Durango PlayFest 2026 to Feature New American Plays in June

Durango PlayFest returns June 23-28, 2026, for its eighth season of bringing playwrights, actors and audiences together for a week of creative collaboration focused on the development of new American plays.

The annual festival presents works in progress by established and emerging playwrights. Staged readings allow audiences to see new plays at an early stage and participate in discussions that help shape the scripts' future development. Four new plays have been selected for the 2026 festival.

"A Deal Picked Just for You" by John Farmanesh-Bocca

In this absurdist comedy, shut-ins Maggie and Brenda have sworn off the chaos of the outside world and focus their obsessions on Amazon packages, food-delivery, and denial - that is, until a string of uninvited guests upends their fragile bubble. A play about what happens when absurdity becomes the new normal, and why we keep searching for connection anyway.

John Farmanesh-Bocca is a multi-award-winning Iranian-American theatre creator who is best known in the U.S. and abroad for his many modern adaptations of ancient theatrical works. He is creator and founder of the Not Man Apart Physical Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles. His recent production "Lear Redux" was named one of the top productions of 2025 by Arts Beat LA and Los Angeles Stage Mag.

"The German" by Lyle Kessler

Decades after a chance encounter on a train, a Jewish man travels to Germany and the home of the German who intends to kill him - a home haunted by ghosts of the Jewish family who once resided there. Unexpectedly funny, at times emotionally devastating, but ultimately liberating, the play seeks to heal the wounds of the past.

Lyle Kessler is the author of the internationally acclaimed play "Orphans," which recently received two Tony nominations for the Broadway revival. "Orphans" will have a West End Revival in London's Trafalgar Theater next season. He and his wife Margaret Ladd founded the Imagination Workshop, the longest running arts and mental health program for veterans suffering from PTSD.

"Hazel and Bea in the In-Between" by Zoe Stanton-Savitz

When two elderly women - Hazel, sharp-tongued and fiercely independent, and Bea, warm but forgetful - meet as roommates in a nursing home, they clash over space, noise, and personality. As they reminisce about the lives that they've lost, Hazel comes to believe Bea is the Beatrice she loved as a teenager.

Zoe Stanton-Savitz is a New York-based playwright and sound designer currently pursuing an MFA in Playwriting at Columbia University. Their plays have been produced and developed at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College and the Lakewood Playhouse New Voices Festival. Stanton-Savitz is the recipient of the David Lindsay-Abaire Award for excellence in playwriting at Sarah Lawrence.

"The Henry Clyde Canning Murder House" by Christian Missonak

Years after their father is convicted for the murder of sixteen women, siblings Elise and Harry are forced to confront their own buried secrets when Harry comes home with plans to exploit their infamous past by converting the family homestead into a murder house tourist attraction.

Christian Missonak is a NYC-based playwright originally from Chicago, where he was a graduate of Columbia College and The Second City Conservatory. His play "Sheridan" premiered at Madlab Theatre Company in Columbus, Ohio. "The Henry Clyde Canning Murder House" was recently named the second runner up for the 2026 Stanley Award and a second rounder in Austin Film Festival's Stage Play category.