10 Indigenous Writers Receive #MMIWR Readings At 21 Companies

Native Performing Arts Network, a new national home for Indigenous stories, artists, and youth, is honored to share the plays by Indigenous writers that will receive readings as part of its National Day of Theater Readings for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR). Theaters and universities across the nation will present staged readings of the plays on May 5, 2026, with select readings and related activities occurring on surrounding dates, to help bring awareness to the crisis of violence facing Indigenous people. So far 21 companies have committed to readings in 11 cities: Hillsboro, Ore; San Francisco Bay Area; Los Angeles; Palm Springs, Calif.; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Minneapolis; Chicago; Boston; New York City; and Washington, D.C. Additional readings will be announced on NPAN's social media and at nativeperformingarts.org.

This crisis is caused by a multiplicity of underlying issues, but one cause is invisibility: 95% of Indigenous women who go missing never make the national news. By joining together nationally, theaters can leverage their power to bring visibility to this issue.

“Native activists, who are usually family members of someone who's gone missing, have been speaking out about this issue for decades,” said Jeanette Harrison, creative director of Native Performing Arts Network, who coordinated the National Day of Theater Readings for MMIWR. “Hopefully, this action by theaters across the country will amplify their work and inspire action and change.” A National Institute of Justice-funded study found that murder rates for Native women are as much as 10 times higher than the national average. “People may not be aware of the ways in which resource extraction, mining, and violence against Native people are linked. The fight of climate activists intersects with the need for safer communities. And that's just one example,” Harrison continued. “All these plays address different aspects of the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives.”

In New York City, the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) will stage a reading of Blossom Johnson's monster SLAYer.  “PAC NYC is honored to present a reading of Blossom Johnson's monster SLAYer,  whose mythic approach to loss holds space for grief, care, humor, and resilience, on a day recognizing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives," said Bill Rauch, PAC NYC Artistic Director.

Also in New York, Eagle Project will present a reading of Vickie Ramirez's YUCHEWAHKENH (Bitter), in partnership with a local university.

In Minneapolis, two plays will receive readings, both at the Guthrie Theater. Mni Giizhik Theatre Ensemble, hosted by the Guthrie's Native Advisory Council, will present a reading of Say Their Names by Marcie Rendon, an award-winning writer whose work crosses genres and includes the Cash Blackbear murder mystery series. “Say Their Names by Marcie Rendon is a powerful play that bears witness to the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit relatives,” said Sequoia Hauck, one of three members of Mni Giizhik's collaborative leadership team. “Rooted in Indigenous history and lived experience, the play unfolds as both testimony and ceremony, weaving poetry, memory, and the deliberate speaking of names into an act of collective remembrance. Through the intimate exchange between its two characters, Rendon transforms lists of names into living presence, honoring those taken, affirming those who remain, and insisting on accountability. Say Their Names is not only a work of theatre, but a ceremonial invocation: a reminder that remembering is an act of resistance, that speaking names restores dignity, and that these relatives are not statistics; they are loved, known, and never forgotten.”

The Guthrie will become the second theater to produce a reading of DeLanna Studi's I is for Invisible. “Theatre artists have a powerful tool to use for awareness and community-building around the brutalization of our Native and Indigenous relatives through participation in this work,” said Amanda White, Director of Education and Engagement at the Guthrie. “Lifting up our neighbors is the only way forward in this brutal moment in the Twin Cities, home to one of the largest urban Native populations in the US."

I is for Invisible, a finalist for the 2026 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, will be seen in Minneapolis and also in Hillsboro, Ore., following a two-week workshop with Native Performing Arts Network, in partnership with Advance Gender Equity in the Arts (AGE) and Bag&Baggage Productions. 

The Guthrie Theater's Native Advisory Council has guided its planning for the National Day of Theater Readings for MMIWR. The Guthrie's Native Advisory Council (NAC) includes members of Mni Giizhik Theatre Ensemble, as well as four other Minnesota-based Native artists. “We are honored that each NAC member continues to invest in the Guthrie,” White said, “helping us expand our circles of care as we grow into an organization that supports the visibility and access of Native people.”

Author Marcie Rendon's work will also have a second reading, at Colorado College. Excerpts from Say Their Names will be performed alongside Jaisey Bates and Jeff Barehand's short play, Never Be Afraid. The Colorado College readings will feature Native professional artists and faculty alongside Indigenous students and other members of the student body. 

“Say Their Names was written to push through the invisibility of the crisis of missing and murderedness that our Native community, our women, our families live with,” said playwright Marcie Rendon. “I hope that theaters and their audiences have heartfelt discussions after the play readings about solutions to the #mmiw/mmir; not just in Native communities but in any communities that experience trafficking and disappearing of their people. I am honored Say Their Names is a part of a nationwide project to call attention to this issue and hope hearing all our pieces across the continent will shift awareness and impact all communities.”

In Southern California, TigerBear Productions will present a reading of Isabella Madrigal's Menil and Her Heart. Madrigal is an enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians, and her play will be presented on her traditional homelands. Madrigal and her sister Sophia Madrigal have also been commissioned to create a new 10-minute play about MMIWR, which will be presented as part of the Boston Theater Marathon XXVIII produced by Boston Playwrights' Theatre on May 3, 2026.

“I am honored that Menil and Her Heart has been selected for a reading as part of the National Day of Theater Readings for MMIR,” said Isabella Madrigal. “This story began as a community theater play performed with Native communities across California, and I am so thrilled that it continues to be developed and shared. This project is informed by Cahuilla cosmology and created in dedication to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People. It aims to imagine how cultural wisdom can combat gender-based violence and empower Indigenous peoples through storytelling.”

In Los Angeles, Theatre of NOTE has chosen to present Quantum by Tara Moses. Cal State LA is planning a reading of Tourniquet by Honokee Dunn, winner of Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program's (YIPAP) Young Native Playwrights Award.   

In the San Francisco Bay Area, TheatreWorks will present The Tell Tale Heart by Carlos Aguirre, a Hip Hop musical layered with themes like Indigenous erasure, internalized racism and the price of a guilty conscience. 

In Washington, DC, four theaters—Arena Stage, Mosaic Theater Company, Theater Alliance, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company—are collaborating to host panels, a Native American marketplace, and a reading of a play to be announced. They are also joining together on longer term solutions to address the systemic underrepresentation of Native people on American stages and in creative leadership. 

In addition to the reading and panels on May 5th, which will be held at Arena Stage near the Southwest Waterfront, Woolly Mammoth will host its third annual Native American Art Market, curated by Connectivity Core Partner Mary Phillips (Umoⁿhoⁿ “Omaha”/ Pueblo of Laguna). The art market will be held in Downtown DC at Woolly Mammoth on May 9th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will feature work by Native American artisans, craftspeople, and organizations from the region as well as artistic cultural performances. More information on featured artists and partner organizations will be released soon.

In Chicago, Dancing Pony Productions will partner with the American Indian Center to present an evening of original work about MMIWR created by local Native women, anchored by Brianna Jonnie's If I Go Missing.  The individual readings will be woven together by an original rap/spoken word song written by a young male artist. The program will open and close with a local drum.

In addition to the in-person performances, Amy Wheeler's National Play Club will host a virtual live streamed conversation moderated by DeLanna Studi with featured playwrights from the National Day of Theater Readings for MMIWR. 

NPAN also welcomes Playwrights Horizons in New York City to the National Day of Theater Readings for MMIWR, and will announce their chosen play on social media.