Primary Stages to Present the 2026 Fresh Ink Reading Series
The writer's group members include Brittany K. Allen, Clarence Coo, Adrian Einspanier, Sarah Gancher, Eric Micha Holmes, and Calamity West.
Primary Stages has revealed programming for the 2026 Fresh Ink Reading Series, the first opportunity to hear brand new plays from the playwrights in the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group. All readings are free and open to the public and will be held in Theater A at 59E59 Theaters. Advance reservations are recommended and can be made here.
The 2025-26 Primary Stages Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group members include Brittany K. Allen, Clarence Coo, Adrian Einspanier, Sarah Gancher, Eric Micha Holmes, and Calamity West.
Primary Stages is committed to supporting playwrights at all stages of their careers and providing an artistic home where they can hone their craft and develop their latest works. An integral part of this initiative is the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, which has been fostering the creation of new works by emerging playwrights for 30 years. Throughout its history, the Group has helped launch the careers of over 60 writers and supported the creation of over 165 new plays.
The last five years have seen over 25 productions of plays developed in the Group, with notable titles including The Seven Year Disappear by Jordan Seavey, Hatef*ck by Rehana Lew Mirza, We The Invisibles by Susan Soon He Stanton, Eden Prairie by Mat Smart, God Said This by Leah Nanako Winkler, Amerikin and Proof of Love by Chisa Hutchinson, and Queen of Basel by Hillary Bettis. Most recently, Calamity West’s FEAST! was named the recipient of the 2026 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award and will have its premiere at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Jonathan Norton’s Malcolm X and Redd Foxx Washing Dishes at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack in Harlem received a four-theater rolling world premiere directed by Dexter J. Singleton, which began at TheatreSquared in Fall 2025 and continues at City Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, and Dallas Theater Center throughout Spring 2026.
Led by Primary’s artistic staff, the Group is composed of writers who participate in the program for a three-year cycle. This multi-year commitment provides writers with the security of an artistic home and enables the staff to form intimate relationships with these artists and give them the personal attention they need to advance their work. The Group meets on a weekly basis from September through April, giving writers the opportunity to discuss their current projects and offer each other constructive feedback in a supportive environment. The goal for each writer is to complete a new play by the end of the spring session, which is then given a public reading in the Fresh Ink Reading Series. Additionally, as an extension of Primary Stages’ Creative Access Program, Primary partners with NYC-based theater companies that provide support to historically underrepresented communities for writer nominations, amplifying the artists and work of these vital arts organizations. This year, Primary welcomed playwrights nominated by The National Black Theater and New Georges and are deeply grateful to their partner theaters for introducing them to such incredible artists.
The 2026 Fresh Ink Reading Series will include:
Rebel’s Rest is Burning Down
Directed by Colette Robert
Monday April 6 at 3pm
When the first Black graduates of a small liberal arts college in the Dirty South return to campus twenty years later for an old professor’s memorial, scabs fly off. Old friends reminisce, ghosts may or may not terrorize their evening, and the one Confederate monument still on campus burns to the ground. One-part Big Chill, all-parts autopsy of an institution, this play examines the psychological toll of Black self-making at a PWI.
Parallax
By Calamity West
Tuesday April 7 at 3pm
Tonight, in a living room not far from you, an HOA board convenes after an act of vandalism takes place at Meryl’s house. What begins as neighborly concern turns volatile as questions become accusations and the room fractures, exposing the invisible borders of class and power. Beneath the civility, something sharper emerges: suspicion, self-interest, and the quiet thrill of deciding who belongs. In this community, where territory is everything, decency is just another performance. Welcome to the neighborhood.
Year of the Goat
By Eric Micha Holmes
Directed by Michael Tisdale
Wednesday April 8 at 3pm
No one knows what happened to Quincy Delacourt. A star basketball player and 2-time champion, he shocked the sports world by disappearing at the height of his powers. A year later, Quincy mysteriously reappears to play for the Griffins – a struggling franchise in desperate need of his talent. But the deal gets messy when Quincy tweets a baffling haiku, renewing fears that he’s mentally ill. As negotiations proceed, the strange circumstances surrounding Quincy’s disappearance and his state of mind blur truth and illusion, history and conspiracy, the mundane and the mythic.
A Circumlocution
By Clarence Coo
Directed by Jennifer Chang
Friday April 10 at 3pm
The only fact the present-day Henry knows about Ferdinand Magellan is that Magellan was the first person to try to circumnavigate the world. And that the European explorer was killed in the Philippines, where Henry's family is from. But there was also a Henry in the past, who happened to be Magellan's personal interpreter. And a Henry in the future, who will be in charge of retelling the Magellan story on a luxury cruise recreating the historic voyage. A Circumlocutionis a story of being forced to speak around the things you really want to say.
Untitled Klezmer Project
Directed by Hayley Finn
Private Reading
When twelve-year-old Izzy discovers a magic fiddle that can transport him back in time to previous generations of his klezmer family’s history, he and his sister Miri embark on an epic journey. Untitled Klezmer Project is a family-friendly Hanukkah musical that incorporates klezmer, circus, physical comedy, big questions, and wild theatrical surprises.
Silent Nights
By Adrian Einspanier
Dramaturgy by Annie Wang
Private Reading
It’s 11:01pm on Christmas Eve at a nursing home “soon to be bankrupt by Scrooge and his board.” Renditions of “Silent Night” play outside the nursing station, as two longtime nurses await Midnight Mass and also one of their daughters. And maybe the daughter’s “special friend.” We meet these four on this night and on another night almost one year later around a hospice bed. The playlist is called Silent Nights. So is the play.
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