Last Standing Woman Pilot

Economist, environmentalist, writer and industrial hemp grower known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, Winona LaDuke is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg, who lives and works on the White Earth Reservation. She is the mother of three.

A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, Winona has written extensively on Native American and Environmental issues.

In 1994, Winona was nominated by Time magazine as one of America's ‘50 Under 40’. She received the Thomas Merton Award (’96), the BIHA Community Service Award (’97), the Ann Bancroft Award for Women's Leadership Fellowship; and the Reebok Human Rights Award, with which she began the White Earth Land Recovery Project (’89). In ’98, Ms Magazine named her Woman of the Year.

As an actress she is known for ‘To Be A Water Protector: The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers,’ ‘First Daughter and the Black Snake,’ and ‘Skins.’

She is author of six nonfiction books, and the novel ‘Last Standing Woman’ (1997 / 2023).
'I have lived much of my life on the road. Like my mother and father before me, I travel. For me it is from one tribal nation to another, from University to College, regulatory hearing, court room, to the United Nations; and then home. It is by car, airplane, sometimes by horse or canoe. My travels, a privileged life indeed. In this space, people share their stories, or, sometimes, if I am lucky, a story unfolds as I watch; pen in hand.'

Michael O'Rourke co-founded Actors’ Theatre in Oregon in ’82, which served as a vehicle for an extraordinary community of talent, as well as expatriates from LA and NYC with impressive film, TV, and Broadway credits. As artistic director he bootstrapped the company of nomadic artists into a regional theatre, producing 100 productions in 13 years. A.J. Esta, critic for Back Stage, wrote, “. . .an astonishing example of how a small company can become a major theatrical force . . . dazzling critics and audiences with audacious under-takings as well as beautifully acted revivals of classics.” Actors’ Theatre received a DramaLogue award in ’89.

His signature projects with the company were: A rock musical adaptation of Pinocchio about an “unfinished boy,” who runs away from his father’s circus into an underworld of drugs, rock and roll, greed and lies; the West Coast premiere of Black Elk Speaks in collaboration with the American Indian Cultural Center; and Trojan Women, an adaptation of the great anti-war play based on the diary of a young American woman who witnessed with the Co-Madres against Salvadoran death squads in ’89.

Michael’s collaboration with Lakota actor Robert Greygrass resulted in the one-man show ‘Walking on Turtle Island’ that toured internationally for 16 years.

In 2002 he was hired to oversee Anchorage Community Theatre’s 50th season for whom he designed and built a 49-seat studio theatre in a warehouse owned by the company; produced collaborative and unprecedented shows with the Alaska Native Heritage Center and the African American company SAV; co-directed Bus Stop in ACT’s new studio theatre with “a terrific production design that put the audience right inside the diner”—the biggest hit of the company’s 50-year history, with an invitation to perform twice at Edward Albee’s Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, AK.

Recipient of grants for development of heritage scripts celebrating the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion (OR), he wrote ‘In the Land Where Acorns Dance,’ a screenplay based on Quaker poet Joaquin Miller’s life among the Modoc during the California Gold Rush. The script received the 2015 Grand Prize from the Yosemite International Film Festival.

His screenplay adaptations of stories in Native American activist Winona LaDuke’s novel ‘Last Standing Woman’ have won awards at Nashville Film Festival, Lonely Seal Festival, Filmtage Der Nationen, and placed as a BlueCat semifinalist.

His mini-series adaptation of ‘A Tale of Two Cities in 4 Episodes’ has won 17 awards from international screenwriting contests in Bulgaria, Rome, Paris, Sydney, Rajasthan, Stockholm, and Nice. ‘Two Cities’ was selected as the Best Original Concept and Best Global Script of 2017 at Oaxaca FilmFest.

His adaptations of short stories recently received semi-finalist awards from the Waterford International Film Festival (Ireland).

He has written 13 produced play scripts and 12+ un-produced screenplays.