Harlem9 Reveals Six Playwrights for 48HOURS IN…HARLEM Tribute to Woodie King Jr.

The 6 playwrights are announced and tickets are now on sale for “48Hours in…Harlem”.  After a one-year hiatus, the Harlem9 producers return to their flagship festival in Harlem, marking 15 years of championing Black voices. The OBIE Award-Winning producers of “48Hours in…Harlem”, “48Hours in…El Bronx”, “48Hours in…Detroit”, “48Hours in…Dallas,” “48Hours in…Holy Ground”, and most recently, “48Hours in…Baton Rouge” will celebrate this milestone with a tribute to Woodie King Jr. who passed in late January.  “48Hours in…Harlem” will take place on Sunday, August 30, at 7pm and 9 pm 

The “48Hours in...️” festivals bring together six playwrights, six directors, and 18 actors. 

The six playwrights for Harlem 2026 are Kristen Adele Calhoun (Relentless Award; HBO's Sula), Zach Ezer (Creative Capital State of the Art Prize), Kermit Frazier (Head writer,Ghostwriter; memoir First Acts: A Black Playwright Comes of Age, 2022), Mya Ison (O'Neill Conference Finalist), Naomi Lorrain (The Fire This Time Festival, The Black Motherhood & Parenting Festival), and Andres Santiago Piña (A Governors Island Artist Fellow and 2050 NYTW Playwright Fellow).

As previously announced, this year's Harlem playwrights will write a new 10-minute play inspired by one of these six plays, both published and unpublished, from New Federal Theatre's canon: In the New England Winter by Ed Bullins, Hospice by Pearl Cleage, Black Girl by Jennie Elizabeth Franklin, Long Time Since Yesterday by P.J. Gibson, When the Chickens Came Home to Roost by Laurence Holder, and James Baldwin: A Soul on Fire by Howard B. Simon.

Two live performances will take place on Sunday, August 30, 2026 at 7pm and 9pm at the Jacques d'Amboise Center for Learning & the Arts at National Dance Institute, located at 217 W. 147th Street, New York, New York. Tickets are $30 in advance online and $35 at the door.

The six directors and 18 actors will be announced at a later date.

In 2019, the OBIE Award-Winning collective succeeded in gaining a national audience when they produced “48Hours in...El Bronx” with Pregones / PRTT,  “48Hours in...Detroit” with Detroit Public Theatre, “48Hours in...Dallas” with Shades of Brown Theatre, and “48Hours in...Holy Ground” in Winston-Salem at The National Black Theatre Festival in partnership with NC Black Rep. The collective celebrated their 10th Anniversary  with a digital festival in 2020 and forged a partnership with Harlem Stage and the Lortel Foundation for Consequences in 2021.

Since 2011, Harlem9 has commissioned Black playwrights to tell their stories in the annual “48Hours in...Harlem️” play festival.  Founding Members included Bryan E. Glover and Jonathan McCrory (National Black Theatre). For over a decade, the producers have continued to highlight and uplift writers, directors, and actors at various points in their careers, including Jocelyn Bioh (School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play, Nollywood Dreams, Russian Doll), Brandon Michael Hall (The Mayor, God Friended Me), Dominique Morisseau (Ain't Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations, Skeleton Crew), Tonye Patano (Weeds), Tonya Pinkins (Madam Secretary, Gotham), Aurin Squire (Good Fight, Evil), Marcel Spears (The Neighborhood, FAT HAM), Heather Alicia Simms (Swarm, Kings of Napa, Sheriff County, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), and Benja K. Thomas (Bootycandy, FAT HAM)

PLAYWRIGHT BIOS

Kristen Adele Calhoun (she/her) Kristen's Edgerton Award-winning play BLACK CYPRESS BAYOU sold out The Geffen Playhouse. She wrote for HBO's adaptation of Toni Morrison's SULA and is a Relentless Award winner. Her work has been commissioned by Penumbra, the Lucille Lortel, the St. Louis Black Rep, 651 Arts, and the NAACP. She received her Equity card under the direction of the mighty Woodie King Jr.

Zachariah Ezer (he/him) is a playwright who animates theoretical quandaries through theatrical forms. His work has been developed with The Atlantic Theater Company, MTC, Playwrights Horizons, ACT, and Theater J, among others. He is an inaugural recipient of Creative Capital's State of the Art Prize.

Kermit Frazier (he/him) has had more than twenty-five plays produced at numerous theaters. Many are also available at Broadway Play Publishing. He's also written for several television series, including head writer for the popular children's series, Ghostwriter. His memoir, First Acts: A Black Playwright Comes of Age, was published in 2022.

Mya Ison (she/her) is an actor/playwright currently studying as a 2nd year MFA Playwriting candidate at Hunter College! Select Playwriting credits: crawlspace (Workshops: The Cell 2026, The Flea 2024), Fruit Fly (LTC Reading/Residency ‘24-25, O'Neill Conference Semi-Finalist ‘26), Laure (Workshops: NYTW, The Tank; O'Neill Conference Finalist 2024).

Naomi Lorrain (she/her) is a Harlem based actor/playwright. Her plays have been developed/produced by Fault Line Theatre, 2nd Stage, South Coast Rep, Uptown Collective, The Fire This Time Festival, The Black Motherhood & Parenting Festival, The Continuum Company, HomeBase Theatre Collective and The 52nd Street Kids Project. She is a member of The Make Good Project, an alum of the Page 73 Writers Group and moonlights as a Research Assistant at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. NYU: MFA; Yale: B.A.

2026 Theater Fans' Choice Awards - Live Stats

Best Direction of a Play - Top 3

1. Joe Mantello - Death of a Salesman

19.3% of votes

2. Duncan MacMillan, Jeremy Herrin - Every Brilliant Thing

18.1% of votes

3. Whitney White - Liberation

10.1% of votes

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