New Stages Festival at Goodman Theatre
Guided by Artistic Director Susan V. Booth and Director of New Works Kat Zukaitis, New Stages continues its long-running mission to give artists room to experiment while inviting audiences into the creative process. Each of the four plays—This Part of His Life Blooms by Christina Anderson, The Audience Unseen by Ike Holter, Pennies by Hansol Jung and FEAST! by Calamity West—receives two public readings in the intimate 350-seat Owen Theatre. The festival format allows playwrights, directors and actors to test-drive new material in front of an audience, then refine the work between presentations as they move closer to full production.Calamity West’s FEAST! kicks off the festival with a jet-black comedy of excess and entitlement. When Carol is fired from her job, she and her husband Michael are left holding the bill for a lavish holiday dinner they can no longer afford—but instead of canceling, they decide to go ahead and host a banquet for guests who never arrive. As the evening unravels, polite small talk gives way to bitter truths about wealth, status and the high price of staying in the room where decisions are made. West, an award-winning playwright and educator with a national profile and deep Chicago ties, uses this pressure-cooker setup to examine who gets to “belong” and what happens when the facade of success cracks.
In Pennies, Hansol Jung sends audiences on a time-bending journey that moves from a call center to the shores of the River Styx and into a distant future. At its center is a burned-out counselor whose uncanny ability to shoulder other people’s pain has finally become too much. When she vanishes into a motel that seems to exist outside of time, she’s forced to negotiate with Charon, the mythic ferryman of the dead, in a strange, lyrical bargain about what one life is worth. Known for works such as Wolf Play and Wild Goose Dreams, Jung blends myth, humor and heartbreak in an expansive meditation on grief, guilt and how to keep feeling in a world that keeps insisting we toughen up.
Christina Anderson’s This Part of His Life Blooms offers a more intimate, earthbound transformation story. On the night of his retirement, Arthur Beverly James finds himself alone, haunted by a lifetime of complicated love and unresolved relationships. Instead of celebrating, he wanders into the neglected yard he’s ignored for years and begins to plant. As he digs, remembers and reimagines, the garden becomes a living archive of old friendships, fatherhood, missed chances and quiet ghosts that have followed him for decades. Anderson, whose work has been seen at Goodman and major theaters across the country, crafts a gently powerful piece in which mourning and growth coexist, and tending the soil becomes a metaphor for finally tending one’s own heart.
Things turn darker and more suspenseful in Ike Holter’s The Audience Unseen, a real-time thriller that unfolds inside a harshly lit interrogation room. A federal agent presses an unassuming grocery clerk to “see” something no one else can—a strange, almost supernatural capacity that quickly pushes their conversation past standard questioning and into dangerous territory. As power shifts and reality blurs, the play asks what it costs to venture into darkness, and who pays that price. A major Chicago voice whose work includes the acclaimed Rightlynd Saga and the Goodman premieres Lottery Day and I Hate It Here, Holter brings his signature mix of urgency, wit and genre-bending surprise to this new piece.
New Stages is not only a haven for audiences eager to discover what’s next—it’s also a crucial pipeline for Goodman’s future seasons. Since the festival began in 2004, more than 125 plays have received developmental productions and readings, with many going on to full productions in Chicago and beyond. Goodman’s Centennial 25/26 Season will feature three works that first appeared in New Stages readings: Lee Kirk’s Ashland Avenue; Revolution(s) by Zayd Ayers Dohrn and Tom Morello; and Marco Antonio Rodriguez’s English adaptation of Junot Díaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, running February 21 – April 5, 2026. The festival has become a place where adventurous theatregoers can say, “I saw it here first.”
Theatre industry professionals are invited to immerse themselves even more deeply during Professionals Weekend, January 16–18. The three-day gathering includes special events, networking opportunities and the launch of the Dramatists Exchange initiative, which brings together Chicago playwrights for workshops and conversations with New Stages artists and Goodman’s artistic staff. It’s designed to strengthen the local new-play ecosystem by connecting writers, producers and artistic leaders in the same room.
Admission to the 2026 New Stages Festival is free, with tickets available beginning December 15 at the Goodman Theatre Box Office (170 N. Dearborn), by phone at 312-443-3800 or online at GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival. Theater professionals interested in attending Professionals Weekend are encouraged to RSVP by December 19 at GoodmanTheatre.org/ProfessionalsWeekend. For Chicago audiences hungry for what’s coming next on the American stage, New Stages offers a rare chance to experience tomorrow’s plays today—without spending a dime.