NYCPlaywrights April 11, 2026
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NYCPlaywrights
Apr 11, 2026, 5:03:40 PM (7 days ago) Apr 11
to NYCPlaywrights
Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
MAGIC CUBE - HubArt Theater Performance
They say friends are the family we choose—and perhaps that’s why the truest friendships stay with us through every chapter of life. From childhood pranks to life’s biggest turning points—moving away, love, loss, marriage, parenthood—they are the ones who stand beside us, offering support, laughter, and understanding.
But what makes a friendship truly enduring? And how do these bonds evolve over time?
In “Magic Cube,” the HubArt Theatre Company brings to life the story of six childhood friends, tracing the intricate, ever-changing patterns of their relationships across the years. Through humor, nostalgia, and heartfelt moments, the performance invites us to reflect on the connections that shape who we are.
Tuesday, May 26 • 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
By Liszt Institute New York
Hungarian House New York, NY
213 East 82nd Street
New York, NY 10028
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/magic-cube-hubart-theater-performance-tickets-1985752762969?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
*** SHANGRI-LA-LA ***
Shangri-La-La is a funny and unconventional new comedy musical inspired by the true story of Siegfried & Roy and the transformation of Las Vegas into a spectacle-driven family destination. Blending original music, magic, comedy, and a boldly theatrical visual world, the piece examines the delusion, ambition, and excess behind that cultural reinvention. Beneath its sequins and absurdity, the musical tells a real American story about illusion, image-making, and the business of fantasy.
The show will appear in New York City in April as part of the Back Door to Broadway Festival:
Shangri-La-La
Sunday, April 19, 2026 at 3:00 PM
American Theatre of Actors, Sargent Theatre
314 W. 54th Street, New York, NY 10019
https://hangingcowproductions.com/index.php/2025-one-act-festival/
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
29th Annual Festival of Originals
The TSW-FOO is FREE to enter and will once again be calling for short one act (20 minute) plays in any and all genres from all over the country and the world.
Each playwright may submit up to 2 plays for consideration.
All entries should be unpublished and not previously produced in the Houston area.
All Genres are accepted. But Light comedies are encouraged.
***
Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights 2026
Plays must be written by an Appalachian playwright (currently living in a state that contains the Appalachian Mountain Range— which, for our purposes, run from New York to Alabama.)
OR
The plays must be set in the Appalachian region.
Plays must be unpublished and must not have had a full professional production.
Plays must be full length.
***
2026 Play Reading Series at The Actors Theatre Workshop
The Actors Theatre Workshop in NYC is accepting submissions of original plays for our curated Spring 2026 Play Reading and Discussion Series this April – June.
The theme is Finding Hope Through Darkness.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** THEATER VS A. I. ***
In a world where artificial intelligence (AI) can generate music, art and entire videos in seconds, it is becoming easier to stay home and scroll. But no AI-generated video can build the same sensation, presence and energy a live performance can.
Many of us rely on AI to help make sense of academic studies or to get straightforward answers to basic questions.
Coming from a bilingual background, I value developments that improve communication across different communities.
As a journalist, I rely on AI-powered applications like Otter.ai to transcribe my interviews and establish timeliness and accuracy. Google is now using its AI model, Gemini, to improve text and live speech translation, according to The Keyword.
AI has developed beyond a simple search tool and is increasingly used for content creation, animation and advertising. Personalized algorithms determine how content is distributed and consumed.
While AI can simulate creativity through code, a dancer’s movement, a musician’s vocals and an actor’s pause between lines are uncoded creative human moments that cannot be replicated.
More...
https://pepperdine-graphic.com/opinion-performing-arts-will-save-us-from-the-numbing-of-ai/
***
The theater in front of us now is grappling with the bizarre challenge of a culture increasingly socially atomized and screen-dazzled. Or is theater actually the cure for those things? I worry less about artificial intelligence than my friends who work in film might, since theater requires bodies, in a place, outside the algorithm. I think the theater, and really all the in-person arts, are on the cusp of a great surge: Live performance comes already prepared for people who are desperate for contact, reality, mess, exchange. Theater is also irreducible, basically unfilmable and relatively unTikTokable.
More...
https://archive.ph/sz5Wf
***
But theatre? Sitting with other humans, watching yet more humans grapple with what it is to be human? There’s no mistaking that. Yes, the whole thing’s make-believe, but at least the artifice is out in the open. And everything else is as real as it gets, which is exactly what many of us are after.
There’s the real human connection that comes from a shared experience (no AI companions here); real points of view instead of assertions Frankensteined from every thought on the internet; real mistakes to whip Instagram’s veil of perfection from our eyes; and real variety between performances. And, of course, there are real emotions – on stage and in the audience.
More...
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/sep/12/the-guide-uk-theatre-ai
***
If we cease to honor theatre’s creative process and its foundation in humanity, we will lose the moral compass of our art form.
In 2025, Anthropic settled a landmark AI copyright infringement lawsuit that required the company to compensate authors from whom it illegally mined material.
As we collectively stumble forward, we must hold each other up. We must continue to protect the work and the people who do it.
Writers must be given the opportunity to consent to their work being fed into AI.
The speed at which technology is adapting and being widely adopted has eclipsed the protections we have for the creators who are the lifeblood of our field, and we must do something about it.
More...
https://howlround.com/piece-may-not-be-fed-any-llm-or-other-ai-software-any-reason-whatsoever
***
We’ve been here before. Many times.
– The printing press was supposed to wipe out live storytelling. It didn’t.
– Radio and wireless were said to mean the end of concerts and theatre. Instead, they opened doors for new audiences.
– Television and film were meant to finish off the stage. Yet the stage still flourishes, because nothing compares to being there, live.
– Even streaming was meant to empty cinemas. And still, people queue round the block for the big stories.
Every time, the “end” never came. Instead, each new invention nudged us to adapt, reimagine, and grow.
Soft Skills: The Biggest Employable Commodity (Inside And Outside The Industry)
Acting is, at its core, intrinsically human. It thrives on presence, vulnerability, and connection — the very things that distinguish us from machines.
Acting demands empathy, active listening, spontaneity and creativity, and emotional connection. These qualities are so hard to fake — when we spot a flash of the false, we call it out instantly as bad acting. This is why we always drone on about acting being about truth, not disguise or pretending.
And here’s the thing: if we can spot poor human connection in actual humans and call it “bad acting,” surely we’ll spot it even more in a machine-generated “truth.” Because nothing can be truth without the inner emotional and mental connections of a human being behind it.
It makes me think: even the simplest “I’m not a robot” captchas rely on cues that computers can’t quite grasp. As AI advances, the things that prove we’re human will only become more valuable.
More...
https://www.thehuntacademy.co.uk/failing-up-for-4000-years-why-ai-wont-kill-the-performing-arts/
***
Few things are more evidently, viscerally human than live performance, where physicality, art and emotion combine for an experience that is unlike any other. Think of a symphony orchestra: each player contributes not only technical skill but their own unique life experience, while the conductor shapes the whole with their personal vision and presence. In ballet, dancers interpret the music, story and choreography through movement that bears the imprint of their individual physique and style.
The performing arts tell stories about the human condition, conveyed through human bodies that themselves become part of the score. This is what audiences crave — and will crave even more as AI increasingly permeates our everyday lives. What moves us is not only the art itself, but the shared humanity behind it: a living person, with their own history and emotions, interpreting choreography, text, or a musical score in a way we can deeply relate to.
More...
https://medium.com/music-for-thought/ai-wont-kill-live-performance-it-might-save-it-6cdafdf0fa2b
***
Maybe AI will one day help us cure cancer. Maybe AI will find Planet 9. Maybe AI will simply help us figure out where we put our keys—did I leave them at work? That all sounds great. And when those things happen, we will line up to thank the humans who created the AI that solved those problems. But we do believe there are places in our world where AI does not belong. We simply do not need AI to create our art—not any part of it. We don’t need AI to create paintings, we don’t need AI to write songs, and we absolutely do not need AI to write our plays.
The fact is there will be people (we won’t call them playwrights) who will want to use AI as a shortcut to creating a play. There will be companies who are tempted to use AI to create plays and cut out playwrights altogether. However, we know that teachers, directors, producers, and actors want quality work. And we know that AI won’t ever be able to replicate the depths of human expression. Nothing it writes can mean anything, it can only replicate the appearance of meaning. As play publishers and playwrights, we do not feel threatened by AI. But from a moral standpoint, we feel that AI-generated “art” devalues the human experience in the interest of profit. When we allow AI to create art, art is reduced to content, and content is meant for nothing more than to be bought and sold.
More...
https://www.yourstagepartners.com/blog/post/the-case-against-ai-generated-plays
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
MAGIC CUBE - HubArt Theater Performance
They say friends are the family we choose—and perhaps that’s why the truest friendships stay with us through every chapter of life. From childhood pranks to life’s biggest turning points—moving away, love, loss, marriage, parenthood—they are the ones who stand beside us, offering support, laughter, and understanding.
But what makes a friendship truly enduring? And how do these bonds evolve over time?
In “Magic Cube,” the HubArt Theatre Company brings to life the story of six childhood friends, tracing the intricate, ever-changing patterns of their relationships across the years. Through humor, nostalgia, and heartfelt moments, the performance invites us to reflect on the connections that shape who we are.
Tuesday, May 26 • 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
By Liszt Institute New York
Hungarian House New York, NY
213 East 82nd Street
New York, NY 10028
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/magic-cube-hubart-theater-performance-tickets-1985752762969?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
*** SHANGRI-LA-LA ***
Shangri-La-La is a funny and unconventional new comedy musical inspired by the true story of Siegfried & Roy and the transformation of Las Vegas into a spectacle-driven family destination. Blending original music, magic, comedy, and a boldly theatrical visual world, the piece examines the delusion, ambition, and excess behind that cultural reinvention. Beneath its sequins and absurdity, the musical tells a real American story about illusion, image-making, and the business of fantasy.
The show will appear in New York City in April as part of the Back Door to Broadway Festival:
Shangri-La-La
Sunday, April 19, 2026 at 3:00 PM
American Theatre of Actors, Sargent Theatre
314 W. 54th Street, New York, NY 10019
https://hangingcowproductions.com/index.php/2025-one-act-festival/
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
29th Annual Festival of Originals
The TSW-FOO is FREE to enter and will once again be calling for short one act (20 minute) plays in any and all genres from all over the country and the world.
Each playwright may submit up to 2 plays for consideration.
All entries should be unpublished and not previously produced in the Houston area.
All Genres are accepted. But Light comedies are encouraged.
***
Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights 2026
Plays must be written by an Appalachian playwright (currently living in a state that contains the Appalachian Mountain Range— which, for our purposes, run from New York to Alabama.)
OR
The plays must be set in the Appalachian region.
Plays must be unpublished and must not have had a full professional production.
Plays must be full length.
***
2026 Play Reading Series at The Actors Theatre Workshop
The Actors Theatre Workshop in NYC is accepting submissions of original plays for our curated Spring 2026 Play Reading and Discussion Series this April – June.
The theme is Finding Hope Through Darkness.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** THEATER VS A. I. ***
In a world where artificial intelligence (AI) can generate music, art and entire videos in seconds, it is becoming easier to stay home and scroll. But no AI-generated video can build the same sensation, presence and energy a live performance can.
Many of us rely on AI to help make sense of academic studies or to get straightforward answers to basic questions.
Coming from a bilingual background, I value developments that improve communication across different communities.
As a journalist, I rely on AI-powered applications like Otter.ai to transcribe my interviews and establish timeliness and accuracy. Google is now using its AI model, Gemini, to improve text and live speech translation, according to The Keyword.
AI has developed beyond a simple search tool and is increasingly used for content creation, animation and advertising. Personalized algorithms determine how content is distributed and consumed.
While AI can simulate creativity through code, a dancer’s movement, a musician’s vocals and an actor’s pause between lines are uncoded creative human moments that cannot be replicated.
More...
https://pepperdine-graphic.com/opinion-performing-arts-will-save-us-from-the-numbing-of-ai/
***
The theater in front of us now is grappling with the bizarre challenge of a culture increasingly socially atomized and screen-dazzled. Or is theater actually the cure for those things? I worry less about artificial intelligence than my friends who work in film might, since theater requires bodies, in a place, outside the algorithm. I think the theater, and really all the in-person arts, are on the cusp of a great surge: Live performance comes already prepared for people who are desperate for contact, reality, mess, exchange. Theater is also irreducible, basically unfilmable and relatively unTikTokable.
More...
https://archive.ph/sz5Wf
***
But theatre? Sitting with other humans, watching yet more humans grapple with what it is to be human? There’s no mistaking that. Yes, the whole thing’s make-believe, but at least the artifice is out in the open. And everything else is as real as it gets, which is exactly what many of us are after.
There’s the real human connection that comes from a shared experience (no AI companions here); real points of view instead of assertions Frankensteined from every thought on the internet; real mistakes to whip Instagram’s veil of perfection from our eyes; and real variety between performances. And, of course, there are real emotions – on stage and in the audience.
More...
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/sep/12/the-guide-uk-theatre-ai
***
If we cease to honor theatre’s creative process and its foundation in humanity, we will lose the moral compass of our art form.
In 2025, Anthropic settled a landmark AI copyright infringement lawsuit that required the company to compensate authors from whom it illegally mined material.
As we collectively stumble forward, we must hold each other up. We must continue to protect the work and the people who do it.
Writers must be given the opportunity to consent to their work being fed into AI.
The speed at which technology is adapting and being widely adopted has eclipsed the protections we have for the creators who are the lifeblood of our field, and we must do something about it.
More...
https://howlround.com/piece-may-not-be-fed-any-llm-or-other-ai-software-any-reason-whatsoever
***
We’ve been here before. Many times.
– The printing press was supposed to wipe out live storytelling. It didn’t.
– Radio and wireless were said to mean the end of concerts and theatre. Instead, they opened doors for new audiences.
– Television and film were meant to finish off the stage. Yet the stage still flourishes, because nothing compares to being there, live.
– Even streaming was meant to empty cinemas. And still, people queue round the block for the big stories.
Every time, the “end” never came. Instead, each new invention nudged us to adapt, reimagine, and grow.
Soft Skills: The Biggest Employable Commodity (Inside And Outside The Industry)
Acting is, at its core, intrinsically human. It thrives on presence, vulnerability, and connection — the very things that distinguish us from machines.
Acting demands empathy, active listening, spontaneity and creativity, and emotional connection. These qualities are so hard to fake — when we spot a flash of the false, we call it out instantly as bad acting. This is why we always drone on about acting being about truth, not disguise or pretending.
And here’s the thing: if we can spot poor human connection in actual humans and call it “bad acting,” surely we’ll spot it even more in a machine-generated “truth.” Because nothing can be truth without the inner emotional and mental connections of a human being behind it.
It makes me think: even the simplest “I’m not a robot” captchas rely on cues that computers can’t quite grasp. As AI advances, the things that prove we’re human will only become more valuable.
More...
https://www.thehuntacademy.co.uk/failing-up-for-4000-years-why-ai-wont-kill-the-performing-arts/
***
Few things are more evidently, viscerally human than live performance, where physicality, art and emotion combine for an experience that is unlike any other. Think of a symphony orchestra: each player contributes not only technical skill but their own unique life experience, while the conductor shapes the whole with their personal vision and presence. In ballet, dancers interpret the music, story and choreography through movement that bears the imprint of their individual physique and style.
The performing arts tell stories about the human condition, conveyed through human bodies that themselves become part of the score. This is what audiences crave — and will crave even more as AI increasingly permeates our everyday lives. What moves us is not only the art itself, but the shared humanity behind it: a living person, with their own history and emotions, interpreting choreography, text, or a musical score in a way we can deeply relate to.
More...
https://medium.com/music-for-thought/ai-wont-kill-live-performance-it-might-save-it-6cdafdf0fa2b
***
Maybe AI will one day help us cure cancer. Maybe AI will find Planet 9. Maybe AI will simply help us figure out where we put our keys—did I leave them at work? That all sounds great. And when those things happen, we will line up to thank the humans who created the AI that solved those problems. But we do believe there are places in our world where AI does not belong. We simply do not need AI to create our art—not any part of it. We don’t need AI to create paintings, we don’t need AI to write songs, and we absolutely do not need AI to write our plays.
The fact is there will be people (we won’t call them playwrights) who will want to use AI as a shortcut to creating a play. There will be companies who are tempted to use AI to create plays and cut out playwrights altogether. However, we know that teachers, directors, producers, and actors want quality work. And we know that AI won’t ever be able to replicate the depths of human expression. Nothing it writes can mean anything, it can only replicate the appearance of meaning. As play publishers and playwrights, we do not feel threatened by AI. But from a moral standpoint, we feel that AI-generated “art” devalues the human experience in the interest of profit. When we allow AI to create art, art is reduced to content, and content is meant for nothing more than to be bought and sold.
More...
https://www.yourstagepartners.com/blog/post/the-case-against-ai-generated-plays
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