BROADWAY BOUND
THEATRE FESTIVAL
WHERE PLAYWRIGHTS TAKE CENTER STAGE
July 20-Aug. 16, 2026
PERFORMANCE DATES
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MEET THE PLAYWRIGHTS OF BBTF 2026
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Dan Takacs is an award-winning, neurodivergent, Jewish playwright, screenwriter, director, and public school drama teacher from Oberlin, Ohio. He received his BA in Drama and English from Kenyon College and his MFA in Theatre Education from Boston University, with a concentration in Playwriting and Directing. Dan lives with his wife and three kids in Cambridge, Mass.
BE A MENSCH
by DANIEL TAKACS
Synopsis: When Abe, the eldest son and breadwinner of an impoverished, dysfunctional Jewish family, is accepted into his dream college, he turns to the adults in his life for help only to find they have no intention of letting him escape. Ultimately, he's forced to choose between his family’s livelihood and his own future happiness.
Brian S. Brijbag, Esq. is an attorney, playwright, anthropologist, and award-winning artist from Florida. His plays have been produced or developed in New York, Florida, and beyond, including CASE OF THE MISSING JOE; LOVE, LYSOL AND OTHER DELUSIONS, ON THE LIKELIHOOD OF ELEPHANTS, FIREFLIES & FAULT LINES, and THE LAST SHINE. He is the 2026 winner of The Verna Safran Prize and a Broadway World Tampa award recipient.
FUNERAL OF GOD
by BRIAN BRIJBAG
Synopsis: A theatre company attempts to stage a burial for god—only to find they can’t agree on what died, who should attend, or why the ritual even matters. What starts as logistical problem‑solving becomes a reckoning with belief, grief, and responsibility. Personal histories surface, exposing how faith, silence, and meaning have been used to avoid facing what hurts.
Zach Adam is a Nashville-based composer, playwright, and songwriter. A Billboard Songwriting Contest winner with multiple Top 20 hits, he has written for artists including Martha Wash, Offer Nissim, and the First Ladies of Disco. His work has earned major national music awards for Composer and Song of the Year, while his rock opera OEDIPUS THE KING received three top musical theatre honors. Zach is the co-writer of VOICE! which recently featured a recording with Tony winner Bonnie Milligan and Donald Webber Jr. He is the founder of The New Theater, a nonprofit organization in Nashville.
HOMEBOUND (a musical)
by ZACH ADAM
Synopsis: When a pandemic lockdown traps Jack, a queer musician, in his Tennessee childhood home with his estranged, secretly dying father, a decade of silence finally has an expiration date. Can two people who never learned to speak the same language forgive each other before time runs out?
Daniel R. O’Brien holds a B.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from Tisch School of the Arts. His play GUERNICA won first place in the Starving Artists Playwright Contest at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Actors Theatre produced GUERNICA in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. NYC productions include : NIGHT BUS at TriBeCa Lab; DELIRIUM at Village Theatre Company and Theater Off Park; FULL TILT: A LOVE STORY @ Greenwich Street Theatre; savior at Manhattan Ensemble Theatre and the Midtown International Theater Festival, receiving rave reviews; Martin Denton at nytheater.co compared it to works by O’Neill, Miller, and Tennessee Williams. He is also a credited screenwriter with Vanguard Films, Tashmoo Films, and DreamFly Productions, and others.
Alan Brooks is a writer and director, living in Woodstock, NY. His plays have been staged in New York City, the Hudson Valley and Ashville, North Carolina. Two of his plays, "Lift" and "Catching the Sun" were turned into award-winning short films in 2025 and are currently on the festival circuit. His writing credits also include two fantasy novels and a children’s book.
JUGULAR
by DANIEL R. O'BRIEN
Three apex combatants—a single-minded African-American attorney, a ruthless bureaucratic titan and a femme fatale—are locked in an ideological fight to the death in this political satire, when a newly appointed federal investigator challenges an entrenched government system and all hell breaks loose.
MAN IN MOTION
by ALAN BROOKS
Synopsis: Three best friends, eager to sink their money into a surefire investment scheme, have two days to convince a fourth friend to invest with them, but they are stymied by his timidity and by one of their wives, who smells a rat. Convinced it's a scam, she fights to expose the truth and to save the men from themselves.
At 72, Stephen H. Gardner is a newcomer to theater. This is his first and only theatrical work. He spent his career in advertising, first at two large NYC ad agencies, and then at his own boutique firm, Gardner Nelson + Partners. Upon retiring in 2018, he joined a successful bar band in Connecticut as rhythm guitarist. Gardner began writing original songs for the band until COVID. In the long winter of forced isolation caused by the pandemic, he began the first draft of the book, lyrics, and music for his musical.
ONCE IN A LIFETIME, AGAIN (a musical) by STEPHEN GARDNER
Synopsis: After his wife's death, Jesse is racked by guilt for choosing career over love. A workplace meltdown forces him into therapy, where songwriting becomes his unexpected doorway into truth. At 65, armed with hard-won insight and shaky courage, he stumbles into the bewildering dating world—an often comic, always tender quest to see whether a second great love is possible.
Thomas Mullen is playwright and director who co-founded a community theater in Wyoming and created a playwright’s workshop in New Orleans. Mullen started his theatre career in earnest after 30-plus years of owning and operating community newspapers. He has his Master’s from Cambridge University in the UK. His final project FLAGS was produced in 2024 at the Broadway Bound Festival. At Cambridge, Mullen met Maria Messias Mendes, a London-based writer. They collaborated on several projects, including ONE NIGHT AT THE BLACKBIRD.
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ONE NIGHT AT THE BLACKBIRD
by THOMAS MULLEN and
MARIA MESSIAS MENDES
Synopsis: In the Seventh Ward funeral home where it's said that jazz was born, Lucy (ifer)—infamous banished angel and club owner—has hosted dead legends in her secret nightclub since the Civil War. Tired of the music, she's threatening to shutter it, despite the pleadings of her manager who's hellbent to change her mind.
Gary Marlon Gere is a New York-based playwright and actor. He appeared Off-Broadway in TAXICAB CHRONICLES (New York Times), writing and portraying five New York City cab drivers. Originally from Chicago, he trained on scholarship at the University of Texas—Austin, later studying with William Esper in New York City, with early ties to Ensemble Studio Theatre. Following the September 11 attacks, Gere spent seven months working alongside FDNY recovery crews at Ground Zero. He was later named an Honorary Battalion Chief by the FDNY. His play draws directly from that experience.
RECOVERY
by GARY MARLON GERE
Synopsis: On Christmas Eve, 2001, FDNY Lieutenant Leo Camp remains at Ground Zero, driven to find his missing NYPD brother. As pressure mounts from his superiors to remove him, Leo spirals into guilt, anger and obsession. His only counterforce is a British chaplain who quietly forces him to confront his faith and what he can't change.
Jeff Perlman is a playwright, journalist, entrepreneur, author and philanthropy executive whose work spans the intersection of public life and human storytelling. A former mayor, he brings a rare understanding of community dynamics to his writing for the stage. His plays have been produced in festivals across the country. As Executive Director of the Carl Angus DeSantis Foundation, he champions community investment in South Florida. Jeff is thrilled to participate in the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival.
SAY MY NAME
by JEFF PERLMAN
Synopsis: When a small‑city mayor begins seeing the ghost of a Black teenager killed by police, his political life unravels. Driven to expose the systems that enabled the boy’s death, he loses allies and safety as the silent apparition pushes him toward buried truths. To free the ghost, he must confront collective guilt, the limits of reform, and the courage required to let go.
Eric Pzena graduated from NYU Tisch with a BFA in Dramatic Writing and also holds a Master’s degree in Accounting. He created and produced Fake News Writer, a web series satirizing modern politics that won the Judges’ Award at the Webbys, earned a Banff Rockie Award nomination, and screened at multiple film festivals. After a six-year hiatus, he returns to writing, continuing to develop his satirical voice in a play about artificial intelligence and life after the end of work.
Eric Pzena graduated from NYU Tisch with a BFA in Dramatic Writing and also holds a Master’s degree in Accounting. He created and produced Fake News Writer, a web series satirizing modern politics that won the Judges’ Award at the Webbys, earned a Banff Rockie Award nomination, and screened at multiple film festivals. After a six-year hiatus, he returns to writing, continuing to develop his satirical voice in a play about artificial intelligence and life after the end of work.
SOCIETY 2.0
by ERIC PZENA
Synopsis: When AI replaces every human job overnight, millions—including meticulous ex‑accountant Greg—are left adrift. With 29 days of savings, Greg, with the help of a Support Bot modeled after his ex-girlfriend, must advance through absurd trials in a humiliating survival competition where the unemployed must justify their existence to billionaire elites.
Earl Crittenden is a New York City-based playwright. THE KITCHEN was a finalist in the Kaplan Playwriting Competition at Eventide Theatre Company in Dennis, MA, and a Semi-Finalist at TNT POPS! in Texas.
His short plays RUBBISH and PIT STOP have been staged at Chelsea Repertory Company in New York, Thrown Stone Theatre in Conn., Shawnee Playhouse in Penn., Barking Legs Theater in Tenn., and NYC Pride Fest’s OUT/PLAY 2025. LEASE & DESIST appeared in the international publication Mini Plays Review. Earl trained in playwriting at The Acting Studio – New York and privately with Lucy Wang (JUNK BONDS). He studied acting at HB Studio in Greenwich Village.
THE KITCHEN
by EARL CRITTENDEN
Synopsis: Evelyn plots to secure her grandmother's coveted rent-controlled Manhattan apartment as her
future home for her and her fiancé. But when the secret kitchen renovation triggers a legal battle, financial ruin and an avalanche of buried family secrets, Evelyn must learn she can't build a true home until she figures out why hers was broken.
Adrian Crawford is a Brooklyn, New York-based Playwright. He writes stories based on the lives of BIPOC and LGBTQIA individuals. He received his B.A. in Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies from Lehman College in 2024. Adrian’s short plays include CONFESSIONS ON A COMPOSITION NOTEBOOK (2025 finalist for the Susan J. Westfall National Award) and SAME SCRIPT, DIFFERENT CAST (Playwright's Round Table Finalist). He also wrote two, two-act stage plays: CHASING DESTINY (2023 honorable mention for the Jacob Hammer Memorial Prize, Lehman College) and this one, which was the 2024 finalist for the Jacob Hammer Memorial Prize, Lehman College.
THE PERFECT RELATIONSHIP IN BUSHWICK
by ADRIAN CRAWFORD
Synopsis: Carmelo and Elisendo swear they’re just roommates, despite living like a bickering married couple in a shabby sublet. But when a trick they both slept with and their nosy landlord stir the pot, the men’s denials fray, revealing a tension neither has dared name and a bond more certain than the rent they can barely afford.
OUR MISSION
How do you get a new play or musical produced in NYC? Broadway Bound Theatre Festival! We are a NYC-based developmental theatre festival in the truest sense. There are economic barriers to producing in the greatest theatre city in the world. And few options for artists eager to get their work on a professional stage. BBTF strives to create an environment that guarantees our playwrights receive all aspects of support for their new works. Collaboration is one of our cornerstones, as playwrights become part of something much bigger than themselves and their plays. During the process, they're provided one-on-one dramaturgy, online workshops and readings of their work, roundtable talkbacks, full technical and FOH support, and insight into the ever-changing landscape of American theater, while learning the business of self producing. The result is a constructive, encouraging environment and a creative community accepting of all, exclusive of none giving you an experience of a lifetime.
OUR SUBMISSION PROCESS
BBTF is one of the only fully curated festivals in New York City. Each script is considered with care and appreciation, undergoing a rigorous evaluation process in which structure, content and character development, as well as development potential are reviewed and discussed. All submissions receive a critique, regardless of acceptance. Participants commit to multiple rewrites of their work under dramaturgical direction and collaboration before production, ensuring the strongest iteration of their work is presented to the public at an affordable price.
"The Broadway Bound Theatre Festival has been helping playwrights develop their works since 2016."
New York Needs Theatre Festivals
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OUR VENUE
BBTF makes its home at AMT theater on 45th Street. This Off-Broadway venue boasts state-of-the-art technology in a fully renovated, air conditioned space in the heart of midtown, close to all public transportation and Times Square.
Special thanks to our corporate sponsor
At Carlstrom Productions, we know all about what goes into producing great theatre, by providing Broadway caliber events for some of the most innovative companies around the globe. We're proud sponsors of the festival and thrilled to be a part of introducing these new works to the theatre world.