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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Why I Joined the Guild
Vickie Ramirez: Why I Joined the Guild
Why I Joined the Guild
  • A painterly portrait of a Native woman with her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail
    Portrait of Vickie Ramirez by Dan Romer for The Dramatist
  • A painterly portrait of a Native woman with her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail
    Portrait of Vickie Ramirez by Dan Romer for The Dramatist

I’ve been blessed when it comes to my theatre career. I didn’t attend college, and my career began when I started creating stories with Chukalokoli Native Theater Ensemble. We were a devised theatre ensemble, and it was a lot of fun, but I realized I craved writing my own stories. I was lucky enough to have the support and trust of experienced theatre professionals who believed in my work. Essentially, I came to playwriting from the side door because people held it open for me.

So, it’s probably not a surprise that when I joined the Guild, it was for a cosmetic reason. I qualified! I am a professional playwright! Here’s my badge of honor! I had finally proved to myself and others that I was to be taken seriously as a professional dramatist! This is my Guild! This is my number!

And for a couple of years, that’s what membership was for me. I had a card that proved I was a working dramatist. However, when a small theatre company tried to hold on to producing rights for one of my plays for five years, I discovered all the excellent resources the Guild offers. I didn’t know the customary or accepted standards in the industry, however, that five-year lockdown seemed wrong. The Guild showed me that it was a predatory practice and not expected. After that, I discovered that the Guild offers so many educational resources. I found artistic courses led by playwrights at the top of their game and classes on business practices and finance, so I could learn how to function as a professional playwright. They even have rehearsal space.

One of the great strengths of Indigenous theatre is that we always operate as a community. That is the source of our strength and resiliency. It took a minute for me to realize that the Guild is not a status symbol but another source of community. A place where I can go and share my struggle with other playwrights and theateremakers and come out stronger. The Guild is another artistic home.  ●

Vickie Ramirez
Vickie Ramirez

(Tuscarora) is a playwright, director, and filmmaker whose work explores Indigenous sovereignty, identity, and survival in contemporary North America. An alumna of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group (2009) and resident playwright at New Dramatists (since 2018), her writing appears in Monologues for Actors of Color, Contemporary Plays by Women of Color (Routledge), Short Plays (TRW), and Smoke (Broadway Publishing).

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Vickie Ramirez
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