Arts & Entertainment

DeLanna Studi lands role in play on Havasupai Tribe blood study

Friday, June 12, 2015

Delanna Studi. Photo from Facebook

Delanna Studi, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, will star in a production of Informed Consent, a play about a controversial blood study involving the Havasupai Tribe of Arizona

Studi is among the featured players in the production at Primary Stages in New York City. The play runs from August 4 through September 13, with a grand opening on August 18.

"An electrifying new play by one of the most exciting voices in American theater, Informed Consent is an 'urgent, challenging, and of-the-moment' drama about one woman’s quest to answer the mysteries of science and her own life, inspired by a landmark court case between one of the country’s largest universities and a Native American tribe based in the Grand Canyon," the theater said on its website.

A scene from a prior staging of Informed Consent, a play by Deborah Zoe Laufer

Tribal members agreed to submit blood to the Arizona State University for a study on diabetes. Without their consent, the lead researcher allowed other people to conduct unauthorized studies on the samples.

As part of a settlement, ASU agreed to pay $700,000 for misusing the samples. The school also agreed to provide scholarships to tribal members and help build a health clinic and high school on the reservation.

Get the Story:
Annie Parisse, Myra Lucretia Taylor & More to Star in INFORMED CONSENT at Primary Stages (Broadway World 6/11)