In the summer of 2018, amid the chaos of the California wildfires, a family gathers in their Clear Lake home, where old wounds and new revelations ignite tensions more intense than the encroaching blaze. With secrets, survival, and strained bonds at its core, Smoke is a searing exploration of family, identity, and resilience in the face of inevitable change.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Native Voices proudly presents its 32nd Annual Festival of New Plays—a celebration of bold new works from Native playwrights that challenge, provoke, and illuminate the world we live in. 

This year’s festival features two strikingly different yet deeply connected plays: Medea’s Masquerade by Frances Koncan (Couchiching First Nation [Anishinaabe]) and Smoke by Drew Woodson (Te-Moak Band of Western Shoshone). One unfolds inside a mysterious prairie castle on the eve of the millennium; the other in a family home threatened by California wildfires. Together, they explore what it means to hold on to identity, family, and truth when everything around us begins to shift. 

Moving between the heightened and the deeply intimate, these plays invite us into moments of isolation, pressure, and reckoning—where masks slip, silence speaks, and long-held truths can no longer be ignored. And, as is so often the case in Native storytelling, humor finds its way in—not to undercut the weight of these stories, but to carry us through them. 

As with every Festival of New Plays, these stories represent the future of Native theatre—centering Native voices, experiences, and perspectives that are as complex as they are vital. 

Join us for an unforgettable theatrical experience, and discover what emerges when story, community, and resilience meet.