BROADWAY BOUND THEATRE FESTIVAL 2026 to Feature World Premieres With Directors and Talkbacks Announced
AMT Theater in Manhattan will present twelve world premieres, including BE A MENSCH and FUNERAL OF GOD.
The Broadway Bound Theatre Festival opens next month at AMT Theater in the heart of Manhattan's Theater District. Over the course of four weeks, two musicals and ten plays will receive their world premieres. The festival is pleased to announce the directors for each production, as well as its post-show talkback schedule. (Please see the show schedule below.)
The festival runs July 23-August 16 at AMT Theater. Tickets are now on sale for the 2026 Broadway Bound Theatre Festival. "Where playwrights take center stage" is not only the festival's motto-it is its mission.
Over the past decade, BBTF has earned widespread acclaim, including recognition as one of New York City's Top Ten Theatre Festivals by Time Out New York. The festival remains committed to showcasing new voices and providing a platform for emerging and established playwrights to bring their work to the stage.
Performances take place at AMT Theater, 354 West 45th Street (between Eighth and Ninth Avenues), New York, NY 10036. Tickets are $30 for general admission and $40 for premium seating, and are currently on sale at Broadway Bound Theatre Festival.
THE 2026 BROADWAY BOUND THEATRE FESTIVAL LINEUP & SCHEDULE
Performances marked with an asterisk will be followed by a short talkback.
BE A MENSCH written by Dan Takacs (play)
directed by Allison Choat
When Abe, the eldest son and breadwinner of an impoverished, dysfunctional Jewish family, is accepted into his dream college, he turns to the adults in his life for help only to find they have no intention of letting him escape. Ultimately, he's forced to choose between his family's livelihood and his own future happiness.
Performances: Thursday, July 23 at 8pm, Friday, July 24 at 5pm*, and Sunday, July 26 at 2pm.
FUNERAL OF GOD written by Brian Brijbag (play)
directed by Noa Brenner
A theatre company attempts to stage a burial for god-only to find they can't agree on what died, who should attend, or why the ritual even matters. What starts as a logistical problem‑solving becomes a reckoning with belief, grief, and responsibility. Personal histories surface, exposing how faith, silence, and meaning have been used to avoid facing what hurts.
Performances: Thursday, July 30 at 5pm, Friday, July 31 at 8pm, Saturday, August 1 at 2pm, and Sunday, August 2, at 2pm*.
HOMEBOUND book, music and lyrics by Zach Adam (musical)
directed by Shea Sullivan
When a pandemic lockdown traps Jack, a queer musician, in his Tennessee childhood home with his estranged, secretly dying father, a decade of silence finally has an expiration date. Can two people who never learned to speak the same language forgive each other before time runs out?
Performances: Wednesday, August 5 at 8pm, Thursday, August 6 at 5pm, Friday, August 7 at 8pm, Saturday, August 8 at 2pm*, and Sunday, August 9 at 5pm.
JUGULAR written by Daniel R O'Brien (play)
directed by Glory Kadigan
Three apex combatants-a single-minded African-American attorney, a ruthless bureaucratic titan and a femme fatale-are locked in an ideological fight to the death in this political satire, when a newly appointed federal investigator challenges an entrenched government system and all hell breaks loose.
Performances: Wednesday, July 29 at 8pm, Thursday, July 30 at 2pm, Friday, July 31 at 5pm*, and Saturday, August 1 at 5pm.
THE KITCHEN written by Earl Crittenden (play)
directed by Noel MacDuffie
Evelyn plots to secure her grandmother's coveted rent-controlled Manhattan apartment as her future home for her and her fiancé. But when the secret kitchen renovation triggers a legal battle, financial ruin and an avalanche of buried family secrets, Evelyn must learn she can't build a true home until she figures out why hers was broken.
Performances: Thursday, July 23 at 5pm, Friday, July 24 at 8pm*, and Saturday, July 25 at 5pm.
MAN IN MOTION written by Alan Brooks (play)
directed by Greg Chwerchak
Three best friends, eager to sink their money into a surefire investment scheme, have two days to convince a fourth friend to invest with them, but they are stymied by his timidity and by one of their wives, who smells a rat. Convinced it's a scam, she fights to expose the truth and to save the men from themselves.
Performances: Wednesday, August 12 at 2pm, Thursday, August 13 at 5pm*, and Saturday, August 15 at 8pm.
ONCE IN A LIFETIME, AGAIN book, music and lyrics by Stephen Gardner (musical)
directed by Misti Wills
After his wife's death, Jesse is racked by guilt for choosing career over love. A workplace meltdown forces him into therapy, where songwriting becomes his unexpected doorway into truth. At 65, armed with hard-won insight and shaky courage, he stumbles into the bewildering dating world-an often comic, always tender quest to see whether a second great love is possible.
Performances: Wednesday, August 5 at 5pm, Thursday, August 6 at 8pm, Friday, August 7 at 2pm*, Saturday, August 8 at 8pm, and Sunday, August 9 at 2pm.
ONE NIGHT AT THE BLACKBIRD written by Thomas Mullen and Maria Messias Mendes (play)
directed by Michael Hagins
In the Seventh Ward funeral home where it's said that jazz was born, Lucy (ifer)-infamous banished angel and club owner-has hosted dead legends in her secret nightclub since the Civil War. Tired of the music, she's threatening to shutter it, despite the pleadings of her manager who's hellbent to change her mind.
Performances: Wednesday, August 12 at 8pm, Friday, August 14 at 5pm*, and Sunday, August 16 at 2pm.
THE PERFECT RELATIONSHIP IN BUSHWICK written by Adrian Crawford (play)
directed by Juan Ramirez, Jr.
Carmelo and Elisendo swear they're just roommates, despite living like a bickering married couple in a shabby sublet. But when a trick they both slept with and their nosy landlord stir the pot, the men's denials fray, revealing a tension neither has dared name and a bond more certain than the rent they can barely afford.
*Recommended for mature audiences, 18 and over.
Performances: Thursday, July 30 at 8pm, Saturday, August 1 at 8pm*, and Sunday, August 2 at 5pm.
RECOVERY written by Gary Marlon Gere (play)
directed by Dennis Oliveira
On Christmas Eve, 2001, FDNY Lieutenant Leo Camp remains at Ground Zero, driven to find his missing NYPD brother. As pressure mounts from his superiors to remove him, Leo spirals into guilt, anger and obsession. His only counterforce is a British chaplain who quietly forces him to confront his faith and what he can't change.
Performances: Thursday, August 13 at 2pm & 8pm, Friday, August 14 at 2pm*, and Saturday, August 15 at 5pm.
SAY MY NAME written by Jeff Perlman (play)
directed by Reena Dutt
When a small‑city mayor begins seeing the ghost of a Black teenager killed by police, his political life unravels. Driven to expose the systems that enabled the boy's death, he loses allies and safety as the silent apparition pushes him toward buried truths. To free the ghost, he must confront collective guilt, the limits of reform, and the courage required to let go.
Performances: Thursday, July 23 at 2pm, Saturday, July 25 at 8pm*, and Sunday, July 26 at 5pm.
SOCIETY 2.0 written by Eric Pzena (play)
directed by Christopher Booth
When AI replaces every human job overnight, millions-including meticulous ex‑accountant Greg-are left adrift. With 29 days of savings, Greg, with the help of a Support Bot modeled after his ex-girlfriend, must advance through absurd trials in a humiliating survival competition where the unemployed must justify their existence to billionaire elites.
Performances: Wednesday, August 12 at 5pm, Friday, August 14 at 8pm*, and Saturday, August 15 at 2pm.
What sets BBTF apart from other festivals - Now in its 10th year, BBTF is one of the only fully curated festivals in New York City. Each script is considered with care and attention, undergoing a rigorous evaluation process in which structure, content, character development, and overall potential are thoughtfully reviewed and discussed. All submissions receive feedback, regardless of acceptance.
Selected participants commit to multiple rewrites under dramaturgical guidance and collaboration prior to production, ensuring the strongest possible iteration of each work is presented to the public at an affordable price.
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