Company in the News October 2026

See what PlayGround-NY Writers and Company Members are up to this month including: Zee Bendici, Julia Brothers, Tia Cassmira, Dana Leslie Goldstein, Anthony T Goss, Brynn Hambley, Karl Hawkins Jr, Austin Ku, Amanda Ng, Jacob Marx Rice, Kathryn Ryan,  Henrietta Steventon, and Vermilion Theater!

Jacob Marx Rice’s play A Thousand Natural Shocks (developed by PlayGround!) is having a production in New York, and will be playing October 2–10, 2026 at The Secret Theatre 10-10 44th Ave, Long Island City. Kennedy is doing okay. She’s got her depression under control, a good job, and a loving wife, Laurel. They’ve even decided to have a baby. But when the couple slams headfirst into the unforgiving world of IVF, they must navigate the chaos of creating life, the inevitability of pain, and the TikTok teen crashing on their couch. Written by Queens-based playwright Jacob Marx Rice, whose work has been produced in over fifteen cities across three continents and honored by the Kennedy Center, the O’Neill, and the Black List, A Thousand Natural Shocks is a funny, moving, and painfully honest look at what happens when creating a family doesn’t go according to plan. More info and tickets HERE.

Henrietta Steventon’s new play £Poundtown will be presented at the Spark Theatre Festival on October 24th at 7pm at the TADA! Theater. The play follows a British woman working at an animal shelter in the East Village, who finds herself responsible for the dog who bit her ex boyfriend. £Poundtown is a comedy about animal instincts, heavy petting and finding a place that feels like home. Get your tickets HERE.

Kathryn Ryan’s one-act play IT’S ABOUT TIME is being produced by PlayZoomers on Friday October 2 @ 7:30 and Saturday October 3 @ 9:30. Tickets are $17 or pay what you will. Get your tickets HERE.

Karl Hawkins has been recently named as a National Alliance For Musical Theatre (NAMT) 2026 Emerging Artist, through their Creative Assistantship Program, where they will serve as the Directing Assistant to Tony Award Winning Director Zhailon Levingston (CATS: The Jellicle Ball) + Cooper Howell (Assoc. Dir. CATS: The Jellicle Ball) for the musical, Black Girl In Paris, written by AriDy Nox (book/lyrics) and Jacinth Greywoode (music) for the 38th Annual Festival of New Musicals at New World Stages in NYC, October 22-23, 2026. More info HERE.

Zee Bendici’s serialized play, A Town Called Slawsachussets, will be debuting its third episode at Serials @ The Tank in Manhattan. The play follows a woman named Kristen who crashes her car in a town where the people only eat coleslaw. She meets the Mayor’s daughter, a half cabbage woman living in secrecy and falls in love. The two plan to escape together – it’s eat or be eaten. Oct 8th-10th at The Tank, newcomers welcome! Get your tickets HERE.

Julia Brothers will be standing by for Marilu Henner in a new Off Broadway play, The Ask, running at Theatre 555, October 6th – Nov 22nd. More info and tickets HERE.

Amanda Ng is producing a new play, CHOKE, coming to Life World Brooklyn in late November. In a brand-new reality competition show hosted by Yung Gravy, women devour hot dogs for fame, glory, and a cash prize while a shut-in woman, Debbie, becomes increasingly obsessed with watching the contest from her tiny apartment. A play for the ever-hungry and never-full, CHOKE is a comedy bordering on horror and an unflinching exploration of gluttony in its many modern forms. We are currently in the middle of fundraising and would appreciate any donations! Donate HERE.

Anthony T. Goss is in a new show in Boston called Covenant, a Southern Gothic thriller about myth-making, moral panic, and the stories people choose when the truth is too inconvenient. Get your tickets HERE.

Brynn Hambley has written a ten minute play going up in the Spark Theater Festival! It’s called Taking the D Train, and it’s on October 16th at 7pm. Get your tickets HERE.

Tia Cassmira is in a theater group called Broken Box Mime, who is premiering their main stage show this weekend at JACK in Brooklyn, NY. In MYTH, Broken Box transports us to a foreign planet with two moons. Cue the alien flora and fauna! It is here, in a seemingly idyllic village among the extraterrestrial jungles, that a pair of unlikely lovers make a life-changing discovery. MYTH uses speculative fiction and the vast storytelling power of the body to explore the cyclical nature of remembering, revising, and forgetting our history. How might the wisdom of our flawed ancestors still guide us? Where are we currently situated in our own cultural remembering? When we zoom out and expand our timeline, can we better ground ourselves in the present? All shows will be followed by an informal Sip N’ Chat, where we share tea, cookies, and conversation at the theater! Get your tickets HERE.

Austin Ku (Acting and Directing company member) co-narrated the audiobook of Queer Fantasy novel “The City That Shattered the World”, releasing 10/20 on Audible and all major platforms! Preorder HERE.

Dana Leslie Goldstein’s one-woman play LOBSTER CLAW (originally written for PlayGround) will be presented in the Collective Genius Festival at TheatreLab in NYC. Dana’s full-length romantic farce COURTING, which had an alumni reading with PlayGround last season, will be seen in the Quill to Act Festival in Murphys Creek, CA. Get your tickets HERE.

Vermilion Theater is presenting Juliet & Jul-Yingtai, a new bilingual play premiering this October. Produced in collaboration with Jersey City Theater Center, the production places Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet alongside the Chinese legend of the Butterfly Lovers (梁山伯与祝英台), weaving both stories together in English and Mandarin. Performances take place October 23–24 at White Eagle Hall in Jersey City, NJ. Get your tickets HERE.