"To succeed in life you need three things-
a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone."
-Reba McEntire
Sovereignty
WRITTEN BY
Mary Kathryn Nagle
DIRECTED BY
COMING SOON
Inspired by true events
"One of the most necessary plays ever written."
-Tribal College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education
Dates
August 14-30, 2026
Venue
The Arts Factory at West End Studios
run time
Approximately 2 hours, and one 15-minute intermission
content
This production includes references to colonization, historical and contemporary trauma, systemic injustice, and strong language. There is a depiction of domestic and sexual violence. Recommended for ages 16+
About the Show
In present-day Oklahoma, a young Cherokee lawyer, Sarah Ridge Polson, and her colleague Jim Ross defend the inherent jurisdiction of Cherokee Nation in the U.S. Supreme Court when a non-Indian defendant challenges the Nation’s authority to prosecute non-Indian perpetrators of domestic violence. Their collaboration is juxtaposed with scenes from 1835, when the Cherokee Nation was eight hundred miles to the east in the southern Appalachians. That year, Sarah’s and Jim’s ancestors, historic Cherokee rivals, were bitterly divided over a proposed treaty with the administration of Andrew Jackson, the Treaty of New Echota, which led to the nation’s removal to Oklahoma on the infamous Trail of Tears.
A direct descendant of nineteenth-century Cherokee leaders John Ridge and Major Ridge, Mary Kathryn Nagle has penned a play that twists and turns from violent outbursts to healing monologues, illuminating a provocative double meaning for the sovereignty of both tribal territory and women’s bodies. Taking as its point of departure the story of one lawyer’s passionate defense of the rights of her people to prosecute non-natives who commit crimes on reservations, Sovereignty opens up into an expansive exploration of the circular continuity of history, human memory, and the power of human relationships.
What People Are Saying
Praise from previous productions
Tribal College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education
"One of the most necessary plays ever written."
Gloria Steinem
"Fundamental and revelatory."
Maryland Theater Guide
“The parallels between the past and present in this play are beautiful and heart-wrenching, often at the same time. It unpacks this world of dualities—Cherokee and White, past and future, Ross and Ridge. It’s an amazing journey.”
Get Tickets
Advance Purchase Online: $30 inclusive of all taxes and fees
Night of Show at the Door: $35 inclusive of all taxes and fees
Students and Educators: $20 inclusive of all taxes and fees
Volunteers: We welcome volunteers to help with ushering and concessions at each performance. Volunteers get to see the show for free. Please visit our Volunteer Registration page to sign up.
Discounted pricing available for groups of 10 or more, contact us at info@threebonetheatre.com to learn more
Individual Tickets will go on sale September 15
flex passes available now!
Meet the Artists
Mary Kathryn Nagle
Playwright
Mary Kathryn Nagle is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She is an attorney whose work focuses on the restoration of tribal sovereignty and the inherent right of Indian Nations to protect their women and children from domestic violence and sexual assault. From 2015 to 2019, she served as the first Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program. Nagle is an alum of the 2013 Public Theater Emerging Writers Program. Productions include Miss Lead (Amerinda, 59E59), Fairly Traceable (Native Voices at the Autry), Sovereignty (Arena Stage), Manahatta (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Return to Niobrara (Rose Theater), and Crossing Mnisose (Portland Center Stage), Sovereignty (Marin Theatre Company), Manahatta (Yale Repertory Theatre), On the Far End (Round House Theater). She has received commissions from Arena Stage, the Rose Theater (Omaha, Nebraska), Portland Center Stage, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Yale Repertory Theatre, Round House Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Theater, the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and the Santa Fe Opera. She also works in film and television. Most recently she served as an Associate Producer on the film PREY.
She is most well known for her work on ending violence against Native women. Her play Sliver of a Full Moon has been performed in law schools from Stanford to Harvard, NYU and Yale. She has worked extensively on Violence Against Women Act re-authorization, and she has filed numerous briefs in the United States Supreme Court, as a part of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center’s VAWA Sovereignty Initiative, including most recently, Denezpi v. United States, United States v. Cooley, Oklahoma v. Murphy, Oklahoma v. McGirt, Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, Brackeen v. Haaland, and United States v. Rahimi. She represents numerous families of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, including Kaysera Stops Pretty Places’ family who have brought a public campaign demanding an investigation into her murder. More can be read at www.justiceforkaysera.org
Supporting Materials
Digital Program
Download the full program to learn more about the artistic team and our community partner.
Discussion Guide
Keep the conversation going with our show-specific discussion guide developed by our Education Manager.