PLAY LA Festival Unveils 2026 Lineup of New Plays and Free Public Readings

PLAY LA, now in its tenth year, awards five $1,500 commissions and a year’s worth of dramaturgy workshops to five LA-based playwrights to develop new works from the ground up. The resulting plays are presented at the biennial PLAY LA Festival as free readings which are produced by local theatres and open to the public.

This year’s plays are Stonewall’s Bouncer by Louisa Hill, produced by The Victory Theatre; At Olduvai Gorge by India Kotis, produced by The Odyssey Theatre Company; Ghost Play by Mathew Scott Montgomery, produced by InHouse Theatre; The Incident by Rachel Borders, produced by The Road Theatre Ensemble; and Three Dates, by Erica Wachs, produced by IAMA Theatre Company.

Each festival year, PLAY LA also awards honoree status to an established writer of significance to the field. This year’s honoree is playwright and screenwriter Sheila Callaghan.  Her plays have been widely produced in LA and New York as well as internationally.  She is a 2026 WGA Award winner for her work on Dying For Sex, a WGA nominee for Shameless, and a Golden Globe nominee for Casual.  Sheila is a founding member of the feminist/activist group The Kilroys; and the recipient of the Princess Grace Award for emerging artists, a Jerome Fellowship from the Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis, a MacDowell Residency, a Cherry Lane Mentorship Fellowship, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, and the prestigious Whiting Award.  Her new play, Low Fruit, will receive its first public reading as part of the festival and is produced by LA-based Plays With People, 

Additional festival highlights are a Music & Poet’s Corner featuring live jazz and poets from the Greenway Court Theatre’s upcoming GET LIT Festival and two free symposiums on current issues pertaining to the arts: one on the economics of theatre-making and one on theatre in the age of AI. 

PLAY LA co-director, playwright Shem Bitterman, says of the program,  “Unlike most play development programs, PLAY LA teams writers with theaters in order to fuel production opportunities; therefore, PLAY LA is as dedicated to the health of the theater sector as it is to the play development process." Playwright and founder of Stage Raw, Steven Leight Morris,  agrees, "The festival is central to our mission, a time for our community to come together, share ideas and grow more resilient."

All PLAY LA Festival events are free and open to the public and will perform at the Greenway Court Theatre, 544 N. Fairfax in Los Angeles.  Reservations are recommended. See the schedule and reserve seats at greenwaycourttheatre.org/playla2026/.  

Day 1 — Friday, April 3

11 AM — Stonewall’s Bouncer by Louisa Hill (The Victory Theatre)
2 PM — At Olduvai Gorge by India Kotis (The Odyssey Theatre Company)
4 PM — “Why Theatre Matters and Nothing Else Does: Art in the AI Age” discussion
7 PM — Music & Poetry Corner (live jazz by Alexander Andresen)
8 PM — Ghost Play by Matthew Scott Montgomery (InHouse Theatre)

Day 2 — Saturday, April 4

11 AM — The Incident by Rachel Borders (The Road Theatre Company)
2 PM — Three Dates by Erica Wachs (IAMA Theatre Company)
4:30 PM — “Theatre and Economics, Can The Two Ever Be Friends?” panel moderated by Shem Bitterman
7 PM — Music & Poetry Corner (live jazz by Alexander Andresen)
8 PM — Low Fruit by Sheila Callaghan (Plays With People)