"It's a little hard to describe “Te Ata (Bearer of the Dawn),” a play about the world-famous Chickasaw storyteller who was born in 1895 and died in 1995.

But whether you call it a memory play, a musical, a ceremony, a celebration, a “theatricalization” or all of the above, it adds up to a quietly touching evening at Oklahoma City University's Burg Theatre.

Integral to “Te Ata” was Robert Cothran's set, a round, multileveled, multicolored staging area, adorned with what looks like beads and sticks, opening to a “drum sky,” shaped like a hide attached to its roof.

But it is the low-key and measured, even a little stylized, performances of principals, half real and half memory or dreamlike, that provides the production's most crucial ingredient.

A multilayered, understated, but moving and at times magical theatrical experience, the OCU version of the play by JudyLee Oliva is highly recommended and shouldn't be missed. “Te Ata” will be staged July 5-8 at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C."

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OCU offers encore presentation of 'Te Ata' (The Oklahoman 6/22)