ANNOUNCING THE 2026-2027 SEASON
NORTH STAR OF
Native
Theatre
Following the light of Native stories, New Native Theatre announces a 2026-27 season led by connections, generations, and homelands
New Native Theatre’s 2026–27 season follows Native stories across homelands, generations, and imagination. We travel north, where we move across water, mountains, memory, and home. We look to the sky, where heroes and monsters live alongside the Sun. And we return to our own backyards, where language, culture, and community continue to grow.
As the largest Native theatre company in the country, New Native Theatre is grounded in Minnesota while our work reaches across Turtle Island. Wherever these stories take us, we remain guided by the same North Star: Building a platform for Native stories, Native artists, and Native communities to rise, following that light into new places!
Reach farther, dream bigger, and continue building a future as high as the stars with New Native Theatre
LIGHTS OF THE SEASON
Where the Summit Meets the Stars
By Frank Henry Katasse (Tlingit)
DECEMBER 2-20, 2026
Against the vast landscape of Alaska, a journey by boat becomes a passage through memory, family, and the choices that shape who we are. Rooted in Tlingit culture and carried by music, movement, and ancestral connection, Frank Henry Kaash Katasse’s Where the Summit Meets the Stars explores love, loss, parenthood, and the ties between generations. Through relationships that connect past and present, the play becomes an act of wayfinding, asking what we inherit, what we carry forward, and how we choose a new path for those who come after us.
Venue:
Red Eye Theater
2213 Snelling Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55404
The Other Children of the Sun
By Rhiana Yazzie (Diné/Navajo)
MARCH 31 TO APRIL 18, 2027
Following its premiere at the Kennedy Center, New Native Theatre brings this imaginative new work to Minnesota audiences. High above the earth, in the house of the Sun, the lesser-known siblings of the legendary Hero Twins are ready for an adventure of their own. Setting out to battle the monsters of the human world, the siblings quickly discover that their adventure isn’t quite what they expected. Inspired by Navajo creation stories and blending live performance and puppetry, Rhiana Yazzie’s The Other Children of the Sun is a funny, imaginative superhero adventure about courage, identity, balance, and finding your place in the world.
Venue:
Red Eye Theater
2213 Snelling Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55404
COMING SOON
THE 6th Annual Two Spirit Powwow
SUMMER 2027
NNT’s 6th Annual Two Spirit Powwow returns for another joyful gathering of Native celebration. Minnesota’s only powwow honoring Native Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ relatives, and the largest of its kind this side of the Missouri River, this free, family-friendly event brings hundreds together for dancing, drumming, regalia, vendors, a community feast, and Two Spirit pride.
BLOOD QUANTUM PHYSICS: PODCAST SERIES
By Deanna StandingCloud (Red Lake Nation)
JANUARY 2027
Recorded live at Gremlin Theatre, Deanna StandingCloud’s Blood Quantum Physics follows three Indigenous women navigating friendship, family, culture, and contemporary Native life with humor and heart. Originally performed and recorded in 2024, Blood Quantum Physics will be released as a humorous podcast audio play series in January, bringing these stories to listeners everywhere.
OUR EXPANDING CONSTELLATION
MEMENGWAA / BUTTERFLY
By Sandra Fenichel Asher and José Casas
A TOURING THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCE PRODUCTION
Memengwaa/Butterfly is an Ojibwe-language adaptation of Mariposa/Butterfly by Sandra Fenichel Asher and José Casas. Featuring Ojibwe language and song, this playful, theatrical work explores transformation, understanding, and relationships through the story of a young butterfly. NNT will bring the production to schools and communities through its touring Theatre for Young Audiences program. Contact us to book a date in your community.
The Bird Blind
By Kira Apaachuaq Eckenweiler (Inupiaq)
A TOURING FULL-LENGTH PLAY
Following its world premiere with New Native Theatre last spring, Kira Apaachuaq Eckenweiler’s The Bird Blind heads home to Alaska for a special staged reading at the Alaska Performing Arts Center, October 22–23. NNT is proud to bring this deeply Alaska-rooted story home and share it with Alaska Native audiences.
Youth Theater Summer Camp
SUMMER 2027
NNT’s 5th Annual Youth Theater Summer Camp gives Native youth a joyful, culturally affirming space to explore their creativity and discover the magic of making theatre. Through a week of hands-on workshops, young artists build confidence, develop new skills, create together, and share what they’ve made in a culminating performance. Please contact us to enroll your youth!