“The New Adventures of Super Indian” Debuts Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Native Voices at the Autry revives radio/audio theater episodes for new audiences as part of their 2021 Spring Theater Production
Get ready to return to the Leaning Oak Reservation and the comedy adventures of our favorite Native American superhero, “Super Indian.” On Wednesday, April 14, 2021 at 4:00pm Pacific Time, Native Voices at the Autry will debut a brand new audio theater production of the acclaimed comic/graphic novel on their website here:
https://theautry.org/events/performing-arts/native-voices-presents-new-adventures-super-indian
The program is free to all. All you need to do is register and your download will begin.
Two more episodes of the series will debut on Wednesday, April 21st and Wednesday, April 28th.
The new episodes revisit the origins of Super Indian and two of his most evil foes, Wampum Baggs and Derek Thunder. Fans of the comic will remember them from Issue #4 “Technoskin.” Additionally, you will hear an expanded version of the two issue story of “The Curse of Blud Kwan’Tum,” (Issue #5 and Issue #6). There is also a brand new story called “The Warbonnet” which tells the story of a mysterious, charmed headdress that causes trouble on the Leaning Oak Reservation.
Arigon Starr is the writer of all the episodes, in addition to serving as a co-director (along with Olivia Espinosa), actor and music creator.
Each episode is approximately one-hour in length and is filled with all the comedy and hijinx you’ve come to expect from the comic/graphic novels.
The program is produced by Native Voices at the Autry. Many of you will remember that “Super Indian” began as a ten-minute radio play presented at the National Audio Theater Festival in 2006. Native Voices and the Native Radio Theater Project also produced a ten-episode version of “Super Indian” which aired across the U.S. in 2007.
The production came together as the brainchild of Native Voices’ new Artistic Director, DeLanna Studi. Ms. Studi felt that theater audiences have become fatigued with online “Zoom” theater productions and wanted to do something different. Hence, a fully produced, audio experience from an original play!
Arigon began writing the three episodes in January 2021. “It’s been awhile since I thought about Super Indian’s origin story,” said Starr. As many will recall, the Origin Story was part of the original radio series, however, those episodes were only five minutes each in length. “When I began to develop ‘Super Indian’ as a comic, I wrote a 23-page comic story based on those two episodes, but have never published it. Believe me, it was a thrill to dive deep into the material again and have the luxury of an hour to tell the story of how Hubert Logan ate tainted commodity cheese and gained super powers,” enthused Starr.
The production involved sixteen different actors from all over the U.S. The actors recorded their performances live as they interacted online on Zoom. The audio files were then delivered to the talented sound designer, Thomas Maggs, who’s based in England. “This is truly an international production,” smiled Arigon.
If you’d like to hear more about the production, you can listen to this recent online interview:
Arigon Starr and DeLanna Studi interviewed by host Larry Smith on KPFK’s “American Indian Airwaves”
As more press stories are available, we’ll add them to the post list.
We look forward to your comments on the new audio theater version of “Super Indian.” Could Volume Three be far behind? Fingers crossed!
