SheLA Arts Selects Five Plays and Musicals for 2026 SHELA SUMMER THEATER FESTIVAL
Plays include Her Way (隨她而流) by Jenn Melyan; Litter, written and directed by Bridget Flanery and more.
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SheNYC Arts has selected their shows for the 2026 SheLA Summer Theater Festival. The Festival, which annually features the works of West Coast-based women, trans, & non-binary playwrights, will run from July 6-12, 2026 at Rogue Machine Theatre in West Hollywood.
The 2026 SheLA Summer Theater Festival will present four new full-length plays: Her Way (隨她而流) by Jenn Melyan; Litter, written and directed by Bridget Flanery; Role Models, written and directed by Caroline Ullman; and The Partner or, The Sou-Sou Play by Ashley Denise Robinson. It will also feature one full-length original musical: Ghostlight, book by Chandler Patton, music and lyrics by Steven James Schmidt.
The SheLA shows were selected after a rigorous, blind, months-long selection process out of over 350 submissions. Select performances will be filmed and made available online through digital tickets.
"SheLA exists to prove that the most exciting storytelling happening right now is coming from women, trans, and non-binary writers. This year's lineup proves it again. Five completely different worlds, five completely original voices - and every single one of them is going to stop you in your tracks. I genuinely cannot wait for our audiences to meet them," says SheLA Executive Producer Emily Rellis. Tickets to the performances will be available beginning on June 1.
Ghostlight, A New Musical
Book by Chandler Patton; Music & Lyrics by Steven James Schmidt
Leah just can't catch a break. After bombing her audition for the revival of her dream show - "Ghostlight," the story of 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite poet-painters Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal - she and her Best Friend Jen are ready to give up on their dreams. Then they get the call. Two cast members have food poisoning, and now Leah and Jen get to step in and rehearse alongside original cast members Dylan and Patrick. As they rehearse, argue, and create, the line between reality and theatricality blurs, forcing them to face the truths about their characters, themselves, and the pasts that haunt them still.
Her Way (隨她而流)
By Jenn Melyan
Summoned home to her mother's apartment in Kaohsiung, Jessica walks into an ambush: her mother Anita has stage 4 cancer, and a deadline. Anita wants to die with dignity by week's end - and she wants Jessica's help. As a typhoon locks the family inside, pressure builds, secrets spill, and love turns volatile. With her father Gary caught in the middle, this darkly funny, emotionally explosive drama asks: can a mother and daughter forgive each other before time runs out?
Litter
Written and Directed by Bridget Flanery
A backpack is surreptitiously thrown out of an Uber on a Des Moines highway. When the bag's gruesome contents are discovered, Detectives Merritt and Van Roekel track down and interrogate the 15-year-old passenger responsible for the "littering."
Role Models
Written and Directed by Caroline Ullman
Jack and his older sister Willa haven't spoken in months - not since she moved to New York without him. When he finally agrees to pay Willa a visit and see her new life, he discovers that her new boyfriend Peter is someone he already knows, and he must decide whether to tell Willa his secret and risk ruining the trip, and possibly their relationship as well.
The Partner or, The Sou-Sou Play
By Ashley Denise Robinson
Every Tuesday night, five first-generation women meet to exchange money, gossip, and insults. Their deepest secrets are pulled out of the shadows when a new, non-Caribbean member joins the group. The Partner or, The Sou-Sou Play pulls at the threads of how tightly we can hold on to our secret lives, no matter the cost.
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