The New Harmony Project has unveiled a bold new structure for its signature new works initiative – PlayFest Indy. What launched in 2024 as a week-long celebration will now evolve into a season-long series of world-class play development experiences in 2025-26, positioning Indianapolis as a national hub for groundbreaking theatrical storytelling.
The new initiative is being labeled “A Season of Stories, A City of Stages.”
Throughout the upcoming season, five of America’s most dynamic playwrights will collaborate with five leading Indianapolis theater companies to bring brand new plays to life. Each development week will culminate in public, concert-style readings that invite audiences to engage directly with the playwrights and their evolving work.
“Developing a new play takes time, trust, and deep creative partnership,” said Jenni Werner, executive artistic director of The New Harmony Project, headquartered in the Athenaeum. “This new structure allows us to give each story the space it deserves, while reinforcing Indianapolis as a destination for new plays. If you want to see the next great American play, come to Indianapolis, where we are building the future of the American theater.”
2025-2026 artistic partner theaters include:
- American Lives Theatre
- Indiana Repertory Theatre
- Indianapolis Shakespeare Company
- Phoenix Theatre
- Summit Performance Indianapolis
Each partner theatre has selected a playwright from the New Harmony Project’s alumni network whose voice and work aligns with that theatre’s mission and artistic vision. Over a four-day rehearsal period, playwrights will collaborate with directors, dramaturgs, and actors to refine their scripts, followed by a public reading and optional post-show discussion. All readings are free and open to the public (reservations required at www.newharmonyproject.org/pfi) and will include American Sign Language interpretation.
As a highlight of the season, NHP will co-produce with American Lives Theatre the world premiere of WAD by Keiko Green, developed in 2024’s PlayFest Indy. In this darkly funny and emotionally charged drama, a whip-smart young woman forms a pen-pal relationship with a man on death row, a seemingly innocent connection that spirals into a gripping power struggle. Performances run Sept. 11–28.
2025–2026 PLAYFEST INDY SEASON SCHEDULE
* Sept. 12. One Party Consent by Abbas Salem, at Athenaeum Auditorium. Artistic partner: American Lives Theatre.
Synopsis: Trust is tricky. One Party Consent follows Fola, a non-binary MFA directing student of color, who secretly records a volatile meeting with their white dean – only to face unexpected consequences. The story explores equitable representation in academia, power, privacy, and allyship through a sharply contemporary queer lens.
About the playwright: Omer Abbas Salem is a Chicago-based actor and playwright whose work has been developed or produced by Steppenwolf, Goodman Theatre, Jackalope, About Face, and more. His play Mosque4Mosque premiered at About Face in 2022, and Happy Days are Here (Again) was named one of Chicago Tribune’s Top 10 Plays of 2024. He’s the recipient of the 3Arts Award, the Cunningham Commission, and First Floor Theatre’s Blueprint Commission. Current commissions include new works for Steppenwolf, Audible Theater, and Goodman Theatre’s New Stages. He is represented by Gray Talent and is an ensemble member with Steep, Jackalope, and First Floor.
* Nov. 8. Hireath, or when Pluto was a planet by Jayne Deely, at Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre. Artistic partner: Summit Performance Indianapolis.
Synopsis: Kap is reluctantly back in Queens for Sam’s wedding — but tying the knot isn’t the only thing on Sam’s checklist. With friends Ish and Mel along for the ride, the crew dives headfirst into a weekend of ’90s throwbacks, childhood flashbacks, and a few emotional landmines. But as old wounds resurface and one very unexpected guest shows up, their nostalgic trip down memory lane takes a sharp left turn.
About the playwright: Jayne Deely is a Queens-born, Puerto Rican, queer playwright and performer. An MFA graduate in playwriting from Indiana University Bloomington, Deely’s work includes I never asked for a gofundme, Walter Mercado Presents: A Queer Puerto Rican (Not Just) Christmxs Spectacular, unqle play, and 30 Seconds. The plays have been developed with the New Harmony Project, Breaking the Binary, Fresh Ground Pepper, American Stage, Seattle Public Theatre, and others. As a performer, they’ve worked with BRAVA, Berkeley Rep, Aurora Theatre, and TheatreWorks. Deely is a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and the Dramatists Guild, and is based in New York City.
* Jan. 9. SaFronia’s Daughter by India Nicole Burton, at Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre.
Artistic partner: Phoenix Theatre.
Synopsis: On a Louisiana plantation in 1890, a family’s secret magic simmers just beneath the surface. SaFronia’s Daughter follows Bee, a young Black woman trying to protect her family’s supernatural legacy while working as a sharecropper for the white Rufus family. Her queer brother Jinx can see the dead – and when he calls their mother SaFronia back from beyond, long-buried truths come to light. Tensions explode when their brother Fool Boy’s affair with the plantation’s mistress, Madam Edwina, threatens to upend everything. The play is part one of a magical trilogy tracing a Black family born out of the Middle Passage.
About the playwright: India Nicole Burton is a Chicago-based director, playwright, devisor and producer originally from Akron, Ohio. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Nebraska–Omaha and a BA in theater arts from the University of Akron. A two-time National New Play Network producer in residence and 2021 NNPN Bridge Program grantee, she also received an NNPN Rolling World Premiere for her acclaimed choreopoem Panther Women: An Army for the Liberation. Burton is a part of the 24’-25’ Theatre Communications Rising Leaders Color Cohort, a Drama League Award nominee (ensemble, American Dreams), and Assistant Professor at Chicago State University Communications, Media Arts & Theatre Department.
* March 23. this is a face by J.C. Pankratz, at Indiana Repertory Theatre. Artistic partner: Indiana Repertory Theatre.
Synopsis: B is a potter chasing perfection – until a partner, K, asks for something extraordinary: a new face. What begins as an artistic challenge becomes a deeply personal journey of identity, transformation and love. As the clay takes shape, so does a reimagining of how we see ourselves and each other in this tender, surreal queer love story.
About the playwright: J.C. Pankratz is a trans and queer writer making plays about the body, power and the more-than-human world. Pankratz’s plays are this is a face (rinalist, O’Neill Playwrights Conference), Mortals (Pridefest at The Tank), Eat Your Young (INK’D Festival; Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), and Seahorse (2021 FMM Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language). Pankratz has been a core apprentice with the Playwrights’ Center, a Writing Fellow with the Playwrights Realm, and a Visionary Playwright with Theatremasters. Pankratz is a proud member of Theatreworkers for a Ceasefire and joins culture workers across the globe in demanding liberation for Palestine.
* April 17. “I” is for Invisible by DeLanna Studi, at Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre. Artistic partner: Indianapolis Shakespeare Company
“I” is for Invisible follows one family’s desperate search for a loved one amid the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Facing indifferent law enforcement and a system stacked against them, the family members confront grief, hope, and the harsh reality of injustice. This mysterious thriller blends the demand for visibility, justice, and healing with a powerful personal story.
About the playwright: DeLanna Studi is a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation and an award-winning performer, playwright and advocate with over 25 years of experience. Her acclaimed solo play And So We Walked has toured nationally and internationally, including an off-Broadway run at Minetta Lane Theatre and a recording for Audible. She has originated roles in more than 20 world premieres, including 14 Native productions. Stage credits include August: Osage County (national tour), Gloria: A Life (off-Broadway), and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Studi is artistic director of Native Voices and chairs SAG-AFTRA’s National Native Americans Committee.
ABOUT THE NEW HARMONY PROJECT
The New Harmony Project is Indiana’s premiere organization for developing new plays and screenplays; a nationally respected incubator for stories that center hope, equity, and imagination. Since 1986, NHP has supported hundreds of writers whose work has gone on to Broadway, film, television, streaming, and regional theatres across the country. NHP’s mission is to nurture writers in the development of scripts and new works that interrogate the complexity of hope.
Guided by anti-oppressive values, NHP has long prioritized uplifting BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and parent artists, offering holistic support that includes not just dramaturgy, but wellness, community, and long-term creative partnerships.
Alumni include Rajiv Joseph, Dael Orlandersmith, Keiko Green, Brian Quijada, Robert Schenkkan, Vichet Chum, Ngozi Anyanwu, Danny Strong, Anna Ziegler, Meredith Stiehm, Matt Williams, Angelo Pizzo, and nearly 200 more.
The New Harmony Project’s programming is made possible through generous support from The White Oak Foundation/John and Sarah Lechleiter, The Lilly Endowment, Allan Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, Robert Lee Blaffer Foundation, Indy Arts Council, Efroymson Foundation, Mary S. Mulligan Charitable Trust, Nicholas H. Noyes Jr. Family Foundation, Penrod Society, Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Foundation, and The New Harmony Project’s dedicated community of donors. Citizens Energy Group returns as 2025 Incubation Sponsor for PlayFest Indy, and Taft/ returns as an Inspiration Sponsor.
