In this article, Taylor gives an overview of the Native North American theatre from which Tomson Highway's The Rez Sisters emerged.

Each summer, members of the Native Theatre School the only one of its kind in Canada-develop a new production at their farm in Heathcote, Ont., and then take it on the road. Audiences on Indian reserves enjoy the plays, whether they deal with urban teenagers or movie stereotypes of Indians, says school director Cathy Cayuga: "They laugh aloud they understand the absurdities." But when her troupe performs for white audiences, they are often greeted with confusion. Added Cayuga: "People are terribly self-conscious afraid to laugh." Few Canadian plays successfully cross the boundary between native and white experience. Those that have, such as The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, have been written or coauthored by whites. Until Manitoba-born Cree playwright Tomson Highway's The Rez Sisters, which opened...