NEWS: Arena Stage Honors Sen. Klobuchar with American Voice Award

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, a vaunted Washington, DC-area theatre, presented the American Voice Award to Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on Thursday, April 10, 2025. The award presentation took place as part of Arena Stage’s opening night celebration for the world-premiere production of Larissa FastHorse’s Fake It Until You Make It.

Sen. Klobuchar is the senior U.S. Senator from Minnesota. Larissa FastHorse is a 2020 MacArthur Fellow, award winning writer/choreographer, co-founder of Indigenous Direction and a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation.

Established in 2005, the American Voice Award honors public officials recognized for their extraordinary support of and advocacy for American arts and arts education. In their announcement, Arena Stage noted:

Senator Klobuchar is the first woman elected to represent the State of Minnesota in the United States Senate. Over four terms, she has built a reputation of putting partisanship aside to help strengthen the economy and support families, workers, and businesses. Senator Klobuchar has long been a fierce advocate for the arts, recognizing the profound impact they have on the economy on local and national scales. At the height of lockdown in 2020, she introduced the bipartisan Save Our Stages Act to provide essential relief to arts organizations and venues. This landmark legislation led to the creation of the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, which distributed more than $16 billion to over 13,000 arts organizations and venues across the country— including Arena Stage.

The award was presented by Arena Stage’s Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif at the pre-performance dinner.

“It is a distinct privilege to present this award to Senator Klobuchar on the Opening Night of Fake It Until You Make It, a play that takes a humorous—but sharply insightful—look at the complexities of service, and how what makes us unique is so often at the root of our commonalities,” said Sharif. “Senator Klobuchar is known for her sense of humor as much as her persistence, and the American Voice Award celebrates the joy we can find in the full expression of our individuality.”

American Voice Award recipients previously honored by Arena Stage include Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Representative Judy Chu (D-CA), Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), the late Representative John Lewis (D-GA), and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), among others.

FastHorse’s Fake It Until You Make It follows the escalating rivalry between Wynona, the Native American proprietor of N.O.B.U.S.H., and River, her white counterpart at Indigenous Nations Soaring. As their collision ensnares colleagues and bystanders, secrets highlighting the absurdities of ambition and authenticity are unraveled. At its core, Fake It Until You Make It is about being whoever you want to be, even when it’s not who you are. Directed by Michael John Garcés, the world-premiere co-production with Center Theatre Group runs through May 4, in Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater.

The Fake It Until You Make It Opening Night celebration included a reception in the Bank of America Lower Lobby, a seated dinner in the Molly Smith Study, the performance in the Kreeger Theater preceded by a blessing from Elton Naswood, Executive Director for the Two-Spirit and Native LGBTQ+ Center for Equity and International Two-Spirit Ambassador Mel Willie, and a post-show reception in the Margot Kelly Grand Lobby.

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Amy Donahue

Amy Donahue is a staff reviewer at the Twin Cities Arts Reader. She interned with the magazine during the summer of 2017, served as a guest contributor while studying abroad in Europe that fall, and has moved up to regular old reviewing. She served as interim Editor-in-Chief in 2023.

She admits to being at least 50% terrified of contemporary German opera.