Larissa FastHorse is a Native American (Sicangu Lakota) playwright and choreographer based in Santa Monica, California. In 2023, she became the first known female Native American playwright produced on Broadway with The Thanksgiving Play at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater.^[1] That same year, she joined Arizona State University as a professor of practice in the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Department of English with long-time collaborators, Michael John Garcés and Ty Defoe.^[2] In 2024, Peter Pan: The Broadway Musical with an adapted book by FastHorse began an international tour.^[3]

This biographical article is written like a résumé. (October 2023)

FastHorse grew up in South Dakota,^[4][5] where she began her career as a ballet dancer and choreographer but was forced into retirement after ten years of dancing^[6] due to an injury.^[7] Returning to an early interest in writing, she became involved in Native American drama, especially the Native American film community.^[6][8] Later she began writing and directing her own plays, several of which are published through Samuel French (a Concord Theatricals Company) and Dramatic Publishing.^[7][9] With playwright and performer Ty Defoe, FastHorse co-founded Indigenous Direction, a "consulting firm that helps organizations and individuals who want to create accurate work by, for, and with Indigenous peoples."^[10] Indigenous Direction's clients include Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade^[11] and the Guthrie Theater.^[12] FastHorse is a past vice chair of the Theatre Communications Group, a service organization for professional non-profit American theatre,^[13] and current vice chair of the Board of Directors for Playwrights Horizons.

In 2000, FastHorse was a delegate to the United Nations in Geneva, where she spoke on the impact cinema can have for Indigenous peoples.^[8] FastHorse then shifted from a career as a dancer and choreographer, to feature television and film development and theater.^[8]

FastHorse has created a trilogy of "community engaged" plays with Michael John Garcés and Cornerstone Theater Company. The first was Urban Rez, which portrayed the experience of Indigenous people in Los Angeles County, home to the U.S.'s second-largest Indigenous population.^[14] The second project, Native Nation, was the largest Indigenous theater production in the history of American theater with over 400 Native artists involved in the productions in association with ASU Gammage.^[15] Wicoun was the third play in the series and, according to FastHorse, explored the strength, beauty, humor, and perseverance culture, language and identity of the Northern Plains Indigenous people.^{[16] [17]} FastHorse’s "radical inclusion process" with Indigenous tribes has been honored with prestigious national arts funding from MacArthur, Creative Capital, MAP Fund, NEFA, First People’s Fund, the NEA Our Town Grant, Mellon Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and others.^[18]

FastHorse worked for Universal Pictures before joining Latham Entertainment at Paramount as a creative executive. She produced two short films, The Migration and A Final Wish, before switching her focus to writing and directing.^[8][19]

While writing and working on many projects of her own making, FastHorse also served as a panelist for The Film and Video Fellowships, formerly named the Rockefeller Fellowship.^[8] She has been involved with many other networks and theatre companies, having written commissioned pieces for the AlterTheater in San Rafael, CA;^[7][9] Cornerstone Theatre Company;^[5] and Native Voices at the Autry^[5][7] both located in Los Angeles, CA, as well as the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis, MN;^[7] the Kennedy Center for Young Audiences in Washington, D.C.;^[7] and for Mountainside Theater in Cherokee, N.C.^[5][7] She has developed new plays with the Arizona Theatre Company, Tucson, AZ;^[7] the Center Theatre Group Writer's Workshop, Los Angeles, CA;^[7] and Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor, Berkeley, CA.^[7] Her play Urban Rez, created with Cornerstone Theater, portrays the experience of Indigenous people in Los Angeles County, home to the U.S.'s second-largest Indigenous population.^[20] The Thanksgiving Play was begun with a fellowship from the Guthrie Theater and developed through readings including at DC's Center Stage Play Lab in 2016;^[21][22] it was produced by Artists Repertory Theatre in Oregon in April 2018.^[23] Both The Thanksgiving Play in 2017^[24] and What Would Crazy Horse Do? in 2014 were featured on the annual "Kilroys' List" of "recommended un- and underproduced new plays by female and trans authors of color."^[25][26] What Would Crazy Horse Do?, a comedy inspired by historical interest by the KKK in collaborations with Indigenous groups,^[27][28] was featured in the Lilly Awards' 2015 reading series with performers Emily Bergl, Jesse Perez, and Madeline Sayet.^[29] The Thanksgiving Play also secured FastHorse's off-Broadway playwright debut, with an October 2018 production announced by Playwrights Horizons, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and starring Margo Seibert, Jennifer Bareilles, Jeffrey Bean, and Greg Keller.^[30] In 2023 The Thanksgiving Play was produced on Broadway, making FastHorse the first Native American female playwright to have a play produced on Broadway.^[31]

FastHorse currently serves as Vice Chairman of Playwrights Horizons.^[32]

As part of her production contract as a playwright, FastHorse requires that the theatre hire at least one other Indigenous artist for the production, and showcase at least one other Indigenous artist's work in the building.^[23]

FastHorse has been collaborating with Macy's since 2020 to help make the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade more respectful for the Native American community.^[33]

• MacArthur Fellows Program, Class of 2020^[34]
• FastHorse completed a 2006 fellowship from Fox Diversity Writer's Initiative Programs^[8]
• recipient of the 2015-2016 Joe Dowling Annaghmakerig Fellowship Award^[5]
• National Endowment for the Arts Distinguished New Play Development Grant^[7]
• AATE Distinguished Play Award^[7]
• William Inge Center for the Arts Playwriting Residency^[7]
• Sundance Institute-Ford Foundation Fellowship^[7][9]
• Aurand Harris Fellowship
• member of the Center Theatre Group Writer's Workshop in 2011-2012 ^[9]
• Two for New Works grant recipient^[9]
• National Geographic Seed Grant ^[9]
• PEN/USA Literary Award for Drama^[35]
• Delegate to the UN in Geneva^[9]
• Center Stage's Wright Now, Play Later Project, 2016^[21]

• The Line (pilot; Fox)^[9]
• Lakota Falls (pilot; Teen Nick)^[9]

FastHorse is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Lakota people.^[7] She lives with husband, sculptor Edd Hogan, in Santa Monica.^[8]