Rough Draft Festival at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center

For more than two decades, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center’s Rough Draft Festival (RDF) has offered a first public look at bold new theatrical work in development, serving as a proving ground for writers and performance-makers in Queens while remaining deeply connected to New York City’s wider creative ecosystem. Running March 10–19, 2026, the festival brings audiences, artists, and the field into the room at the moment when big ideas are becoming buildable theatre.

This year, LPAC will present five works-in-progress selected through a highly competitive review process led by a panel of arts professionals from across New York City’s creative community, as well as one returning artist. Together, the 2026 slate reflects a wide range of voices and forms, from choreopoem to musical theater to experimental performance, offering audiences an early look at stories being developed with ambition, craft, and urgency.

Rough Draft Dates and Times:
March 10 @ 7pm - Mama/Run by Lester Mayers
March 12 @ 7pm - At the Edge of Chinatown by Simon Tam & Joe X Jiang
March 13 @ 7pm - 108 Notes by kanishk pandey
March 14 @ 7pm - The Life and Times of Daisy Forbes by Scout Davis*
March 18 @ 7pm - RYBA-KIT | A Musical Folktale by Nadiya Atkinson & Sammy Grob
March 19 @ 3pm - Roadkill by Libby Carr

*Returning Guest Artist

ABOUT THE ROUGH DRAFT WORKS AND ARTISTS

Mama/Run — Lester Mayers

Mama/Run is a choreopoem that confronts the haunting question of why some mothers abandon their children and how quickly the world responds with judgment instead of grace. Through movement and poetic storytelling, the work examines the silences, fractures, and systemic failures that exist long before condemnation arrives, offering a powerful reflection on survival, loss, and compassion.

Lester Eugene Mayers is a poet, playwright, director, and interdisciplinary performance artist whose work blends documentary research, movement, and poetic text. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre at Ramapo College School of the Contemporary Arts. Centering Black interiority and collective memory, Mayers’ practice explores embodiment and social witness through performance rooted in truth and lived experience.

At the Edge of Chinatown — Simon Tam & Joe X. Jiang

At the Edge of Chinatown is an explosive new musical about third-culture kids who must remix the old world to build their own. It proves that sometimes the most powerful form of preservation is fearless reinvention. Featuring a contemporary score that fuses traditional Asian instruments with punk rock energy, the piece explores how identity is not inherited. It is forged.

Simon Tam is a musician, author, and composer whose work bridges performing arts, community-based activism, and storytelling. As founder and bassist of The Slants, he helped spark a national conversation on identity and civil rights. He also won a landmark unanimous U.S. Supreme Court case that protected free speech for minority communities.

Joe X. Jiang is a musician, composer, performer, and award-winning filmmaker and visual artist, known for his innovative work across alternative rock and performance.  

108 Notes — Kanishk Pandey

108 Notes follows Eve and Ava as they test what it truly means to know another person. Guided by a set of index cards and an evolving series of questions, the two invite the audience into their experiment, asking us to participate in the process of observation, interpretation, and connection.

Kanishk Pandey is a writer, director, and producer whose work is driven by a belief in dialogue as a foundation for consciousness and community. His work has been recognized by the American Playwriting Foundation, The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Austin Film Festival, New York Stage and Film, The Jerome Foundation, New York City Trust, and Synecdoche Works. His playwriting has been supported by Ars Nova, Rattlestick Theater, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, and other leading institutions. Learn more at kanishkpandey.com.

The Life and Times of Daisy Forbes — Scout Davis (Returning Guest Artist)

The Life and Times of Daisy Forbes is a long form lip-sync performance centered on Daisy, a showgirl at a defining crossroads. Through a collage of television interviews, pop music, obscure musical theater scores, and film scenes, Daisy channels a chorus of borrowed voices to excavate the choices that shaped her life. As she confronts feelings of abandonment and an uncertain future, the work asks what it means to keep pushing forward as both an artist and a human being in the world.

Scout Davis (they/them) is a queer, non-binary performance artist and director whose work has been presented at HERE Arts Center, The Brick, The Tank, The Wild Project, The Chocolate Factory, and LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, among others. They are currently a resident artist at La MaMa.

RYBA-KIT | A Musical Folktale — Nadiya Atkinson & Sammy Grob

RYBA-KIT | A Musical Folktale follows Valya and Anya, two ordinary kids from a quiet town where life revolves around birch-bark boats and neighborhood mischief. Everything changes when a wolf arrives with a warning. Soon come torrential rains, empty fishing nets, and earthquakes, and as the adults’ scramble to assign blame, the girls find themselves at the center of a story larger than they ever imagined. Blending multilingual storytelling with puppetry, folk music, and song, RYBA-KIT invites audiences into a fantastical world where ancestral myths are not just folklore, but a lifeline. The piece calls on us to listen closely before the future is washed away.

Nadiya Atkinson (Book/Lyrics) (she/hers) is a director, playwright, and visual artist. Circus and craft inspired, she works in the intersections of mediums and has created work at the Connelly, HERE Arts Center, 59E59, Theatre Row, Williams College, the Bechdel Project, the Chain, Artshack Brooklyn, and the Edinburgh Fringe. She’s been in residence with Complicité, the Guapamacátaro Center for Art and Ecology, Directors Lab North, and Mi-LAB Echizen. Nadiya is a founding member of Fishmarket Theatre Co. where she directs physical theatre works based in embodied dramaturgy and multidisciplinary collaboration. Nadiya graduated Williams College and has studied at the National Theatre Institute and at Sorbonne Nouvelle. She’s currently training in devised physical theatre practice at École Jacques Lecoq. nadiyaatkinson.com

Sammy Grob (he/him) is a composer, music director, and arts educator whose work has been performed by Irish Repertory Theatre and other institutions nationwide.

Roadkill — Libby Carr

Roadkill follows Cassidy, whose father taught her how to drink, how to mount a whitetail, and how to be a man. After his death, Cassidy is left to clean up what he left behind. When her younger sister, Zane, returns with a lover Cassidy believed was long gone, the siblings are pulled into a shifting landscape of memory, haunted by the men who harmed them and the men who loved them, across decades of time. Roadkill is a raw and haunting play about taxidermy, addiction, and the secret shame we carry.

Libby Carr is a writer and dance artist from Houston whose work uses rhythmic specificity, movement, and vivid theatrical imagery to celebrate queer and trans community. Their play CALF SCRAMBLE will premiere at Primary Stages in spring 2026.

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Since its inception in 2013, Rough Draft Festival has remained steadfast in its commitment to nurturing emerging talent and providing a platform for experimentation. With financial support and rehearsal space, the festival empowers artists to bring their visions to life, while offering audiences a rare glimpse into the creative process. Over the years, the festival has provided valuable exposure and momentum for productions and artists.

Rough Draft is produced by the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and LaGuardia Community College. 

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The LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (LPAC), located at LaGuardia Community College, is a cultural hub that fosters artistic excellence, education, and community engagement. LPAC is dedicated to providing a platform for dynamic artists and storytellers to create, collaborate, and inspire. Through diverse programming, LPAC continues to support its mission of making the arts accessible to all. It is the stage for productions of the award-winning Theater and Music Performance programs of LaGuardia Community College, as well as works from partner institutions, including Carnegie Hall, Joffrey Ballet School, and the Drama League of New York.