Disneyland Indians: circa Paris, 2014

A four-act historical ethnodrama critiques the Paris Disneyland, Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and its use of Native Americans as re-enactors of a wild west that never was. The play asks if new stories of the West can be performed and if so how. I contest the transnational narrative that uses Native Americans as vehicles for telling stories about the global Wild West. I situate the critique in Paris Disneyland, but it could as easily be located in Disneyland Parks in Tokyo, London, or Rust, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. These global Wild West shows, with audience participation, enact recurring fantasies of colonial domination over Native Americans. By performing its own reflexive critique, this play is intended to mimic the Paris Wild West Show and expose this ideology.