Te Ata is a full length play with music, based on the real life story of Te Ata Fisher, a Chickasaw Indian actress from Oklahoma who performed a one person show for over seventy years, including presentations in the White House as guest of the Roosevelts' and for the King and Queen of England. Her story has never been told.

     Told through the eyes of Old Te Ata, we learn the story of a young Indian girl who was the first Indian to graduate from OCW - Oklahoma College for Women - with a degree in theatre. Old Te Ata walks out of the sky and speaks directly to the audience as she tells her life story and speaks poetically and profoundly of the people who influenced her - her teacher Miss Davis, her friend Margaret, and her husband, a white man, Dr. Clyde Fisher. Dr. Fisher is based on the real life husband of Te Ata, Dr. Clyde Fisher, who was the first curator of the New York Hayden Planetarium.

     As Old Te Ata performs and tells of her life's journey we meet these characters and others. We move in and out of reality as Old Te Ata remembers both her fear of the white culture and her ultimate fulfillment when she performed. Young Te Ata is portrayed by a separate actress. In a few instances we see both Old and Young Te Ata perform together - one in real time, one in memory.

     The journey is enacted in a variety of ways. We see a stylized version of the Indian Corn Ceremony via the "Ribbon of Corn" Dance narrated by Old Te Ata. We meet Margaret, Te Ata's life long friend, who plays the violin and is a talent in her own right. We see performances in the Chautauqua Circuit, including the delightful "Miss Chamberlain's Bird Renditions" and watch as Young Te Ata "walks" from her culture to that of the urban, white society as depicted in the "False Face Society Dance." The conflict is apparent throughout. Te Ata is torn between two cultures. However, with the love and tutelage of her husband, she reconciles her internal worries by choosing to forsake Broadway and perform her Indian legends all over the world to educate people about her culture. Dr. Fisher and Te Ata's unique life creates a beautiful love story, depicted in several scenes, including a scene where the stage is split and both are "lecturing" under the stars -- she with her Indian stories; he with his scientific explanations and his telescope. As they mime the action, we hear the violin and native flute duet "Coming Together." "Clyde's Love Song" reflects their love as Dr. Fisher "stops time" to dance under the stars as the chorus joins them in song and dance.

     The climax of the play comes in scene nine, where the chorus is dressed as Loon birds and Te Ata, who has not resolved herself with nature and her universe, dances with them until they become one. Old Te Ata sings to her "Feathers Gone in Wind," which reminds Young Te Ata of her calling and her duty to both cultures. The play concludes once Old Te Ata and Young Te Ata become one in the "Dance of Youth and Age." In the final song, "Gone Away People," the play has come full circle after embracing both the simplicity of the Native culture, in its poetry, legends, and music, while also reflecting its theatricality in its visions of the world. -Synopsis written by the author