BROADWAY BOUND THEATRE FESTIVAL Unveils 10th Anniversary Lineup

AI replaces every human job overnight. A queer musician is trapped in his childhood home in Tennessee during the pandemic. And a FDNY lieutenant spends Christmas Eve at Ground Zero, looking for the remains of his fallen brother at the 2026 Broadway Bound Theatre Festival (BBTF). In this bold and eclectic lineup, the human condition is on full display as a dynamic mix of new plays and musicals light up the stage.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the curated festival is proud to announce that the 2026 festival will premiere two musicals and ten plays by writers from New York and across the country. The festival runs July 20-August 16 at AMT Theater in the heart of the Theater District. "Where playwrights take center stage" is not only the festival's motto-it is its mission. Over the past decade, BBTF has earned widespread acclaim, including recognition as one of the Top Ten Festivals in NYC by Time Out New York.

"We're very excited about this upcoming season, with a lineup of 12 productions from playwrights across the country and right here in our backyard," said Festival Director Lenore Skomal. "Unlike the other festivals in NYC, we don't just give our playwrights a stage. We take our mission so seriously that we hire only seasoned theatre professionals with whom our playwrights interact at every level, from polishing their plays in one-on-one dramaturgy sessions to the all-important production process. This is an enormous help to them; allaying their natural feelings of being overwhelmed, and allowing them to focus on each step of the production process, knowing that they feel guided, supported, and will not be allowed to fail."

THE 2026 BROADWAY BOUND THEATRE FESTIVAL LINEUP

BE A MENSCH written by Daniel Takacs (play)

When Abe, the eldest son and breadwinner of an impoverished, dysfunctional Jewish family, is accepted into his dream college, he turns to the adults in his life for help only to find they have no intention of letting him escape. Ultimately, he's forced to choose between his family's livelihood and his own future happiness.

FUNERAL OF GOD written by Brian Brijbag (play)

A theatre company attempts to stage a burial for god-only to find they can't agree on what died, who should attend, or why the ritual even matters. What starts as logistical problem‑solving becomes a reckoning with belief, grief, and responsibility. Personal histories surface, exposing how faith, silence, and meaning have been used to avoid facing what hurts.

HOMEBOUND written by Zach Adam (musical)

When a pandemic lockdown traps Jack, a queer musician, in his Tennessee childhood home with his estranged, secretly dying father, a decade of silence finally has an expiration date. Can two people who never learned to speak the same language forgive each other before time runs out?

JUGULAR written by Daniel R O'Brien (play)

Three apex combatants-a single-minded African-American attorney, a ruthless bureaucratic titan and a femme fatale-are locked in an ideological fight to the death in this political satire, when a newly appointed federal investigator challenges an entrenched government system and all hell breaks loose.

THE KITCHEN written by Earl Crittenden (play)

Evelyn plots to secure her grandmother's coveted rent-controlled Manhattan apartment as her future home for her and her fiancé. But when the secret kitchen renovation triggers a legal battle, financial ruin and an avalanche of buried family secrets, Evelyn must learn she can't build a true home until she figures out why hers was broken.

MAN IN MOTION written by Alan Brooks (play)

Three best friends, eager to sink their money into a surefire investment scheme, have two days to convince a fourth friend to invest with them, but they are stymied by his timidity and by one of their wives, who smells a rat. Convinced it's a scam, she fights to expose the truth and to save the men from themselves.

ONE NIGHT AT THE BLACKBIRD written by Thomas Mullen and Maria Messias Mendes (play)

In the Seventh Ward funeral home where it's said that jazz was born, Lucy (ifer)-infamous banished angel and club owner-has hosted dead legends in her secret nightclub since the Civil War. Tired of the music, she's threatening to shutter it, despite the pleadings of her manager who's hellbent to change her mind.

ONCE IN A LIFETIME, AGAIN written by Stephen Gardner (musical)

After his wife's death, Jesse is racked by guilt for choosing career over love. A workplace meltdown forces him into therapy, where songwriting becomes his unexpected doorway into truth. At 65, armed with hard-won insight and shaky courage, he stumbles into the bewildering dating world-an often comic, always tender quest to see whether a second great love is possible.

THE PERFECT RELATIONSHIP IN BUSHWICK written by Adrian Crawford (play)

Carmelo and Elisendo swear they're just roommates, despite living like a bickering married couple in a shabby sublet. But when a trick they both slept with and their nosy landlord stir the pot, the men's denials fray, revealing a tension neither has dared name and a bond more certain than the rent they can barely afford.

RECOVERY written by Gary Marlon Gere (play)

On Christmas Eve, 2001, FDNY Lieutenant Leo Camp remains at Ground Zero, driven to find his missing NYPD brother. As pressure mounts from his superiors to remove him, Leo spirals into guilt, anger and obsession. His only counterforce is a British chaplain who quietly forces him to confront his faith and what he can't change.

SAY MY NAME written by Jeff Perlman (play)

When a small‑city mayor begins seeing the ghost of a Black teenager killed by police, his political life unravels. Driven to expose the systems that enabled the boy's death, he loses allies and safety as the silent apparition pushes him toward buried truths. To free the ghost, he must confront collective guilt, the limits of reform, and the courage required to let go.

SOCIETY 2.0 written by Eric Pzena (play)

When AI replaces every human job overnight, millions-including meticulous ex‑accountant Greg-are left adrift. With 29 days of savings, Greg, with the help of a Support Bot modeled after his ex-girlfriend, must advance through absurd trials in a humiliating survival competition where the unemployed must justify their existence to billionaire elites.