Our Programs
As the only Actors’ Equity theatre company in the country devoted to developing new works by Indigenous playwrights, Native Voices has become the cornerstone of American Theatre in cultivating opportunities for Native playwrights, which we have proudly done for 30 years.
Below you will find our current programs that we offer every year. If you have specific questions about any of the programs, please feel free to contact us.
Short Play Festival
Every year, Native Voices presents the popular Short Play Festival, where ten-minute plays take center stage, each one bursting with creativity around a unique theme. The best part? The audience gets to vote for their favorite performance after each show! The playwright with the most votes wins the Thomas Studie Gadugi Audience Prize—a $500 cash prize. But that's not all—plays are also in the running for the Von Marie Atchley Excellence in Playwriting Award, a $1,000 cash prize that celebrates original storytelling, bold originality, and unforgettable characters
EMBERS: Young Native Playwrights
Native Voices is thrilled to bring back the Young Native Playwrights program! Many Native stories recount how their tribe received the First Fire. While our stories differ from Nation to Nation and region to region, one detail remains the same: there have always been people who have carried the embers of the First Fire with them, lighting future fires and ensuring the First Fire would always be with us. We believe our youth are the EMBERS, the next generation of storytellers and leaders who will light fires for future generations. Every spring, Native youth across Turtle Island will be able to participate in our eight-week playwriting course to nourish, elevate, and amplify their voices. Classes will culminate with their 10-minute plays being performed onstage at our EMBERS Festival and streamed live so that audiences from around the world can witness the creative imaginings of these Native youth.
Festival of New Plays
Many of the plays Native Voices has developed through our annual Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays have gone on to enjoy successful productions across the country. As a cornerstone of our season, the Retreat and Festival provide emerging and established playwrights a rigorous opportunity to shape their plays through Distance Dramaturgy and a weeklong residency in Los Angeles where collaboration occurs in daily workshops with nationally recognized directors, dramaturgs, and the Native Voices acting company. The Festival of New Plays is a series of staged readings performed at the Autry and La Jolla Playhouse.
Full Productions
Over the past 30 years, Native Voices has produced plays by a diverse group of Native writers, covering an array of subjects from satiric comedies to urban dramas and even radio plays.
View our Past Productions for a full list of previous shows.