‘Inside Passage’ takes Quantum audiences on Alaskan quest

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgher Gab Cody was born in Juno, Alaska, moved to Wasilla, Alaska, and was 5 when her parents divorced and she and her mother departed.

She left behind half-brothers six and 15 years her senior and a halfsister 13 years older, along with a foster brother and sister of the indigenous Tlingit people. The pair were ages 2 and 3 when they were taken in by Ms. Cody’s family, at a time when her mother was pregnant with her.

“I have always said my family was fodder for Oprah,” playwright Cody said.

Her journey that began in 2014 — to rediscover a family and place she had left behind long ago and weave in a plight facing Native American children — is coming to Quantum Theatre this week.

“Inside Passage” combines documentary film, enactments of imagined events and live theater in the world premiere of her quest, shared with her husband, director Sam Turich, and cinematographer Rob Long.

A series of events inspired Ms. Cody’s search for the children whom “I had known only as my brother and sister.”

The form it will take was inspired in part by Toshiki Okada’s “Zero Cost House,” which she saw performed by Pig Iron Theatre at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty.

“I was really struck by the piece, the way it was autobiographical and the way he utilized actors. Then in the fall, NoName Players was having SWAN Day, and they asked me to write a short play. And around the sametime, my mother gifted me a big photoalbum,” Ms. Cody explained.

Her then 5-year-old daughter noticed a picture of four little kids on a horse. “And she said, ‘Mommy, who are those kids?’ And I said, ‘That’s my family.’” Ms. Cody realized she had not seen three of those people since she, herself, was 5.

That became her topic for the SWAN (Supporting Women Artists Now) Day play, and Mr. Okada’s autobiographical work became an inspiration. In his play, a handful of actors each portray him and multiple other characters, as do the six actors in “Inside Passage.”

Spurred to continue, Ms. Cody traveled to Alaska with Mr. Turich and Mr. Long in August 2015 and June 2016. She also consulted with Judith Schachter, a Carnegie Mellon University professor of anthropology, who has expertise on fostering and adoption in native communities. She advised Ms. Cody to approach with caution and consider