Earthwatch community fellow fosters collaboration of the people of Darrington, Washington and the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe to result in local musical production

Darrington, Washington- Despite cultural differences, the people of Darrington, Washington and the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe have a history of mutual reliance and a strong relationship with the natural world around them. An innovative play performed by a cast of 45 local residents, including children, teens, adults, and elders from both town and reservation, helped celebrate that common history and bring it to the forefront of community awareness.

Common Wealth: A Play about the People of Darrington and the Sauk-Suiattle, was performed four times for sell-out crowds in May 2005 at Darrington's Old School Park. The play was written by award-winning author, playwright, and director Will Weigler, and inspired by his experience as an Earthwatch community fellow in the region in 2004.

Will Weigler "I was impressed by Earthwatch's faith in artists," said Weigler, who joined several other artists on Traditions of Cedar, Salmon, and Gold, an archaeology project in Earthwatch's Pacific Northwest Conservation Research Initiative (CRI). Earthwatch fielded the team of artists through its community fellowship program to encourage artistic expression in conveying the importance of environmental conservation. "Rather than demand detailed art project proposals from us in advance, we were invited to experience the expedition and were trusted to create exciting work. As it turned out, the scope and scale of my project went far beyond what I would have originally considered doing."

Weigler, the author of Strategies for Playbuilding: helping groups translate issues into theatre, is a pioneer in the use of theatre as a vehicle for community development and expression. While on the Earthwatch expedition, he learned from a local historian that many community members felt threatened by archaeology because of fears of being told what to do with their land. She suggested that theatre might give local people a stronger connection and affinity with their own past, and ease that mistrust.

"Will did an excellent job of capturing the histories of different families and bringing them together as the history of the Darrington community," said Astrida Onat (Boas, Inc.), principal investigator of Traditions of Cedar, Salmon, and Gold. "He was able to expand on the limited oral history work of our research project in the context of developing a community play. This was a truly unique approach to gathering oral history data and also showed a lot of Will's devotion to his art."

As part of his Earthwatch community fellowship, Weigler originally planned to write some guidelines on how a community like Darrington could go about turning archaeological data and research into a play. But the more he worked on sketching out the guidelines, the more he became enthusiastic about actually writing the play himself. Weigler lived in Darrington for six months to research local history and interview area residents, and during that time enthusiasm grew among the people he interviewed as well.

"I asked people in town and at the nearby Sauk-Suiattle Indian Reservation what songs, stories, and ideas they felt should be in a play that explained who they are," said Weigler. "As they opened up and trusted me with their stories, I soon realized that I couldn't very well take this play away with me or leave it on a shelf here in the hope that someone would put it on-I was just going to have to produce it as well."

Once committed to paper, the script was brought to life with the aid of an all-volunteer cast and crew of local residents and the artistic vision of fellow Earthwatch community fellow Claudia Lorenz, who was enlisted to help create the props and costumes that animated the play. Original music was written by Darrington composer Tim Monte Calvo. A $7,000 production budget was financed through donations from a broad range of local organizations and individuals, and the whole project went from idea to opening night in less than a year.

Rooted in the natural resource shared by area communities, Common Wealth opens with the salmon beginning their journey down the rivers. It then follows the seasons through spring, summer, autumn, winter, and back to spring again. In each season, the time frame shifts back and forth revealing the lives of the people who have lived in this corner of the world over the past one hundred and fifty years. Fictional characters are interspersed with portrayals of real people. The show also includes songs drawn from both communities' cultural heritage such as The Timber Bowl Song, a spirited ballad about the life of the logger written by Darrington logger Earl Hayter in 1950, and original and traditional songs from Native American culture.

"Plans are afoot to build a small community amphitheatre in the park where our show was performed, and there is new enthusiasm about transforming the old abandoned City Hall building into a Community Arts Center," said Weigler, considering the impact of the play on local residents. "The day I left, the bank manager told me that ever since the show, people had been coming into the bank talking about the renewed sense of pride going around town-pride about the history and heritage of their community."

The importance of bringing people together for a shared event based on the culture and history of Darrington and Sauk-Suiattle communities was reflected in the words of Nancy Joseph DeCoteau, a Sauk-Suiattle. During her impromptu scene in which she eulogizes her friend and great-aunt Edith Bedal, she said, "It's how we touch each other as human beings that matters, how we learn from each other, how we interact."

Common Wealth was supported by the Mayor and Town Council of Darrington, the Chairman and Tribal Council of the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe, Hampton Affiliates, Goldmark Financial Corporation, Education Services of Puget Sound Energy, and several individual donors.


Earthwatch Institute is an international nonprofit organization that supports scientific field research by offering members of the public unique opportunities to work alongside leading field scientists and researchers. Earthwatch's mission is to engage people worldwide in scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment.

For more information about Will Weigler and his projects, go to www.willweigler.com