🌎The city is starting to feel it… Garden State New Play Festival and Voices International Theatre & Arts Festival 2026 is coming to Jersey City✨Banners are up, tickets both a& accommodations are booked, and our artists, presenters are making their way here from around the world. What began as a vision is now becoming a shared reality. Tix:
There’s something powerful about this moment, the the anticipation, the movement, the feeling that cultures, stories, and people are about to meet in our City. Very soon, our stages, streets, and spaces will be filled with local voices & the voices from across the globe, each one bringing a piece of home, a different perspective and their own stories
We’re excited! We’re grateful! And we’re ready to welcome the world.
Thank you to everyone who is making this journey possible artists, partners, supporter: @hdsid_jc@cityofjerseycity@thenjplaylab@njstatecouncilonthearts@visithudsonnj@bldgup@silvermanbuilding@nimbusdance@MANA Contemporary @Minora Foundation @jerseycitynj@newport.rentals@jerseycitytimes This project is supported by @newjerseyeda ART -Phase ll Grant and @visit_nj We are grateful
🌍✨ TRAVEL THE WORLD THROUGH THE ARTS
VOICES INTERNATIONAL THEATRE & ARTS FESTIVAL 2026: BEYOND THE FRAME
Where local and global artists and audience meet. Where cultures connect.
📅 June 4–26, 2026
🎟 Tickets are NOW OPEN:
Step into a festival that transforms spaces, sparks dialogue, and brings together visionary artists and presenters from across the globe right here in New Jersey to showcase, to network and to connect. @visit_nj@visithudsonnj@njartsnews@hdsid_jc
🔥 Don’t miss our Professional Conference
📍 June 11, 2026
A powerful gathering of artists, cultural leaders, and changemakers exploring opportunities and network
🎭 SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
The world premiere of a new work by Romeo Castellucci goes on sale May 1, 2026 along with additional festival performances you won’t want to miss.
This is more than a festival.
This is a movement.
Voices 2026: Beyond the Frame.
🙏 The Festival is Supported by NJEDA ART Grant – Phase II Visit New Jerseyand Visit NJ JCTC is supported by New Jersey State Council on the Arts
#VoicesInternational #BeyondTheFrame #JerseyCityArts #GlobalArts #TheatreFestival ExploreThroughArt JCTC Localand Globalnetwork njtheatre
New Jersey Economic Development Authority
🎭 May 1–17
✨Buy tickets and the full pass:
The 2026 Garden State New Play Festival is HERE! 🎭
Featuring bold new voices from New Jersey, NYC, and around the world, this festival brings powerful, diverse stories to life, bridging diverse communities through the art of storytelling.
Be part of it. Experience what’s next in theatre.
🎟️ Buy Full passes or individual tickets
Don’t miss it!
#JCTC #newjerseyplaylab #NJTheatre #NYCTheatre #SupportArtists NewWorks TheatreLife. Partly supported by @newjerseyeda@NJStateCouncilontheArts@jcartandculture@NJArts
Garden State New Play Festival 2026
Staged Readings of Three New Short Plays by Community Writers
Written by Alia Berry, Aaron Morrill, and Tracie E. Morrison
Dramaturgy by Cheryl Katz
Directed by Jessica Brater
Sunday, May 17th @ 3:00 PM
White Eagle Hall
Please join us for a discussion and reception following the readings!
Unseen in Plain Sight by Alia Berry
"Unseen in Plain Sight," centers on two boys from the same neighborhood whose lives take very different paths, shaped by their choices, environment, and support systems. Alongside them are their mothers, each navigating love, fear, and survival in their own way.
When a murder shakes the neighborhood, tensions rise and the community becomes filled with judgment, blame, and misunderstanding. People talk around each other rather than to each other, revealing deep disconnection. As the story unfolds, moments of honesty and vulnerability begin to break through, allowing characters to confront their assumptions and truly see one another.
Ultimately, the play explores how empathy, accountability, and shared humanity can transform division into connection, highlighting the intentional work required to build real social cohesion in a community.
The Press Conference by Aaron Morrill
The Press Conference imagines a Jersey City mayor struggling to choose between building a French art museum and a youth recreation center. Sound familiar?
Storm Cloud Rising by Tracie E. Morrison
Come eavesdrop on the challenges black women educators encounter in the school setting. The storm cloud is rising. How will you respond?
Opening Ceremony: World Music
June 4 @7 :00 Indonesia India, Porta Rico, Slovenia #newjerseyeda #visitnj Tickets: jcycenter.org @jctcenter@newjerseyeda@visit_nj@violanoo@riaurhythm@suratifpa@slovarican
Featured Performances Include:
Surati (India)
Riau Rhythm (Indonesia)
Slavo Rican Assembly (Slovenia/Puerto Rico)
Experience an electrifying showcase of world music that reflects the richness of diverse global voices.
Garden State New Play Festival 2026
Staged Readings of Three New Short Plays by Community Writers
Written by Alia Berry, Aaron Morrill, and Tracie E. Morrison
Dramaturgy by Cheryl Katz
Directed by Jessica Brater
Sunday, May 17th @ 3:00 PM
White Eagle Hall
Please join us for a discussion and reception following the readings!
Unseen in Plain Sight by Alia Berry
"Unseen in Plain Sight," centers on two boys from the same neighborhood whose lives take very different paths, shaped by their choices, environment, and support systems. Alongside them are their mothers, each navigating love, fear, and survival in their own way.
When a murder shakes the neighborhood, tensions rise and the community becomes filled with judgment, blame, and misunderstanding. People talk around each other rather than to each other, revealing deep disconnection. As the story unfolds, moments of honesty and vulnerability begin to break through, allowing characters to confront their assumptions and truly see one another.
Ultimately, the play explores how empathy, accountability, and shared humanity can transform division into connection, highlighting the intentional work required to build real social cohesion in a community.
The Press Conference by Aaron Morrill
The Press Conference imagines a Jersey City mayor struggling to choose between building a French art museum and a youth recreation center. Sound familiar?
Storm Cloud Rising by Tracie E. Morrison
Come eavesdrop on the challenges black women educators encounter in the school setting. The storm cloud is rising. How will you respond?
Garden State New Play Festival 2026
Staged Readings of Three New Short Plays by Community Writers
Written by Alia Berry, Aaron Morrill, and Tracie E. Morrison
Dramaturgy by Cheryl Katz
Directed by Jessica Brater
Sunday, May 17th @ 3:00 PM
White Eagle Hall
Please join us for a discussion and reception following the readings!
Unseen in Plain Sight by Alia Berry
"Unseen in Plain Sight," centers on two boys from the same neighborhood whose lives take very different paths, shaped by their choices, environment, and support systems. Alongside them are their mothers, each navigating love, fear, and survival in their own way.
When a murder shakes the neighborhood, tensions rise and the community becomes filled with judgment, blame, and misunderstanding. People talk around each other rather than to each other, revealing deep disconnection. As the story unfolds, moments of honesty and vulnerability begin to break through, allowing characters to confront their assumptions and truly see one another.
Ultimately, the play explores how empathy, accountability, and shared humanity can transform division into connection, highlighting the intentional work required to build real social cohesion in a community.
The Press Conference by Aaron Morrill
The Press Conference imagines a Jersey City mayor struggling to choose between building a French art museum and a youth recreation center. Sound familiar?
Storm Cloud Rising by Tracie E. Morrison
Come eavesdrop on the challenges black women educators encounter in the school setting. The storm cloud is rising. How will you respond?
Garden State New Play Festival 2026
A Staged Reading of CRUELTY
Written by Sam Sultan
Dramaturgy by Dezi Tibbs
Cruelty is a dark-comedy about food justice, animal rights, capitalism, and asks audience members to question their own deeply held beliefs, and how far they would bend their own values in order to accomplish a “greater good.”
Saturday, May 16th @ 8:00 PM
ARTS 14C
157B 1st Street, 6th Floor
(150 Bay Street)**UPDATED LOCATION AS OF 5/14**
Please join us for a discussion following the reading!
#newplay #stagedreading #supportthearts
Stay tuned as we continue to share previews of this year’s Garden State New Play Festival line up! Visit @jctcenter website to learn more and get tickets.
Garden State New Play Festival 2026 is produced by Jersey City Theater Center in partnership with NJ Play Lab and supported by funding through the NJEDA’s A.R.T. – Phase II Grant Program.
#gardenstatenewplayfestival #gsnpf2026
Garden State New Play Festival 2026
A Staged Reading of DRAPETOMANIA: A NEGRO CAROL
Written by M.D. Schaffer
Dramaturgy by Vincent Ireri Lanagan
Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic & Black Lives Matter Protests of 2020, Wayne Pensky, an anxious new Black father, feels the stressors as he considers the future that his newborn son will face. When his White partner, Maggie, leaves him with their child to visit her mother, he's visited by three ghosts of Black Liberation past: LD, a 21-year-old leader of the Attica revolt; Anna J. Cooper, a famed civil rights activist; and John Brown, a white radical abolitionist. They come to Wayne, declaring he's the next great liberator of African Americans, and lead him on a journey that forces him to face the question, "What is he willing to sacrifice for the liberation of his people?"
Friday, May 15th @ 8:00 PM
The Grace Church Van Vorst
39 Erie St, Jersey City
Please join us for a discussion following the reading! #newplay #theatre #supportthearts
