Tickets are now on sale for the Northampton Playwrights Lab’s 2026 Play By Play Festival
(In celebration of the Lab’s 20th Anniversary)
April 23-26, 2026
The Workroom, 33 Hawley Street, Northampton
Thursday, April 23 at 7:30pm – My Inferno by Harley Erdman
Friday, April 24 at 8pm – Another True Thing by Meryl Cohn
Saturday, April 25 at 2pm – Vashti Says No! by Talya Kingston
Saturday, April 25 at 8pm – Dig by Peter Kennedy
Sunday, April 26 at 2pm (double feature) – The In Between by Leanna James Blackwell & Earworm by Stephanie Carlson
The Northampton Playwrights Lab, founded by Meryl Cohn, is a developmental workshop and creative laboratory for professional playwrights that has been meeting in Northampton,Massachusetts for twenty years. We are celebrating our anniversary this April with the 2026 Play by Play Festival, featuring readings of brand new works by member playwrights. The plays that will be brought to life through the voices of around 25 local actors are all different in style and will in turn transport us to: a purgatorial state on the streets of Manhattan, a collaborative storytelling workshop, the backstage of a beauty pageant, a small desert town in southwestern Colorado, a park in the afterlife, and a family home for the holidays.
Through each reading, we invite you into our imaginations and our process of these developing works. “There’s no substitute for hearing a laugh in real time, or feeling thesilence that comes after a line that resonates. Or what you learn when a line just doesn’t work,” states founder Meryl Cohn, whose latest work, Another True Thing, will be featured in the Festival. “It’s the audience response and interaction that makes work come to life. Our Play by Play Festival is also a wonderful and affordable way for community members to see new plays.”
This is the 5th Play by Play Festival, the first one being in 2015. Playwright Peter Kennedy, whose play, Dig, will be featured at the festival, explains that: “Play by Play is always exciting to me because it’s an opportunity to get my characters off the page and on to the stage. Playwrights exist in a vacuum for so much of the creative process, and we need the energy and momentum of a live audience to see what’s working and what’s still rough around the edges. The Northampton Playwrights Lab is an amazing cross section of local. artists with different styles and viewpoints, and the festival is a great window into the creative process for our area theatre-lovers.”
The 2026 festival will take place at The Workroom, 33 Hawley Street, Northampton. Tickets are NOW ON SALE HERE online (audience members are encouraged to book ahead of time as our festival readings often sell out). Seating will be on a first come, first-served basis. Early arrival is recommended.
PLAY SYNOPSES
My Inferno by Harley Erdman (Thursday, April 23 at 7:30pm)
A simple evening stroll through the streets of Manhattan takes a turn for the worse as Dante encounters various circles of hell, past, present, and future. Join us for a surreal and surprising romp through worlds both strange and familiar.
Another True Thing by Meryl Cohn (Friday, April 24 at 8pm)
A provocative writing instructor pushes a small group of aspiring storytellers to tell the stories they’re most afraid to tell. When they share more than they intend, revealing truth in front of strangers becomes scary, liberating, awkward, and sometimes volatile. As boundaries dissolve and intimacy deepens, the group confronts how unsettling—and sometimes transformative—it is to be seen.
Vashti Says No! by Talya Kingston (Saturday, April 25 at 2pm)
Stepping out of the Hebrew bible and into our modern time, Queen Esther takes us to a world of privilege and silence. When one woman speaks out against injustice, will she dare risk banishment or death to become the heroine of her own story?
Dig by Peter Kennedy (Saturday, April 25 at 8pm)
In a small desert town in southwestern Colorado, the death of archaeologist Sandy Adelfan is a catalyst for friends and family to begin excavating their own tangled pasts. As secrets are dug up, reality begins to deteriorate and trusted relationships erode.
The In Between by Leanna James Blackwell (Sunday, April 26 at 2pm)
Three people meet in a public park in the afterlife. Who are they and why are they there? In
this short comic drama, the way to find answers is mysterious and unexpected – and so is the way out.
Earworm by Stephanie Carlson (Sunday, April 26 at 2pm)
A struggling songwriter decides to write a tacky holiday song and discovers the joys and pitfalls of getting what you wish for
2026 Northampton Playwrights Lab members are: Betel Arnold, Stephanie Carlson, Meryl Cohn, Leanna James Blackwell, Peter Kennedy, Talya Kingston & Tanyss Martula.
For more information about the Northampton Playwrights Lab and for tickets to the festival: www.northamptonplaywrights.com