Second Stage Theater will present its second annual Next Stage Festival later this winter.

Consisting of four distinct programs dedicated to supporting early career playwrights, the festival was launched last year with the production of Kate Douglas’ play, The Apiary, formalizing Second Stage Theater’s artistic pipeline.

“Last year’s inaugural Next Stage Festival was a resounding success, with the world premiere play, The Apiary, receiving an acclaimed, extended run, as well as three sold out one-night-only play presentations and a fourth for the musical Eighty-Sixed,” said Interim Artistic Director Bennett Leak. “We are especially excited to have one of the plays from last year’s Judith Champion Reading Series—On the Evolutionary Function of Shame—be this year’s centerpiece Festival Production, illustrating Second Stage’s ongoing development of new American plays and playwrights. We look forward to welcoming our audiences to the Next Stage Festival this winter for what promises to be another invigorating, thought-provoking slate of new works from the next generation of theatre artists.”

The festival provides support at crucial early moments in a playwright’s development, uplifting writers with partial drafts through to early career playwrights ready for their New York debuts.

Beginning January 27, 2024, the festival will kick off with The Nancy Denovan Musical Reading, a one-night-only reading of the new musical, Inside Voices, with music and lyrics by Ross Golan and a book written by Golan and co-written by Danielle Koenig, directed by Michael Mayer.

The Festival’s centerpiece, however, will be the fully staged, world premiere production of D.A. Mindell’s play, On the Evolutionary Function of Shame, directed by Jess McLeod, running on The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center. On the Evolutionary Function of Shame will receive a full production, running from February 12, 2025 to March 9, 2025, officially opening February 26, 2025.

Judith Champion Reading Series will feature three new plays developed over a week of rehearsal with experienced directors, actors, and designers. Each play will receive a one-night-only presentation on The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center. The 2025 plays are Keiko Green’s You are Cordially Invited to the End of the World!, directed by Zhailon Levingston; Jay Stull’s The Singularity Play, directed by Keenan Tyler Oliphant; and Aurora Real de Asua’s Wipeout.

The festival will also include the Lark Playwrights Workshop, which will continue under the auspices of Second Stage Theater. Five playwrights will be mentored by David Henry Hwang, Rajiv Joseph, and May Adrales. The six private sessions that comprise this program occur every 2-3 weeks beginning March 31, 2025.

Casting for all events, as well as additional creative team members, will be announced at a later date.

The Next Stage Festival is made possible in part by the New American Voices Fund, which was established in 2016 by a lead gift from David Stone.