Six New Plays Are Taking Over Fayetteville for the Arkansas New Play Festival
ANPF26 is the kind of theater event that gives you a reason to clear your calendar. Running March 7–15 at TheatreSquared, the Arkansas New Play Festival brings together six new works from playwrights across the country, all staged for the first time in Fayetteville.
You’re Part of the Show
ANPF isn’t just a festival you watch — it’s one you participate in. Playwrights are counting on audience feedback after each performance to help strengthen their scripts. Your take on what you saw actually matters here.
THE DEETS
📅 Saturday, March 7, 2026– Sunday, March 15, 2026
🕑 Time varies per performance
📍 TheatreSquared | 477 W Spring St, Fayetteville, AR 72701
📍 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art | 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, AR 72712
🎟️ $15 General Admission per show | $50 ALL-ACCESS PASSES
🔗 More info and Schedule
What’s Playing
Los Feliz, or the Live-In Nanny Play By Benjamin Benne, Directed by Cat Rodriguez
Saturday, March 7 at 5pm | Sunday, March 15 at 5pm
A Latina doctor in an affluent LA neighborhood hires a Guatemalan immigrant as her live-in nanny. What unfolds is a close look at two women navigating the bonds and barriers between them — class, culture, and the question of what they actually are to each other.
But Today I Am Fine By Ying Ying Li, Directed by Jessica O’Hara Baker
Saturday, March 7 at 2pm | Saturday, March 14 at 7pm
A solo show built from vignettes that swings between humor and unease. The main character is part Bugs Bunny, part frightened immigrant, part mother trying to hold it together — and the writing keeps you guessing which version shows up next. Structurally experimental and tonally unpredictable.
Labor By TyLie Shider, Directed by Daniel Boisrond
Sunday, March 8 at 5pm | Saturday, March 14 at 4pm
Two freelance painters. One ordinary workday that slips into a coup. This dark comedy digs into the risks people take chasing the American dream, told with enough sharp humor to keep it grounded.
Heroes & Monsters By the Latinx Theatre Project
Thursday, March 12 at 7pm
Originally staged online during the pandemic, this one finally gets a live performance. Set inside a virtual gaming world, it follows Xo, a newcomer on a quest to become the world’s next legendary warrior who ends up uncovering the hidden lore behind the game. Music, poetry, and fight and dance choreography bring it to life on stage.
Bookends By the UArk MFA Theatre Cohort in collaboration with Tectonic Theater Project
Friday, March 13 at 7pm | Sunday, March 15 at 2pm
This one was built from visits to Dickson Street Bookshop, and it shows. Set inside a secondhand bookstore where the shelves hold forgotten voices and uncomfortable histories alongside whimsy and tall tales, it’s a collectively devised piece that draws directly from the independent spaces Fayetteville locals know well.
America 250: Common Threads Residency Readings By Sarah Dianne Loucks, A.K. Payne, and Iraisa Ann Reilly
Sunday, March 8 at 2pm at TheatreSquared Friday, March 13 at 11:30am at Crystal Bridges (Members Only) Saturday, March 14 at 11:30am at Crystal Bridges Sunday, March 15 at 11:30am at Crystal Bridges
Three playwrights were commissioned to spend time inside Crystal Bridges’ America 250: Common Threads exhibit and write short plays in response to what they found. Most readings are open to the public at Crystal Bridges, with one members-only session on March 13.
Grab Your Tickets Before the Curtain Goes Up
Tickets are $15 per show. Avail the All-Access for $50 only. Grab your tickets now and start planning which ones you’re catching.
