Connecting Traditions (cont'd)

Excited about the role of language in performance, Wemytewa formed the Zuni theater troupe to collaborate with Roadside on a play that explored two of the country's most traditional cultures.

"Theater is just a medium that helps us to demonstrate the live use of the language," Wemytewa said.

Corn Mountain/Pine Mountain premiered in Whitesburg in 1996 and has played in Zuni as well as in Arizona and New Orleans. Written by Wemytewa and Arden Kucate of Idiwanan An Chawe and Porterfield and Ron Short of Roadside Theater, the play features Appalachian and Zuni musicians and storytellers and a group of Zuni dancers and singers dressed in traditional regalia.

The play cycles through the seasons, beginning with spring, a season of new life, and ending with winter, when Mother Earth and the Corn Maidens all sleep.

"In Zuni we are season-oriented, and so are they in Appalachia," Wemytewa said.

But the play looks at much more than simply the seasons. "It's also about the whole mythological world that encircles our two cultures," Cocke said.

The spring segment of the play includes a Zuni Turkey Dance and a Cinderella-style story, Turkey Girl, about a mother who learns a hard lesson after abandoning her children to attend a social dance.

The Appalachian springtime story, Hairy Woman, addresses the tragedies that can arise from people's judgments about those who are different. "Hairy Woman is one of the oldest stories in the mountains," Cocke said. "It's a huge story about origin. It comes to us in this recent 200- to 300-year-old version from its long, long history in Europe, and perhaps even from Africa before that. It's one of the oldest stories we've ever known."

The play's creators hope their traditions will inspire audiences watching Corn Mountain/Pine Mountain to reflect on their own origins.

"We want audiences to think about their own stories, their own songs, their own dances and their own myths - in other words, their own roots and their own traditions," Cocke said.

Seeing the point where two seemingly different cultures can converge may also reveal how connected we all are through stories and songs.

"Without our stories, how will we know its us?" Cocke said. "And without hearing the stories of others, how will we know who they are?"

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