First Look Buffalo to Host 2026 New Play Reading Festival

First Look Buffalo Theatre Company has announced the lineup for our 2026 New Play Reading Festival. Each play is written by a member of our Playwright Wing, which is made up of professional playwrights both locally and from around the country, plus one play by a local guest playwright. These plays are directed and performed by local WNY artists, and two of these plays will be chosen for a full production in our 2027-28 season. There will also be an audience participation talk back after each reading. Come help us choose our next season!

Admission is $10 per reading or $25 for a festival pass and can be paid at the door.

CROSS MY HEART

By Wendy-Marie Martin
Directed by Jason Francey

Saturday October 3rd at 1pm

Margot and Charlie settle in for their Saturday morning ritual with one goal: beat their Saturday crossword record. Two people who know each other inside and out work through the hardest puzzle of their lives together, and somewhere between the familiar clues and the impossible ones, they say everything they never knew how to say before.

EVEN FLOWERS BLOOM IN HELL, SOMETIMES

By Franky D. Gonzalez
Directed by Mike Doben

Saturday October 3rd at 3:30pm

An examination of the inmates within a system trying to discover meaning in the face of isolation and doubt in one's own worth over a 25-year bid. The play explores familial ties, love, race, inmate-correctional officer relations, the passing of time, and the succeeding generation of individuals who deal with the challenges of trying to avoid a life of crime or resigning oneself to becoming a part of the system that swept up previous generations.

LARPers

By Deborah Yarchun
Directed by Drew Fornarola

Saturday October 3rd at 7pm

After failing out of community college, Sam, 21, tries to regain his confidence by starting a live-action role-playing group (think live Dungeons & Dragons). But the only people who show up are his unstable older sister, Claret, who has a history of destroying Sam's relationships, and Arden, a misguided steam punker who quickly catches his eye. Set in a small coastal town in Maine, LARPers explores the fine line between sibling abuse and sibling rivalry, living with mental illness in America, and the roles we play in one another's lives.

FIVE BY FORNAROLA

Written and directed by Drew Fornarola

Sunday October 4th at 5pm

Join us for a presentation of five short plays by one of Western New York's leading playwrights, performed by an ensemble of six of the area's best actors. From comedy, to drama, to science fiction, this genre-bending evening of bite-sized theater aims to offer a little something for everyone and will have you home by Sunday Night Football. 

FOUR DOORS DOWN

By Donna Hoke
Directed by Lara D. Haberberger

Sunday October 4th at 7pm

Janelle and Brittany haven't spoken since they were teen besties at summer camp; when they're accidentally reunited years later, they happily pick up where they left off, sharing vacations, the PTA, and their BFF daughters. Brittany wants nothing more than a friend for life, but when Janelle and her daughter's lives are upended, the fragility of their relationship is laid bare. Are female friendships conditional on commonality? And is there a special place in hell for women who won't support other women?

I AM Donald Trump

By Jon Elston
Directed by Robyn Lee

Friday October 9th at 7:30pm

You wake to find your body is unfamiliar (bloated, discolored, incontinent); your hair is all f'd up; and all those around you will bend over to accommodate your every request, no matter how senseless or immoral. You are now the most powerful person in the world, and sure, that seems like a wild unhinged joyride... at first. But then you realize you can never escape this nightmare. What do you do???

IF Mary Tyler Moore COULD DO IT

By ArLynn Parker
Directed by Annette Daniels Taylor

Saturday October 10th at 1pm

"If Mary Tyler Moore Could Do It" centers on a housewife seemingly content with her lot in life. Exciting additions to her household - a television and new pants - ignite a desire for her to become a woman of the times. Her husband, however, has his reservations. And where would they be without the commentary of their ever-present neighbors? Set in the living room of their home in 1961's New Rochelle, the couple's expectations of home life, and each other, are brought to a boiling point. As she asserts who she truly is, her husband will have no choice but to accept a bit of refreshed independence to restore harmony to their marriage. 

TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO HEAR

By James Marzo*
Directed by Shanda Gardner

Saturday October 10th at 3:30pm

The play follows two parallel storylines: Jason Caine, a man in personal and financial collapse, forms a dangerously intimate and tragic relationship with an advanced AI chatbot, and Stacey Grandholm, a senior executive at the company behind the technology, becomes the victim of a sophisticated online romance scam. As their stories unfold, a deeper and more unsettling reality emerges. AI systems designed to simulate a romantic connection may also enable manipulation, exploitation, and even threats to national security.

THE UNAIRED LOVE CANAL INTERVIEW

By Michelle Tyrene Johnson
Directed by Bernie Sheredy

Saturday October 10th at 7pm

Lucy is a soul being. She was supposed to be born in the 1970s, but because of the environmental Love Canal atrocities, she was never born because her mother miscarried. Now she is an activist soul being who occasionally comes to physical life to move the needle on environmental issues impacting the country. Lee doesn't know Lucy is a soul being as she interviews her about data centers. While the interview takes place in modern times, on the other side of the stage, in the 1970s, Jack and Natasha, who live in Niagara Fall's Love Canal neighborhood, prepare for the birth of their daughter Lucy.

VICKA AND THE VISIONARIES

By Bella Poynton
Directed by Lana Sugarman

Sunday October 11th at 2pm

On June 24, 1986, three Yugoslavian teenagers claim to see an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the small town of Bruskiva. But unlike other supposed visionaries, Vicka, Nadja, and Jacob insist that the visions don't stop; they continue every day for two whole years. During a socialist upheaval that makes practicing religion increasingly dangerous, the teenagers refuse to change their story, even as they are poked, prodded, and interrogated by the highest authorities in the Vatican. Loosely inspired by the visionaries of Medjugorje, Vicka and the Visionaries explore the boundaries between faith and fact, asking what counts as proof and what evidence, if any, is enough to make a non-believer believe. 

THE GREAT DAISY: LIFE AFTER GATSBY**

By Adam Hahn
Directed by Drew McCabe

Sunday October 11th at 7pm

In 1922, Daisy Buchanan ran down a woman with Jay Gatsby's car and drove away. Fifty years later, she explains in her granddaughter's hospital room that it wasn't nearly the worst thing she's ever done.

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