Spiderwoman Theater began in 1975 when Muriel Miguel organized a workshop of Native and non-Native American women at the Washington Square Methodist Church in New York City. The true roots of the troupe, however, can be traced to the childhood of the three sisters, Muriel Miguel, Gloria Miguel, and Lisa Mayo, who form the heart and soul of the group as it has evolved from its beginnings in 1975.
The girls grew up in Brooklyn, as did their mother and grandmother; their father was a Kuna Indian from the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama. Muriel explains that her father found it difficult to make a living in the „alien culture“ of Brooklyn and so turned to earning money by doing snake oil shows: the family would perform dances for money. The young sisters felt embarrassed, and eventually rejected being spectacles of cliché by turning to formal education; thus they were drawn toward the theater, focusing their energies on turning their performances into art rather than „spectacle.“
The Spiderwoman Theater Workshop in 1975 was based upon the Hopi goddess, Spiderwoman, who wove men and women into life, and then taught them how to weave. The workshop experimented with the weaving of stories, images, songs, poems, experiences, feelings, music, spaces, and bodies. The actresses rehearsed and structured the basics of their stories and dreams, then used improvisation to round out the work and bring it to life. At the beginning of the workshop, the group taught the audience Native American hand games. One woman then became Spiderwoman while finger-weaving, creating her story. Another performer then wove her story into the first one. Along with improvising musicians playing gongs, bowls, rocks, a saw, flutes, and handmade instruments, the group continued weaving, telling, dancing, and enacting their prepared stories in a spontaneous manner.
