CHAIN SUMMER ONE-ACT FESTIVAL to Return to Chain Theatre With 80+ Plays

Chain Theatre has announced the lineup for the 2026 Chain Summer One-Act Festival, a curated mix-tape of new work.  This anticipated annual festival returns Wednesday, July 8 through Sunday, August 2, with all performances taking place at Chain Theatre (312 West 36th Street).  This year’s festival features over 80 one-act plays in live performance, with Livestream option available for select performances, including Artist Talkbacks following each livestream presentation.

The Chain Summer One-Act Festival is a curated “mix-tape” of new work, spanning  drama, comedy and everything in between – an annual event that celebrates storytelling in all its forms, where veteran and ascending writers and performers share the same stage.  

Chain Theatre’s One-Act Festivals – taking place every summer and every winter – have premiered over 500 plays, including new works from award-winning playwrights such as John Patrick Shanley, David Rabe, Lyle Kessler and Eric Bogosian, as well as up and coming writers receiving their first professional production.  A festival highlight in 2024 included the stage-directorial debut of Academy Award winner Jesse Eisenberg, who returned to the festival in 2026.  Front Row Center observes, "The festival is always jam-packed with energy and expectation" and TDF Stages notes, “Now a cornerstone of New York City’s theater scene, the Chain One‐Act Festival has become one of the city’s largest and most dynamic showcases for new work.”  In The Wall Street Journal, Joe Queenan chronicled his firsthand experience as a Chain Theatre One-Act Festival participating playwright, sharing, “it was basically a big party I could invite all my friends to.  But the best thing about putting on the play was that it put me in contact with young people who were still excited about their futures.” 

STALIN: The Musical

Book and lyrics by Austin Olson. Music by James Navan. 

After a sold-out run in the Winter festival, Stalin returns with a full-length version of the musical, an example of the element of development, discovery and growth supported by Chain Theatre.

From the Iron Curtain to the Velvet Curtain.  What do gulags, jazz clubs, soap carving, and awkward first dates have in common?  Just one thing: Joseph Stalin.  In this bombastic, historically-questionable and unapologetically camp musical, history gets hijacked by glitter, groove and revolution.  

One-act play highlights for Summer 2026 include: New York stories such as Buskers by Zach Harrisand Port Authority Breakdown by Annie Raczko, a one-woman musical based on true events while stuck at Port Authority at 3AM; romantic comedies such Interior Shift by Jeryl Brunner and Boyfriends in My Head by Domenick Danza bringing forth the trials and tribulations of dating; and fresh takes on literary classics such as Fair Verona by Andrew Donnelly-Yunga and Island Full of Monsters by Claire Abramovitz.  The festival also welcomes the return of established artists like three-time Emmy-winner Cady McClain directing Walter John Thompson’s Sex On The Beach, Seamus Dever from the hit TV series Castle starring in Time is Money by John Skocik, and Kyle Mumford’s (Screencraft Grand Prize Winner) latest comedy Just Add Water exploring what happens when an audience member tries to ‘fix’ the play onstage from their seat.  

“We don’t do safe – we do real,” says Chain Theatre Artistic Director Kirk Gostkowski, “This is where audiences and artists meet on equal ground to explore the world as it is, and imagine what it could be.”

Founded in 2010, the critically acclaimed Chain Theatre is an Off-Broadway producing organization helmed by Kirk Gostkowski, Artistic Director; Christina Elise Perry, Director of Development; and Rick Hamilton, Managing Director; now based in midtown Manhattan.  Most recently, Chain Theatre presented the World Premiere of The Pushover by John Patrick Shanley, collaborated with Eric Bogosian on the NYC Premiere of Humpty Dumpty, produced the World Premiere of Garbageman by Emmy-nominated Keith Huff and has collaborated with Tony Award-winner David Rabe.  Other hit World Premiere productions include: This G*d Damn House (ScreenCraft Grand Prize Winner), A Will to Live, What Passes for Comedy and macbitches (NYT Critic’s Pick).  Chain Theatre produces play festivals, international film festivals, comedy events, parody readings and screenings of cult classics and cinema favorites.

As part of its mission, Chain Theatre focuses on creating artistic work that is accessible, relatable and invokes a visceral response in the audience through the mediums of Theatre and Film, providing opportunities for artists and audiences to experience challenging subject matter and universal themes.  A deep respect for the narrative is the driving force behind the cultivation of original texts, the further investigation of recently produced work, and the reclaiming of existing classics for a modern audience.  In both Film and Theatre,  The Chain provides professional platforms for new and true independent artists to showcase their work.

In 2010, Chain Theatre began by producing in Manhattan.  In 2012, the company created a theater space by converting a two-story building in Long Island City known as the U.S. Chain Co. (1934), its home until 2016, when the building was bulldozed for luxury condos.  In 2018, Chain found its current home on West 36th Street in midtown Manhattan, which now offers a 99-seat theater, 65-seat theater, two Studio Theatres, and four rehearsal spaces, operating as a vibrant hub for the creation and presentation of new work.