Liza Jessie Peterson to Showcase New Play at Crossroads Genesis Festival
The event will include nightly readings of works by this year's playwrights from April 9 to April 11 at 7:00 pm.
Crossroads Theatre Company will launch the 37th annual Genesis Festival of New Voices and New Plays. This three-day event includes the presentation of the 2026 Genesis Award for Playwriting Excellence, a collaboration with Columbia University School of the Arts. The Festival and Award ceremony will take place at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC), 11 Livingston Ave, New Brunswick, NJ, and will include nightly readings of works by this year's playwrights from April 9 to April 11 at 7:00 pm.
The Genesis Festival has fostered the works of acclaimed playwrights, such as Ntozake Shange, Ruby Dee, Anna Deavere Smith, Richard Wesley, Samm-Art Williams, Paul Carter Harrison, Michael Dinwiddie, and Lynn Nottage.
Through the annual Festival and Award, Crossroads reaffirms its 48-year commitment to cultivating a supportive environment for Black playwrights.
This year's line-up of playwrights and their works includes:
Devon Kidd's Diamond's on Fire—a drama directed by Barrymore Award recipient Ozzie Jones, explores themes of Black parentage and generational curses through spirituality and ritual. Kidd, the recipient of this year's Genesis Award for Playwriting Excellence, will open the festival with a reading of his play on Thursday, April 9th at 7:00 pm.
Omar Cheef Edwards' (NAACP Image Award recipient) musical, The Gypsy Code: A Love Letter to New York (In Rhythm), will be presented on Friday, April 10th at 7:00 pm. Directed by Crossroads Theatre Company co-founder and Artistic Director, Ricardo Khan, the musical is set across three eras, an homage to New York City as a living organism shaped by migration, struggle, resilience, and reinvention.
On Saturday, April 11th at 7:00 pm, Liza Jessie Peterson—a recently announced member of the ensemble cast of Paramount+ series The Chi's final season—will showcase her play Sistah-Gurls and the Squirrel. Directed by Goldie Patrick, the play is about a single mother raising a son while running a business, trying to keep her son safe, and holding onto her home amid aggressive gentrification of her Philly community. This reading will close the 37th edition of the Genesis Festival.
The Genesis Award for Playwriting Excellence recognizes Columbia MFA student finalists, each of whom receives a private reading of their play: Tré Calhoun for Grass and Charlene Adhiambo for Rot. Honorable mentions are awarded to: Sophia Parker for Moon Play and Robert C. Jean-Gilles for Linguistor's Lament.
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