New Native Theatre
“It’s not just art, it’s our lifeways”
“I wanted to make theater because growing up I saw that my dad was left out of everything. We were left out of life’s narrative,” says Rhiana Yazzie, Artistic Director of New Native Theatre. “My dad was raised on the reservation and in boarding schools and he never ever saw himself reflected in any meaningful way that helped him figure out who he was. Imagine going through life for 70 years and never having that experience.”
New Native Theatre (NNT) was founded in 2009 by Navajo playwright Rhiana Yazzie. Since its founding, NNT has created authentic and transformative plays through the lens of the Native American experience. According to Yazzie, NNT exists to bridge the gap between Twin Cities theater and the region’s large urban Native community by creating a safe and innovative space for Native people to use the tools of theater to participate in storytelling. This deeply grounded connection with their community is the heart of the innovative approach celebrated by their 2023 Bush Prize: Minnesota award.
Rhiana Yazzie, Artistic Director of New Native Theatre
Photo by Ryan Stopera
For Native communities, reclaiming storytelling through theater holds meaning beyond the narratives themselves. “Storytelling and arts were huge pieces of our cultures pre-colonially and a lot of that got interrupted with colonialism and the violence that came with it,” says Yazzie, “That's why making theatre is so important: it’s not just art, it's our lifeways. It's a bigger story than just an individual stepping on stage and giving a monologue. It's about restoring the health to my people.”
Now in its 15th year, New Native Theatre is a nationally respected hub for theatrical productions produced for and by Native people. NNT produces, commissions, and creates authentic Native American stories for the stage and engages Native ensembles throughout the Twin Cities and the nation. Annually, NNT produces 3 mainstage productions and 20 educational workshops, hiring and training around 60 Minnesota artists and technicians, most of whom identify as Native.
Beyond the Twin Cities, they collaborate with theatre companies nation-wide to produce shows that originated at NNT. In 2024, two companies, the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York and Mosaic Theater Company in Washington D.C., are producing Native-written shows that got their start at NNT. All of this would be enough to make New Native Theatre distinct in the theater world, but their approach to putting on their productions sets them further apart in the field.
Indigenous values take center stage
“As a company, we refuse to engage in the harmful culture that is often celebrated in the theater community,” says Charli Fool Bear (Yanktonai Dakota), NNT’s Senior Artistic Producer, “Things like pushing yourself beyond your physical and mental limit; not prioritizing your health or your happiness; prioritizing an individual interest over community. For us, the beauty in our work comes not from the pain or the trauma - it comes from healing. The power of our work comes from how supported people feel.”
As Fool Bear explains, making theatre in this way goes beyond interrupting dominant theater practices: “The way we make theater is an active refusal of white supremacy and colonization. That's innovative because that's not something people are willing to do because it's harder to make theater that way. It's a conscious decision that we have to make.”
For Native communities, reclaiming storytelling through theater holds meaning beyond the narratives themselves. “Storytelling and arts were huge pieces of our cultures pre-colonially and a lot of that got interrupted with colonialism and the violence that came with it,” says Yazzie, “That's why making theatre is so important: it’s not just art, it's our lifeways. It's a bigger story than just an individual stepping on stage and giving a monologue. It's about restoring the health to my people.”
Now in its 15th year, New Native Theatre is a nationally respected hub for theatrical productions produced for and by Native people. NNT produces, commissions, and creates authentic Native American stories for the stage and engages Native ensembles throughout the Twin Cities and the nation. Annually, NNT produces 3 mainstage productions and 20 educational workshops, hiring and training around 60 Minnesota artists and technicians, most of whom identify as Native.
Beyond the Twin Cities, they collaborate with theatre companies nation-wide to produce shows that originated at NNT. In 2024, two companies, the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York and Mosaic Theater Company in Washington D.C., are producing Native-written shows that got their start at NNT. All of this would be enough to make New Native Theatre distinct in the theater world, but their approach to putting on their productions sets them further apart in the field.
Indigenous values take center stage
“As a company, we refuse to engage in the harmful culture that is often celebrated in the theater community,” says Charli Fool Bear (Yanktonai Dakota), NNT’s Senior Artistic Producer, “Things like pushing yourself beyond your physical and mental limit; not prioritizing your health or your happiness; prioritizing an individual interest over community. For us, the beauty in our work comes not from the pain or the trauma - it comes from healing. The power of our work comes from how supported people feel.”
As Fool Bear explains, making theatre in this way goes beyond interrupting dominant theater practices: “The way we make theater is an active refusal of white supremacy and colonization. That's innovative because that's not something people are willing to do because it's harder to make theater that way. It's a conscious decision that we have to make.”
She explains that creating theater in this way is more expensive because they pay every member of their ensemble above average wages and stipends – from actors to crew. She also says NNT’s approach centers ensemble members’ emotional wellbeing, something often disregarded in traditional theater spaces. Alongside living wages, thoughtful work hours, education to expand staff and artists' skill sets, centering female and nonbinary leadership, and making Native community their priority, NNT is doing something truly unique in the theater world. And, Fool Bear says, they are seeing it work: “The result is that people come back again and again and they feel safe.”
“The underlying innovation of our work is to use Indigenous values as the compass for how we work,” explains Yazzie, “We think about what I've coined as "The Four R’s": relationship, responsibility, reciprocity and respect. It's not a theoretical, egalitarian world we're shooting for; we have living examples of our cultures that are the goal for how we do our work and what we are returning to. These are the underlying Indigenous ways of looking at the world. At NNT, we ask ourselves, how can we make theatre with all of these things in mind?”
Stories have to be honest to be effective
By centering Indigenous values in all parts of their work, New Native Theatre not only disrupts harmful norms in theater, but also creates space for growth, healing, and reconnection for the Native members of their ensembles and audiences. Most of NNT’s ensemble members come to their productions as first-time actors or crew. Many of their audience members have never seen a play in a theater setting. Yazzie and Fool Bear point out that this is no coincidence for their Native community members.
“There are so many ways that white supremacy has warped our values and cultures and the way we approach storytelling,” shares Fool Bear, “People are embarrassed or afraid to do things like theater because over time they've been told as Native people that they need to keep a low profile and not draw attention to themselves.”
The cast of A CHRISTMAS IN OCHOPEE
Photo by Ryan Stopera
Fool Bear explains that these cultural barriers are challenging for non-Native theater makers or audiences to understand, despite being so prevalent for Native people in the arts. This, she says, makes NNT's open invitation to actors and crew with no experience deeply meaningful for Native community members.
NNT’s encouragement for Native people to come as they are to audition, work on, or enjoy their shows is at the core of their work to decolonize theater. Yazzie explains that, in much of mainstream theater, Native people are asked to shed their identity or conform to non-Natives' ideas of Native people in order to have a role in theater.
“As a young theatre maker, making theater was so beautiful, exciting, and joyful, but also really unsafe,” Yazzie explains, “As a playwright, I was always taught that you have to tell an honest story in order for a story to be effective. It felt fundamentally wrong that Native people had to change ourselves to tell truthful stories.”
In this context, NNT is a rare space in theater where Native people can be their whole selves and not have to “become something else in order to tell their story.” Yazzie says that, in doing so, NNT “creates a safe place for Native people to participate in telling stories - to tell the real story from the perspective of Native people of what is it be Native American.”
“My cousins, my aunts and uncles”
The impact of doing their work in this way is wide-reaching, and in many ways, healing. Much of this healing, Yazzie and Fool Bear share, comes from the strong connections and relationships that NNT productions foster. NNT serves the urban Indian community of the Twin Cities as well as the 11 tribal nations of Minnesota, but Fool Bear is quick to make clear that NNT’s community is not just limited to the people you see onstage or behind the curtain: “Our community is those people and everyone who comes with those people.” She shares stories of actors and costume designers whose young children attend rehearsal and become integral parts of the ensemble, building strong bonds with everyone in the production.
Those strong connections are central to NNT’s critical cultural work, says Yazzie: “Such a fundamental part of a healthy life is to have strong, healthy adult relationships. That’s exactly what has been intentionally destroyed in Native communities: our ability to create safe relationships with each other.” Yazzie explains, “I am really proud to see how New Native Theatre creates such strong connections between people when they are part of our productions.”
Fool Bear agrees, speaking to the significance of connections not only between ensemble members, but also between Native community members who come to see productions: “For me, the vision is being able to look out into the audience and see my cousins, my aunts and uncles connecting with their community through storytelling and Native people not feeling so small and invisible.”
“My cousins, my aunts and uncles”
The impact of doing their work in this way is wide-reaching, and in many ways, healing. Much of this healing, Yazzie and Fool Bear share, comes from the strong connections and relationships that NNT productions foster. NNT serves the urban Indian community of the Twin Cities as well as the 11 tribal nations of Minnesota, but Fool Bear is quick to make clear that NNT’s community is not just limited to the people you see onstage or behind the curtain: “Our community is those people and everyone who comes with those people.” She shares stories of actors and costume designers whose young children attend rehearsal and become integral parts of the ensemble, building strong bonds with everyone in the production.
Those strong connections are central to NNT’s critical cultural work, says Yazzie: “Such a fundamental part of a healthy life is to have strong, healthy adult relationships. That’s exactly what has been intentionally destroyed in Native communities: our ability to create safe relationships with each other.” Yazzie explains, “I am really proud to see how New Native Theatre creates such strong connections between people when they are part of our productions.”
Fool Bear agrees, speaking to the significance of connections not only between ensemble members, but also between Native community members who come to see productions: “For me, the vision is being able to look out into the audience and see my cousins, my aunts and uncles connecting with their community through storytelling and Native people not feeling so small and invisible.”
The impact of doing their work in this way is wide-reaching, and in many ways, healing. Much of this healing, Yazzie and Fool Bear share, comes from the strong connections and relationships that NNT productions foster. NNT serves the urban Indian community of the Twin Cities as well as the 11 tribal nations of Minnesota, but Fool Bear is quick to make clear that NNT’s community is not just limited to the people you see onstage or behind the curtain: “Our community is those people and everyone who comes with those people.” She shares stories of actors and costume designers whose young children attend rehearsal and become integral parts of the ensemble, building strong bonds with everyone in the production.
Cast members of A CHRISTMAS IN OCHOPEE
Photo by Ryan Stopera
Those strong connections are central to NNT’s critical cultural work, says Yazzie: “Such a fundamental part of a healthy life is to have strong, healthy adult relationships. That’s exactly what has been intentionally destroyed in Native communities: our ability to create safe relationships with each other.” Yazzie explains, “I am really proud to see how New Native Theatre creates such strong connections between people when they are part of our productions.”
Fool Bear agrees, speaking to the significance of connections not only between ensemble members, but also between Native community members who come to see productions: “For me, the vision is being able to look out into the audience and see my cousins, my aunts and uncles connecting with their community through storytelling and Native people not feeling so small and invisible.”
What comes next?
As they continue to grow, NNT is looking forward to building their own theater space. Currently, NNT works out of theaters throughout the Twin Cities. Their own space will allow for more productions each year, increased artist engagement and training, and more programs for their community. The overall impact of an increased theatrical and training footprint, Yazzie believes, is not simply a change for the theater field in the Twin Cities and beyond.
“Ultimately our work is about strengthening tribal communities and making a healthier place for Native people,” says Yazzie. “Once you start to hear a story, things start to change. Because a story is a powerful thing. We need powerful stories that change the narrative of who we are. And I think we can do that”
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Anyone interested in New Native Theatre is encouraged to attend an upcoming production. NNT also encourages any artists, theater makers, or creatives looking for a decolonized approach to theater and the arts to connect with them.
Get connected to NNT:
Website: www.newnativetheatre.org
Instagram: @newnativetheatre
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/new-native-theatre/
Twitter/X: @NewNativeThtr
Upcoming Productions:
Bear Grease
March 2 - March 9, 2024 - Get tickets
