Kayenta New Play Lab 2026

Kayenta New Play Lab 2026

Ten days of staged readings of new work at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta, each followed by a guided talkback with the playwright, director, and cast. Four plays in the 2026 lab:

• The Franklin Event (August 14–15) — Benjamin Franklin materialises in the present day as part of a theatrical parlor show, and debates modern life and his own legacy with the historian hosting him.

• If the Creek Don't Rise (August 15–16) — a drama and science-fiction piece set in the rural South, following two women fighting to survive in a post-civil-war America.

• Wound Care (August 21–22) — a woman works to claim reparation funding from the State of California for women like her estranged mother, victims of forced sterilisation programs.

• UNTITLED Plantation Wedding Play (August 22–23) — a destination wedding at a former plantation forces two lifelong friends to confront history, privilege, and identity.

• Curtain: 7:30 p.m.

• Where: Center for the Arts at Kayenta, 881 Coyote Gulch Court, Ivins

Staged readings are the stage at which a new play is still being rewritten, and the talkbacks are part of that process rather than an add-on.