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Coinciding with Native American Heritage Month, theater faculty member Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota) is bringing evocative Indigenous storytelling to St. Olaf College in collaboration with the Theater Department, the Taylor Center for Equity and Inclusion, the Institute for Freedom and Community, and the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community. A series of events happening November 14–15 centered around a reading of the docudrama play Reasonable Doubt aims to encourage learning, healing, and empathetic relationship building.

“I think it’s really healing that we get to do this kind of work on campus,” says Pillatzki-Warzeha, who has long been involved in the Twin Cities Native community and serves on the Guthrie Theater’s Native Advisory Council. “Especially since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, most institutions have been grappling with what it means to answer to the historical traumas that have been inflicted upon people. Doing a play like this with Indigenous actors telling Indigenous stories on campus helps heal some of that trauma.”

The work is supported by the new Gimse Striving for Peace on Horizon’s Brim Art Endowment, which funds creative projects on the St. Olaf campus that demonstrate a commitment to peace and global justice and foster a greater understanding and respect for the diversity of humanity.

To kick things off, a Native-inspired community feast prepared by Trickster Tacos for St. Olaf’s Indigenous community members and allies will take place on Thursday, November 14, at 5 p.m. at the Flaten Art Barn. The festivities will include a traditional drum performance by the Oyate Singers, who represent several bands of the Oceti Sakowin. The meal aims to bring about important conversations and heartfelt camaraderie. Afterward, attendees are invited to experience the Why Treaties Matter exhibit at the Center for Art and Dance Link alongside student docents.

The Reasonable Doubt reading and panel discussion will take place on Friday, November 15, at 6 p.m. in the Center for Art and Dance main lobby. The 2022 play written by Yvette Nolan (Algonquin), Joel Bernbaum, and Lancelot Knight (Plains Cree) highlights the race relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people through the portrayal of a significant moment in Canadian history. In 2016, 22-year-old Cree man Colten Boushie was shot and killed at close range by 56-year-old white farmer Gerald Stanley after an encounter on the latter’s property near Biggar, Saskatchewan. In 2018 Stanley was acquitted of murder and manslaughter by an all-white jury in a controversial ruling that sparked great public outcry across Canada.

Much like the playwriting team behind the work, the Reasonable Doubt reading will feature both Native and non-Native talents, including Pillatzki-Warzeha herself, special guests Sequoia Hauck (Anishinaabe/Hupa) and Adrienne Zimiga-January (Oglala Lakota), and student performers Caleb Berrios ’25, Auggie Lehn ’26, Sasha Plaisted ’27, and Queenie Wynter ’25, with music by student David Males ’27.

“I hope what students and the community take away from this reading is to keep coming back to the table and keep having these hard conversations.”

— Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha

For Lehn, a theater and philosophy major who has taken several classes with Pillatzki-Warzeha, it’s an opportunity to explore lived experiences beyond their own.

“My racial background is white and I was raised in a non-Native community, so I didn’t have much experience with Native stories until I got to St. Olaf,” Lehn says. “I think it’s so important for both Native and non-Native communities to see works by, for, and about Native people. For this reading, I’m drawn to the script because it’s about coming together after a tragedy and bridging the gap that trauma causes. As Sara says, it’s about extending understanding and empathy between hurting communities.”

To that end, a panel discussion with Nolan, the performers, St. Olaf Vice President for Community and Belonging Eduardo Pazos, and a community organizer from the Twin Cities will follow the reading, allowing participants and patrons to delve deeper into the work’s themes and takeaways together. Pillatzki-Warzeha hopes to discuss what it means to be present on stolen land, to build greater awareness about the Indigenous experience, and to connect the event to St. Olaf’s overarching diversity and inclusion efforts.

“I think it’s so important for both Native and non-Native communities to see works by, for, and about Native people.”

— Auggie Lehn ’26

“I am heartened by the fact that St. Olaf isn’t shying away from these hard conversations,” says Pillatzki-Warzeha. “Our young people are so curious, generous, respectful, and kind. They want to be part of the dialogue, no matter how fraught and difficult it is. We have the capacity to do better, to be good relatives, and to hold one another and institutions accountable — and we don’t have to deny one another’s humanity in order to do that. I hope what students and the community take away from this reading is to keep coming back to the table and keep having these hard conversations.”

For Lehn, their Indigenous-focused experiences at St. Olaf have inspired them to help bring about meaningful change in the theater world at large. “This performance is a good start, but I want to take it further,” they note. “I believe that theater is a place and a community that should be accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, that’s not the case at this moment, because theater as we know it today is very colonial-based. But we can’t wait until the old systems are totally dismantled to start building a new world; we can build new worlds through the creation of art that honors community. I hope to help create space so that anyone who wants to participate in theater feels like their experiences are valued and honored.”