HUNGRY WOMEN Wins SoHo Playhouse's Lighthouse Series; Six-Week Off-Broadway Run Set For May 2026

SoHo Playhouse has chosen Hungry Women, a new play by Melissa Maney and directed by Iris Dukatt, as a winner of its 2025 Lighthouse Series. The full-length piece will debut at the downtown venue for a six-week Off-Broadway run in May 2026.

After winning the audience's vote in the first round, Hungry Women advanced to the final round of the competition, where it was selected by a panel of industry professionals as a co-winner of the series.

About the Play

If men went extinct, what would our world look like? Hungry Women follows the lives of women across generations as they navigate this exact reality. Blending absurdism and dark comedy through a feminist lens, the play explores survival, identity, sexuality, motherhood, and the reshaping of power in the absence of the patriarchy. In the end, it asks: What are women most hungry for?

"I'm thrilled that Hungry Women - a play that unapologetically centers women's stories - will be put in the spotlight at Soho Playhouse," says playwright Melissa Maney. "I wrote this piece to create onstage representation for the full spectrum of women's experiences, and I hope audiences feel seen, understood, and celebrated in these characters' hunger for more."

Director Iris Dukatt adds, "It's a huge honor to win the Lighthouse Series and we are so excited to get the chance to have our first Off-Broadway production as a result. Melissa Maney wrote a script that cracks me up as well as asks the poignant question, how do we compost the patriarchy to heal our future? I love that the play envisions a flawed matriarchy, allowing the femmes inside the piece to be full fledged humans facing down extinction and dire situations."

Cast & Creative Team

During the Lighthouse Series, the ensemble cast featured Ming Peiffer, ChiWen Chang, Toshi Woodoff-Wilson, Kayla Coleman, Zoe Dean and Bre Tomey. The creative team included Patricia Roques (Stage Management & Lighting Design), Zoë Allen and Garvin Hastings (Costume Design), Marissa Todd (Scenic Design), Rennie Kreidberg (Sound Design), and Attilio Rigotti (Projection Design).

Looking Ahead