When Gene Tagaban makes his entrance in According to Coyote, currently playing at Seattle Children’s Theatre, the first thing he does is take off his shoes and give a short bow toward the stage. It’s a gesture that feels more like ritual than theater, and with good reason. “When I step onto that stage, I’m going into ceremony and I’m bringing everyone with me,” he says. “I want to touch their spirits.”
Tall, good-looking, with an impressive mane of silvering hair, Tagaban grew up in the small village of Hoonah in southeast Alaska, with a Filipino/Tlingit father and a Cherokee mother. When he was 5, he saw a woman in the village perform the Raven Dance, a traditional tribal performance evoking the bird that in Tlingit mythology is both the Creator of human beings and a mischievous trickster hero. Inspired, and encouraged by his parents, he began learning the Native dances. Eventually, sports and other adolescent distractions led him elsewhere. But he was brought back into Native culture and performance in his early 20s, thanks to his friend Chris Makua.
Makua had already lived a life of extremes, having been a gang member in L.A., done time in prison, and had his throat cut and been left for dead by a rival gang. While recovering from this injury, he had a vision that led him to his people in Alaska. He joined the Naa Kahidi theater troupe, which interweaves traditional Native storytelling and dancing with theater. When Makua was killed in a boating accident, Tagaban took his place in the troupe.
“Chris had lived such an interesting life, and had been such a wonderful artist, that we decided to tell his story using our techniques of mask and dance,” says Dave Hunsaker, the former artistic director of Naa Kahidi. Tagaban played the role of his friend, wearing a Haida character mask, in a show that played for a year, before the troupe was asked by Makua’s people to end the show so his spirit could move on.
Hunsaker recalls that Tagaban, “our star pupil,” came to the company with skills as a dancer and musician, and that he had a natural connection to his Elders, including an older company member who helped teach him storytelling by insisting he address crowds when the company was touring. This was unorthodox acting training, but according to Hunsaker, “Gene can do really intelligent character work that somehow incorporates his mask, movement, dance, and storytelling. It ain’t Stanislavski, but it’s pretty good acting, and he’s arriving at it through traditional Native performance techniques.” Since then Tagaban has had major roles in plays and films, including Sherman Alexie’s The Business of Fancydancing.
In According to Coyote, a solo show by John Kauffman that tells several Nez Percé myths, these skills all come into play in a role that incorporates dance, drumming, singing, and impersonating a dozen different animals and characters. “Tlingits are great orators, and that’s where I learned my speaking skills,” Tagaban remembers. “Then with their dance, they’ve got this strength and the stillness, not like all the jumping around of the Plains people.”
What’s most surprising to me is that Tagaban’s work actually keeps audiences of kids enthralled throughout the hour-long show. Partly it’s his willingness to indulge in Coyote’s silliness, wiggling his butt at a group of birds he’s tricked, or yawning and scratching as he resurrects from yet another fatal accident. But they’re also held spellbound as he tells a far darker tale of Coyote’s ill-fated attempt to bring back his wife from the land of the dead.
The secret, he says, is not to talk down to them. “When I do talk, I don’t use that high ‘storyteller’ voice.” He mimics the bright patronizing voice of a grade-school librarian. “‘Today, children, we’re going to hear about Coyote!’ No, no. You talk with a voice of purpose, meaning, and authority. You address their spirits.”
The actor was originally hesitant to take the long-running role at SCT, as he’s busy with work as a motivational speaker, life coach, and dancer. “I call this my fishing season,” he says with a smile. But he’s having great fun with the role, and it’s right in the neighborhood for his next gig, performing his Raven Dance for the Dalai Lama.
John Longenbaugh
