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New Stages Festival 26/27

Text on an orange background reads: “new stages festival”.

The Goodman’s New Stages Festival is in its 22nd year! This annual celebration of innovative, risky new drama showcases works in progress by some of the country’s most singular and ambitious writers. Full lineup below.

December 5 - December 13, 2026

The Goodman's Owen Theatre

170 N Dearborn St, Chicago, IL 60601 - View on Google Maps

Tickets are available starting Friday, October 30 at 10am.

Most offerings in this season’s Festival contain mature themes. Please email literary@goodmantheatre.org for questions.

Box Office Hours

Phone: (312) 443-3800, TTY/TDD: (312) 443-3829
Email: BoxOffice@GoodmanTheatre.org or use our Contact Form
Group Sales: (312) 443-3815

Open Daily, 12noon – 5pm.
On days with performances, the Box Office walk-up window is open one half-hour after curtain time.

SCRIPT-IN-HAND STAGED READINGS

Black nunchucks connected by a silver chain, decorated with gold dragon illustrations.

bruceploitation

By Qui Nguyen
Directed by May Adrales

Saturday, December 5 at 7:00pm
Saturday, December 12 at 7:30pm

After Bruce Lee’s death, a struggling Asian American actor gets his big Hollywood break…. by replacing the legend…. despite not knowing a lick of kung fu. Sparks fly when he meets the badass Black stuntwoman hired to train him, who’s tired of making everyone else look like a hero while she stays out of frame. Turns out learning to throw a punch is way easier than keeping their hands off each other. A Kung Fu Rom Com.

Tickets are FREE; reservations are required.
Limited Availability

Tickets are available starting Friday, October 30 at 10am

Oval tabletop mirror with an ornate, gilded scrollwork frame.

house gyalz

By Abigail C. Onwunali
Directed by Lili-Anne Brown

Tuesday, December 8 at 7:00pm
Sunday, December 13 at 11:00am

House Gyalz follows two Nigerian housemaids as they spiral into dangerous roleplay, examining class, power, and womanhood. When unexpected news raises the stakes of their games, they will pull out all the stops to survive. Blending sharp satire with explosive theatricality, Abigail C. Onwunali’s dark comedy is a contemporary take on Jean Genet’s classic The Maids.

Tickets are FREE; reservations are required.
Limited Availability

Tickets are available starting Friday, October 30 at 10am

Black high-top sneaker resting on a small, red book titled “Shakespeare.”

shook

Book by Mike Lew
Music & Lyrics by Zoe Sarnak
Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel
Music Direction by Jane Cardona

Friday, December 11 at 7:30pm

Something is rotten at Camp Avon, the prestigious Shakespeare summer camp for teens. Is it the star-crossed lovers facing a stage kiss? The stage management intern who wants a chance to perform so badly that she disguises herself as a camper? Or the fact that there are actual witches in the woods? All the wood’s a stage, and all the campers merely players in this angsty musical ode to the eternal power of theatre.

Tickets are FREE; reservations are required.
Limited Availability

Tickets are available starting Friday, October 30 at 10am

A weathered, textured rabbit figurine wearing a bowtie and jacket.

wonderland

By Will Eno
Directed by Susan V. Booth

Saturday, December 12 at 2:00pm

After a punishing decade-long exile in Europe, Orson Welles returns to Hollywood for a one-night only reading of Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland. The borders between fiction and real life—and between his outward wants and inner demons—begin to break down, as Alice’s journey becomes hopelessly entangled with Orson’s past, and the evening takes a wild turn into the present. From Obie-Award winning playwright Will Eno, Wonderland paints a hopeful, tender, and at times surreal portrait of humanity and reality in the modern age.

Tickets are FREE; reservations are required.
Limited Availability

Tickets are available starting Friday, October 30 at 10am

NEW Stages REsidency REadings

The Goodman’s New Stages Residency is a year-long program for Chicago-area generative artists. Each season, the New Stages Residency commissions original works of theatre from local artists and presents in-process readings of early drafts to Goodman audiences. Established in 2010, the program supports multiple writers each season, offering tailored developmental support for works-in-progress and fostering close connections between Goodman staff and Chicago artists. 

Starting this year, Residency writers’ culminating reading will take place during Professionals Weekend of the New Stages Festival.  

Black bowl filled with cooked black-eyed peas.

black-eyed peas & collard greens

By Lachrisa Grandberry
Directed by J. Nicole Brooks

Friday, December 11 at 3:00pm

In a West Side Chicago apartment building, three families prepare to welcome the New Year with the beliefs, strategies, and secrets they’ve relied upon for generations. But what happens when our traditions no longer align with our reality? Black-Eyed Peas & Collard Greens is a multi-generational ensemble dramedy about inheritance and what happens when those inherited truths stop serving us. Funny, heartfelt, and deeply human, Lachrisa Grandberry’s newest play explores how tradition comforts us, when it confines us, and what remains when we’re finally brave enough to choose something new.

Tickets are FREE; reservations are required.
Limited Availability

Tickets are available starting Friday, October 30 at 10am

Bright red elephant sculpture with its trunk raised.

the last time we saw them

By William Glick
Directed by Jessica Fisch

Saturday, December 12 at 10:00am

In 1983, Tess, Sasha, and Amelia are young writers hoping to make their marks on Ronald Reagan’s Washington. As the years pass, their lives—and the Conservative Movement that brought them to power—are made unrecognizable by wars abroad and division at home. Spanning four turbulent decades, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the beginning of the second Trump administration, The Last Time We Saw Them tells the story of three exceptional women whose ideals, rivalries, and love of country and each other help forge the America of the 2020s.

Tickets are FREE; reservations are required.
Limited Availability

Tickets are available starting Friday, October 30 at 10am

ARTISTS

Susan V. Booth

Director, Wonderland

A middle-aged man with short gray hair wears a light blue denim shirt and looks at the camera. There are blurred figures and a light-colored wall in the background.

Will Eno

Playwright, Wonderland

A person wearing glasses and a button-up shirt with a jacket sits on a stool against a plain background, looking at the camera.

Mike Lew

Book, Shook

A person with long curly brown hair, wearing a dark jacket, stands in front of a plain brown background, looking directly at the camera with a neutral expression.

Zoe Sarnak

Music & Lyrics, Shook

A man with a beard and short hair, wearing a button-up shirt, sits and looks at the camera against a plain background.

Moritz von Stuelpnagel

Director, Shook

A person with short curly hair wears a blue turtleneck and blue jacket, posing against a solid blue background with a neutral expression.

Abigail C. Onwunali

Playwright, House Gyalz

A woman with an asymmetrical hairstyle, hoop earrings, and bright pink lipstick smiles at the camera, wearing a light pink top in a warmly lit indoor setting.

Lili-Anne Brown

Director, House Gyalz

A middle-aged man with gray hair and facial hair, wearing a dark blazer, light shirt, and black tie.

Qui Nguyen

Playwright, Bruceploitation

Woman with long black hair and a yellow top looks directly at the camera, wearing layered necklaces and subtle makeup, against a neutral background.

May Adrales

Director, Bruceploitation

A woman with long, brown dreadlocks smiles widely at the camera. She is wearing a colorful top and large earrings, with a blurred gray background.

Lachrisa Grandberry

Playwright, Black-Eyed Peas and Collard Greens

A woman with short, curly dark hair wearing a black sleeveless top stands against a plain light background, looking directly at the camera.

J. Nicole Brooks

Director, Black-Eyed Peas and Collard Greens

A man with glasses and a cap smiles at the camera at night. He is wearing a brown jacket over a patterned shirt. The background is dark with blurred lights.

William Glick

Playwright, The Last Time We Saw Them

A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes wears a dark blue top and smiles slightly at the camera. The background is blurred and dark.

Jessica Fisch

Director, The Last time We Saw Them