We hope you will join us as we honor Ms. FastHorse’s achievements with an awards ceremony and panel discussion on Friday, November 21 at 3 p.m. She will then join us in the audience for the Brandeis Theater Arts Department’s production of The Thanksgiving Play on Friday evening. She will return to campus for a residency in March 2026.
The Brandeis Creative Arts Award, sponsored by the Poses Family Foundation, recognizes excellence in the lives and works of distinguished, active American artists. Established in 1956, early recipients included poet William Carlos Williams, composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, playwright August Wilson, painter Georgia O’Keefe, writer Grace Paley and choreographer Martha Graham among numerous other American artists. The most recent awards were given to painter Fred Wilson and violinist Midori.
The award is an enduring symbol of Brandeis’ continuing commitment to the arts, connecting our community with some of the most significant artists of our time. I am grateful to the Theater Arts Department for nominating Ms. FastHorse to join our list of distinguished recipients.
Sincerely,
Harleen Singh
Academic Dean of the School of Arts, Humanities, and Culture