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. Please click on Past Productions for a full list of previous shows.

Annual Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays

The retreat and festival provide emerging and established Native American authors a rigorous opportunity to shape their plays over the course of an entire week. Collaboration occurs in daily workshops with nationally recognized directors, dramaturgs, and an acting company largely composed of exceptional Native American actors. The week culminates with a festival of staged readings. Many works developed through this process have gone on to enjoy successful runs on the Autry’s main stage and elsewhere.

Selected playwrights receive an honorarium, roundtrip airfare to California, and lodging. Past retreats have been held at the Autry Museum, Occidental College, and UCLA, all in Los Angeles; as well as in San Diego County at San Diego State University and La Jolla Playhouse.

Annual Short Play Festival and the Award for Excellence in Playwriting

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.

First Look Series

The First Look Series is a script development process that brings playwrights together with professional directors, dramaturgs, and actors. Each spring and fall, plays are workshopped and prepared for a public staged reading and discussion, giving the playwright an opportunity to hear the play—often for the first time—with a live audience. Plays can be new works, works-in-progress, or material that has already been produced at another venue.

Submissions

Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nations playwrights are invited to submit their plays for the Native Voices Annual Playwrights Retreat, Festival of New Plays, Festival of Short Plays, First Look Series, and Equity productions. We encourage beginning, emerging, and established Native playwrights to submit. Submissions are accepted on an ongoing basis; however, there are specific deadlines for particular development opportunities in an upcoming season. For information on how to submit and current deadlines, please visit our Call for Scripts.

Submissions are evaluated annually by our National Reading Panel, which is composed of nationally recognized theatre artists, directors, dramaturgs, and decision makers from professional theatre companies and universities across the United States—as well as by the Native Voices artistic and executive directors.